Download PDF Version Revolt Magazine, Volume 1 Issue No.4

hip hop, I’m equally seduced by the mainstream
bump and grind core. Like the free pancakes, some
days that sh*t just tastes so good. Call me the
quintessential white hipster binging on black cool.
As far as I’m concerned, without blackness, I have
no culture to speak of.
From an essay called “Color Notes”
published by William Houghton in 1927, the white
male writer concedes to how freed slaves have in
effect conquered their former masters, “We talk his
dialect, we sing his songs, we dance his dances…
his tempo, jazz is the universal rhythm. Whenever
we relax we fall under his spell; it is only in our tight
working moments we are free of it.” 20
This is certainly not to say that music
erased racism in America, where during the time
of this publication lynching still happened and
segregation was still enforced. In many ways
Houghton’s writing only serves to emphasize the
projection and exotic/erotic tropes characterizing
whites views of black expression.
The subjective Modernity to which
one’s humanity (subtext “white” humanity and
“black” subalternity) lays claim to food, shelter
and a means of survival is always comprised of
whiteness constructed through investments in
black culture. 21 All of us by whatever approximated
privileges pass as white enough or straight
enough to be marked a “citizen” of the republic
are implicated in a violent and oppressive neocolonial
frame in which race is cast as, in the words
of Achille Mbembe, the “nocturnal side of the
Republic.” 22
In terms of my allegiances to hip hop I
may have entered by way of the typical salacious
sedation but what I’ve ultimately gotten out of hip
hop is much closer to a type of embodied faith and
burgeoning sense of global citizenship. Which is
where BoomBoxBoy, REVOLT Magazine’s posterboy
of Hip Hop pet-a-dawgy in the flesh, factors into the
equation. Like hip hop’s founding fathers DJ Kool
Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa,
Prince Harvey is of West Indian decent having
grown up in LA, Dominica and New York City. I’m
largely interested in his work because I think he’s
usurping the sheer sex appeal of the hip hop
aesthetic to interestingly promising socio-political
ends.
BoomBoxBoy, influenced by the character
Radio Raheem in Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do The
Right Thing, is a performance work by the artist
Prince Harvey exploring ownership, community, and
socially appropriate modes of being with respect
to race, class and gender. Incorporating personal
narrative, anecdote and hip hop a cappella –
BoomBoxBoy’s call and response approach to
rapping and beat making urges the audience to
take a participatory stance embellishing the music
by clapping and speaking along in rhythm.
On BoomBoomBox boy’s turf, I’m clapping
along, I’m a participant. I may be initially roped
in by the eye candy of his hypermasculine
*bling*bling” semi-nudity (which as far as I’m
concerned is drag for Prince Harvey, who when he’s
not strong-arming a boombox in his underwear is
as likely to be seen in a skirt or a glittery sweater)
but I’m ultimately solicited as a participant. I’m
also schooled. When BoomBoxBoy gathers his
audience he not only hoots and hollers, he talks
about being a black male, having a gender and
sexual identity, and the importance of community
and dialogue.
Prince Harvey, who grew up in a female
dominated household and loves to surround
himself with a crew of fierce, sex-positive womenloving
women, is amongst a cadre of young artists
determined to queer the dialogue of Hip Hop and
effectively derail its associations with misogyny
and unrestricted male privilege. Another artist I’d
connect him to here is Cakes da Killa. Cakes is the
type of artist that covers Frank Ocean's "Thinkin
Bout You,” with his own lyrics, which go "I've been
thinking bout dick/ na na na na," commenting on
the recent public discussions concerning Ocean’s
sexuality and how hip hop is finally “Gay” in the
media because an R&B singer that dates women
once crushed on a dude.
Pitchfork is calling Cakes the new Lil Kim
figure, “A raunchy-ass bitch who absolutely owns
being a raunchy-ass bitch.” 23 It’s not raptivism or
anything, but it does offer a bit of a silver lining
in terms of re-thinking the hetero-family unit as
the universal index of health and wellness. It’s
also interesting to note that when rap albums
get “cleaned” up for big retailers like Kmart
and Walmart the music companies only delete
drug references and profanity. Misogyny and
homophobia, however, remain clear as a bell
and likewise par for the tween course. 24 In terms
of Cakes work, it certainly begs the question of
why there are so few female MCs following in the
footsteps of the great female MCs. Is the drag male
the new female rapper par excellence?
The recent cover of the Village Voice
featuring “Flowmosexual Gender Ninja” of “Warrior
Rap” Mykki Blanco seems to suggest YES. Played
by a young man, Mykki Blanco is the female rap
alias of Michael Quattlebaum Jr., age 27, who
states that riot-grrrl was his primary musical
influence as a youth (before hip hop, when punk’s
homophobia turned him off). 25
What’s interesting about the BoomBoxBoy
project is that he takes a more nuanced approach
to his gender-nomadism. In some of his videos
online he has recorded instances of harassment he
experienced during his performances from groups
of young women, homophobic men and police
officers. He’s had to learn the hard way that taking
your clothes off and asking for money in Times
Square in the footsteps of the Naked Cowboy and
500 or so life-size Tickle Me Elmos is a lot different
than traipsing around Baltimore, where he was
nearly arrested for obscenity related allegations.
And to make things clear, BoomBoxBoy is asking
for money. The project began as a way for Prince
Harvey the artist to raise money to produce his first
hip hop album: BOOM. According to Harvey, BOOM
will be the first official full-length hip hop a cappella
album. “The project started as a way of getting
exposure and funding to black artists creating
culturally relevant work,” says Harvey, “but you
don’t have to say that if you don’t want to, it brings
me great pleasure when people think I'm just a
nigga.”
Say what?! That’s another interesting
development within hip hop these days, the
turn from “nigger” to “nigga.” Although largely
misunderstood, the nigga turn is a profound
utterance indicating the sheer importance hip hop
places on authenticity. In his seminal essay “On
the Question of Nigga Authenticity” R.A.T. Judy
says: “Understanding the movement from nigger
to nigga means recalling the historical systematic
employment of nigger as exchange value…nigga
is that which emerges from the demise of human
capital…the nigga is unemployed, null and void,
walking around…a nigga who understands that all
possibility converts from capital, and capital does
not derive from work.”
Judy’s argument is one that seems
to address a number of timely concerns for a
generation undergoing huge shifts within the
economic sector and the general “niggafication”
of white suburban America. Conversely, one could
almost argue for an artist like Prince Harvey, and
his Facebook page will certainly attest to this, the
BoomBoxBoy project is equal parts Radio Raheem
and Rappin’ Rockin Barbie (Mattel© circa 1992).
Ultimately what came of Prince Harvey’s
humble quest to get paper and produce a full
length album is a larger than life pet-a-dawggy
with a hyperreal appeal straddling the street and
the virtual sphere. BoomBoxBoy’s stage extends
to Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Soundcloud,
where I have been, solipsistically at times, frankly,
pretending I’m him, and watching his hilarious
posturing and community building unfold. If
you haven’t had the pleasure of encountering
BoomBoxBoy on his trek through the five boroughs,
you soon will.
1 “Higher Learning: Using Hip Hop to Transform Schools and
Communities,”
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Nov. 27,
2012
Panel Moderator: Martha Diaz
2 Ped·a·go·gy [ped-uh-goh-jee] n. The function or work of a
teacher; teaching. The art or science of teaching; education;
instructional methods.
3 David Pleasant, “Rhythms of Resistance,” Schomburg Center
for Research in Black Culture, December 14, 2012
4 Jorge Pabon, “Fashion Moda: A Legacy of Community and
Creativity in the South Bronx” panel at the Bronx Documentary
Center, February 16th, 2013
5 David Toop, The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip
Hop, South End Press, 1985
6 Greg Tate, Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary
America an Eye Opening look at Race, Politics, Literature and
Music, Simon and Schuster, 1992, pg. 232-233
7 Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S. is an initiative in NYC Public schools using
rap and hip hop culture to explore healthy eating options for
youth. Guest artists include hip hop legends Doug E. Fresh and
the Cold Crush Bros among others.
8 Darlene Vinicky, “(Progressive) Hip Hop Cartography” in Wish
to Live: The Hip Hop Feminism Pedagogy Reader Ruth Nicole
Brown + Chamara Jewel Kwakye, (eds.) Peter Lang, 2012,
pg. 29
9 Murray Forman, The ‘Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and
Place in Rap and Hip Hop Wesleyan University Press, 2002,
pg. 59-61, 191
10 Murray Forman, ibid, pg. 198
11 Davarian L. Baldwin, That’s The Joint!: The Hip Hop Studies
Reader, Murray Foreman and Mark Anthony Neal, Eds. 2012,
pg. 235
12 Alex Perullo, “Hooligans and Heroes: Youth Identity and Hip
Hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,” That’s The Joint! ibid, pg.
331
13 http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/rick-rossthinks-rape-is-a-punchline-999#ixzz2PF1RpoKS
14 Angela Y. Davis, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism New
York: Random House, 1998, pg. 190
15 Jay Z quoted by Todd Boyd, “Intergenerational Culture Wars:
Civil Rights v. Hip Hop” Todd Boyd and Yusuf Nuruddin, That’s
The Joint! ibid, pg. 444
16 “What is the Current Direction of Hip-Hop?” Published Dec
31, 2012 on YOUTUBE by 1HoodMedia, "Our World with Black
Enterprise" hosted by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill with Pharoahe
Monch, Dr. Tricia Rose and Jasiri X
17 Darlene Vinicky, ibid, pg. 29
18 Bocafloja, “Global Hip Hop Movement” Panel at the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, April 16,
2013, Panel Moderator: Martha Diaz
19 Beth Coleman, “Pimp Notes on Autonomy” in Everything
But the Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black
Culture Edited by Greg Tate, Harlem Moon, 2003
20 William Houghton cited in Jayna Brown, Babylon Girls:
Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern,
Duke University Press, 2008, pg. 218
21 Jayna Brown, Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and
the Shaping of the Modern Duke University Press, 2008,
pg. 17
22 Achille Mbembe cited in Richard Iton, In Search of the
Black Fantastic: Politics & Popular Culture in the Post-Civil
Rights Era Oxford University Press, 2008, pg. 134
23 Miles Raymer, “Cakes da Killa: The Eulogy,” Pitchfork,
February 7, 2013
24 Gilbert B. Rodman, “Race…And Other Four-Letter Words” in
That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader Murray Forman
and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. 2012, pg. 193
25 Jenna Sauers, “FLOWMOSEXUAL: The Making of Mykki
Blanco” The Village Voice, April 10-16, 2013, pg. 8
REVOLT Magazine Number 4, 2013 42