Lester K. Spence
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816669875
- eISBN:
- 9781452947068
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816669875.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter examines the politics of rap production, stressing the politics of rap realism and neoliberalism, as well as citing Imani Perry’s theorization of the role of realism within rap music. ...
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This chapter examines the politics of rap production, stressing the politics of rap realism and neoliberalism, as well as citing Imani Perry’s theorization of the role of realism within rap music. Rap realism is defined as rap that is chiefly concerned with the social conditions of (black) working class (urban) life. As an authenticating device, rappers and consumers use the real to distinguish between those who are true representatives and those who are not; the real becomes a place from which to judge and situate African American experience. The two most important forms of realism Perry identifies are descriptive realism, which creates a world for the listener through the eyes of the rapper, and argumentative realism, which critiques the reality that rappers depict.Less
This chapter examines the politics of rap production, stressing the politics of rap realism and neoliberalism, as well as citing Imani Perry’s theorization of the role of realism within rap music. Rap realism is defined as rap that is chiefly concerned with the social conditions of (black) working class (urban) life. As an authenticating device, rappers and consumers use the real to distinguish between those who are true representatives and those who are not; the real becomes a place from which to judge and situate African American experience. The two most important forms of realism Perry identifies are descriptive realism, which creates a world for the listener through the eyes of the rapper, and argumentative realism, which critiques the reality that rappers depict.
Lawrence Kramer
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520273955
- eISBN:
- 9780520953840
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520273955.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Expression and truth are traditional opposites in Western thought: expression supposedly refers to states of mind, truth to states of affairs. Expression and Truth rejects this opposition and ...
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Expression and truth are traditional opposites in Western thought: expression supposedly refers to states of mind, truth to states of affairs. Expression and Truth rejects this opposition and proposes fluid new models of expression, truth, and knowledge with broad application for the humanities. The models derive from five theses that connect expression to description, cognition, the presence and absence of speech, and the conjunction of address and reply. The theses are linked by a concentration on musical expression, regarded as the ideal case of expression in general, and by fresh readings of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s scattered but important remarks about music. The result is a new conception of expression as a primary means of knowing, acting on, and forming the world.Less
Expression and truth are traditional opposites in Western thought: expression supposedly refers to states of mind, truth to states of affairs. Expression and Truth rejects this opposition and proposes fluid new models of expression, truth, and knowledge with broad application for the humanities. The models derive from five theses that connect expression to description, cognition, the presence and absence of speech, and the conjunction of address and reply. The theses are linked by a concentration on musical expression, regarded as the ideal case of expression in general, and by fresh readings of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s scattered but important remarks about music. The result is a new conception of expression as a primary means of knowing, acting on, and forming the world.
Lawrence Kramer
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520273955
- eISBN:
- 9780520953840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520273955.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter develops the thesis that expression is description. Expression becomes description when it induces the special type of change in perception that Wittgenstein calls the “lighting up of an ...
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This chapter develops the thesis that expression is description. Expression becomes description when it induces the special type of change in perception that Wittgenstein calls the “lighting up of an aspect”; the best case—and test case—of this perceptual transformation is music; and the quasi-musical stream of expressive acts that induce aspect change alter not just how we see the world but the world itself. Truth follows expression as much as—or more than—expression follows truth.Less
This chapter develops the thesis that expression is description. Expression becomes description when it induces the special type of change in perception that Wittgenstein calls the “lighting up of an aspect”; the best case—and test case—of this perceptual transformation is music; and the quasi-musical stream of expressive acts that induce aspect change alter not just how we see the world but the world itself. Truth follows expression as much as—or more than—expression follows truth.
