Book Review: The Vinyl Ain’t Final

Kelsey Sherman

November 10, 2008

In The Vinyl Ain’t Final, editors Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle compile a number of essays from various contributors on hip hop and its globalization. These diverse accounts constitute a strong collection of  “critical perspectives that recognize hip hop’s location within the political economy of culture and capitalism” (2), with each piece approaching this position from a distinct context. By presenting these essays together, the editors strive to “extend our understanding of the social thickness and economic density of rap music and hip hop culture… both inside and outside the U.S.” (2)

Certain fundamental themes recur throughout these essays, including the ways in which hip hop is a response to many structural inequalities faced by Blacks and yet part of that skewed system, and the globalization of hip hop and how it is uniquely used in local contexts abroad. More specifically, evidence of these themes can be seen in chapters three and ten, both of which I found to be particularly interesting and powerful.

In chapter three, Dipannita Basu discusses troubling issues surrounding race, the prison system and the music industry with her essay, “ Hip Hop: Cultural Clout, Corporate Control, and the ‘Carceral Cast’”. In outlining two men’s experiences in the hip-hop industry, Basu initiates a discussion of the ways that this industry is plagued by the same structural racial disparities that Avila discusses in White Flight. She also explains that since “Black artistry and talent is oriented towards White consumption and pleasure”, the process of consumption thus becomes “colonial-like” (33). The basis of such structural inequality is further developed and, perhaps, best explained when Basu elaborates: “Thus, the framing of hip hop to the masses, of shaping its cultural course and global imagery, is troublingly beholden to commercial interests and professionals whose social perceptions and ethical codes have an ignoble history of representing ‘Blackness’ in the worst possible ways…” (40). It is this same cultural logic that is at work in the correctional institutions that are so overwhelmingly and disproportionately filled with Black bodies. It seems that in the conclusion of the essay, White colonialist tendencies are still posited as intact and strong guiding forces in both social and political arenas.

The issues of White colonialism and black popular culture are explored in a more literal sense in chapter 10, which addresses “Rap, Blackness, and Citizenship in France”. As a double major in Media Studies and French, I found this chapter incredibly intriguing and significant to the discussion of hip hop’s global position. In this essay, Veronique Helenon examines the development of rap in France in relation to post-colonial immigration and the race and identity issues that developed in its wake. Helenon demonstrates the ways in which French rappers of African descent use their music as a tool to reveal the many Black contributions to French history that were rendered invisible for so long. These rappers also use their songs “to respond to contemporary challenges and top address the present situation of African societies.” (154)  This chapter effectively illustrates the assertion made in the introduction that “globalization [of hip hop] intensifies localization rather than leads to a flattening out of local cultures.” (3) Indeed, Helanon illustrates that rap, though ‘developed’ in the U.S., has been used in essential ways to manipulate the definition of the “French” identity.

The two chapters I have discussed here address some of the important issues of structural disparities in the music industry, symbolic and literal colonialism in relation to hip hop, and the “glocalization” of Black popular culture. This book, though, is so thorough and many-layered that I feel I must borrow from its title in order to clarify that these two chapters (while well-written and illuminating) cannot be held as the sole bearers of meaning in my discussion of this book. There are still more than a dozen essays to be considered, this is just the beginning of a dialogue, in other words- “the vinyl ain’t final”.