Book Review: The Vinyl Ain't Final

Kayla Erickson
November 11 2008
Book Review

The Vinyl Ain’t Final is a compilation of essay from 15 different authors who generally explore the vast influence of hip hop culture in a global context. In the introduction, editors Dipamita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle tie the chapters together by grouping them into two parts: the first examines hip hop culture in the United States, while part two looks delves into its global influence. The concept of “Blackness” in hip hop music is a reoccurring theme in many of the essays; it becomes clear that Blackness serves as a powerful social construct at home and abroad. Most commonly, Blackness is used to dominate a group of people, however many minority groups around the world have reacted to this by appropriating their Blackness to express dissent or group solidarity. Because of Hip Hop’s deep associations with Blackness, this genre of music becomes a critical forum for disempowered people who seek recognition, validation and social change.

In chapter six: Head Rush: Hip Hop and a Hawaiian Nation, Adria L. Imada discusses the “indigenized” blackness of Hawaiian hip hop group ‘Sudden Rush’. Their music is a complex fusion of “Black” hip hop culture and Hawaiian indigenous traditions, serving to give voice to youth-oriented nationalism. The Hawaiian people currently struggle with the neo-colonial domination of the United States. Hawaiian natives relate to the urban black experience because like most African Americans, they are also disenfranchised and criminalized; suffering from the lowest life expectancy rate and highest incarceration rates (88). As Hawaii’s most prominent hip hop group, Sudden Rush makes music that is a fusion of contemporary Hawaiian music, Hawaiian chanting and mainland-inspired Rap. True to hip hop’s roots, Sudden Rush incorporates a ‘versa-style’ and storytelling techniques in their music. By using these styles, Sudden Rush has created a hip hop uniquely theirs; connecting to the Hawaiian youth that are so often ignored. By identifying their own form of Blackness, disempowered Hawaiians have found an effective mode to express dissent in their current situation.

Blackness not only asserts self-expression from a minority group, it also forms solidarity among previously isolated groups. In Chapter 10: Africa on Their Mind, author Veronique Helenon examines the multiple meanings of Blackness in French hip hop and how it becomes a unifying force for a variety of ethnic minorities. In France the visibility of minorities remains very low, they are represented as dysfunctional groups with little presence in the nation’s history. French hip hop artists choose to comment on this prejudiced representation and call to their roots in Africa. The definition of Black, therefore, now means something much different from just the color of skin: it now about resisting euro-centrism and asserting one’s personal heritage in a nation where Whiteness reigns. Helenon gives the example of hip hop group ‘Lunatic’ that identifies solely as Black, even though the group members originate from Senegal and Morocco (162). Blackness has therefore become a broad, unifying identity for those who come from North Africa, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. Blackness-- the constructed racial categorization-- is therefore positively appropriated by affected groups in order to create a unified and empowered voice.