George Ciccariello-Maher, "Brechtian Hip-Hop: Didactics and Self-Production in Post-Gangsta Political Mixtapes"

BRECHTIAN HIP-HOP
Didactics and Self-Production

in Post-Gangsta Political Mixtapes
GEORGECICCARIELLOMAHER
Universityof California,Berkeley
Focusing on the shortcomings of existing aesthetic approachesto rap

music, this articleseeks to understandcurrentdevelopmentswithinpolitical rapthrougha heuristicandfundamentallynonappropriative
application
of the aesthetic theories of Brecht. Highlightingthe latter'semphasis on
self-productionand didactics, the article discusses the intersectionof the
two in the recent mixtapesby militantrap duo dead prez. Given the often
unrecognizedimportanceof mixtapeswithin rap,as well as theircapacity
to escape the constraintof the music industry,the "organicintellectuals"of
rapwould benefitfrom an increasedemphasison self-production.Finally,
the authorbringsdeadprez's didacticsinto dialoguewith bothearlypolitical rapandlatergangstarapto see thatdeadprez is indeed "somewherein
between NWA andRE. [PublicEnemy], andthatthis representsa positive
historical developmentfor rap and a fusion of the ghettocentricand the
Afrocentricelements of broaderBlack culture.
Keywords: hip-hop;rap music; aesthetics; mixtapes
In an article on the groundbreakingmilitant rap group Public

Enemy,MichaelEricDyson (1996) attributesto the groupa "postmodernaestheticandradicalpolitics"(p. 166). Consciouslyor not,
Dyson's binaryis revealing,both for its assertionof the formerthatthe rapof Public Enemy is somehowpostmodern- and by its
dichotomousrelationto the latter,which suggeststhatradicalpolitics arenecessarilyexternalto aestheticnotionsof the postmodern.
This reference highlights a potential discomfort both within the
Author'sNote: I would like to thankRobesonTajFrazier,Tim Fisken,andMartin
Jay for valuablecommentson earlierdraftsof this paper.
JOURNALOF BLACKSTUDIES, Vol. 36 No. 1, September2005 129-160
DOI: 10.1177/0021934704271175
2005 Sage Publications
129
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
130 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005
notion of a postmodernaestheticsand its applicabilityto actually

existingartisticforms,anda potentiallymoreimportantdiscomfort
between such a notion and the didacticaims of some artisticproduction. Dyson indicates the directionof our escape from such a
quandaryin his invocationof anothertermto describethe group,
thatof the "avant-garde"
(p. 165), whichhe likely meansin its popularsense butwhose technicalaestheticconnotationhas something
of an uneasy relationshipwith the postmodern.
One philosopherwho attemptsto navigate this uncomfortable
spacein the contextof a discussionof rapis the self-styledphilosopher of rap and pragmatist aesthetician, Richard Shusterman
(2000). In an attemptto claim hip-hopcultureandthe subsetof rap
music for his aestheticapproach,however,Shustermanoverlooks
some more obvious and useful aesthetic referencepoints for the
genre.As will be seen, manyof the characteristicsthatShusterman
addressesas evidence of postmodernismin hip-hop are visible in
an earlieravant-garde,to which the lattertermcan be more unambiguously appliedin its full technical sense: the modernistavantgarde of interwarEurope.As will be seen, many elements of the
aestheticmilieu of thatperiod, and specifically those defendedby
playwrightand theoristBertoltBrecht,areevidentto some degree
in hip-hopmusic andculture.Duringthe courseof this discussion,
we will trace the misleading strandsof Shusterman'sapproach,
diagnosethe probablecauses of the latter'sdifficultiesandthe dangers it representsto hip-hop, and lay the groundfor a fundamentally nonappropriativeanalysisof hip-hop.The second partof this
articlewill addressconcretelythe confluence of some elements of
Brecht'sthoughtin both the mixtapephenomenonand the didacticism of some post-gangstapolitical hip-hop.
POSTMODERN OR
MODERNIST AVANT-GARDE?
At the outset of his chapteron the subject, Shusterman(2000)

arguesthat "rap... is a postmodernpopularartwhich challenges
some of our most deeply entrenchedaesthetic conventions,con-
CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 13 1
ventions which are common not only to modernismas an artistic

style andideology but to the philosophicaldoctrineof modernity"
(p. 201). This passageboth delineateshis centralaim andindicates
what will be a source of considerabledifficulty and confusion for
his argument:Shusterman'speriodization overlooks significant
differenceswithinthose periods.His desireto squeezehip-hopinto
his aesthetic frameworkis seemingly facilitated, but ultimately
frustrated,by the conflationof style with period,modernismwith
modernity. Shusterman summarizes those aesthetic elements
which he perceives to be "widely recognized as characteristically
postmodern:"
1. "recycling
ratherthanuniqueoriginative
creation";
appropriation
2. "theeclecticmixingof styles";
3. "theenthusiasticembracingof the new technologyand mass
culture";
4. "anemphasison thelocalizedandtemporal";
5. "thechallengingof modernistnotionsof aestheticautonomy"
(p. 202).
The degreeto whichthe authorhedges his bets is revealing:arguing
thatit "is not to say thatthey [these characteristics]cannotalso be
found in varying degrees in some modernistart"and, somewhat
shockingly,that"evenif we rejectthe whole categoryof postmodernism,these featuresareessentialfor understandingrap"(p. 202).
We will see that these "varyingdegrees,"in fact, converge quite
consistentlyin much avant-gardemodernismsuch that the philosophicalsleight-of-handof this secondpassage(in which he seems
to protect himself from the negation of the postmodern category) dissipates, renderinghis analysis redundant.I will suggest
throughout that Shusterman's central problem is a top-down
approach- in which he wrongly allows genus to define speciesand is therebyboth demonstrablywrong (when we startfrom the
groundlevel of hip-hop)and,moreover,aestheticallyinconsistent.
In the interestof brevity,I will set off each of Shusterman'sfive
categoriesin a point-counterpointfashion, with the counterpoints
suppliedmostly fromEugeneLunn's(1982) analysisof the avant-
gardemodernismdefendedby the likes of Brecht,which I will supplement with observations about hip-hop. First, Shusterman
(2000) approachesthe notion of recycling through the hip-hop
practice of sampling, in which "music is composed by selecting
andcombiningpartsof prerecordedsongs"(p. 202) andthathe sees
as undercuttingthe artisticideal of originality.Here,his ahistorical
view of rapleadshim to neglecttherole thatsamplingoftenplays in
"fill[ing] a transitionalvoid of cross-generationalculturaltransmission" (Henderson, 1996, p. 311). Aesthetically, Shusterman
pins the importanceof uniqueness,quite rightly,onto "Romanticism andits cult of genius"(p. 205) but is on considerablyshakier
ground when he attemptsto broadenthe claim to include all of
modernism,which he accuses of a sortof cult of "radicalnovelty."
In doing so, he overlooksthe similarityof these characteristicsof
hip-hop to the notion of modernistcollage, specifically as pioneeredby cubists,an errormost strikinglyevidentin Shusterman's
assertionthat a "collage effect"is fundamentalto postmodernism
itself (p. 206). Lunn (1982) countersthat the general approachof
cubists such as Braqueand Picasso was "notmerely a case of aestheticself-consciousness"andthatthey activelyattacked"theartist
as an isolated genius, a hero figure"(pp. 48-51). In a step toward
Brecht- whose flattened class roles in the Lehrstiicke(didactic
plays) could be seen as the height of this trend- avant-garde
constructivismrepresenteda furthersubsumptionof the individual
artist,epitomizedin the "open-endedcreationof actorsand audience alike"thatwas Meyerhold'stheater(pp. 53-54).
Shusterman's(2000) attributionto hip-hop of a stylistic melange is intimatelylinked to the notion of appropriation,and it is
through sampling and mixing that styles are blended: Hip-hop
"feedseclectically"on "awide rangeof popularsongs . . . classical
music, TV theme songs, advertisingjingles, and the electronic
music of arcadegames ... [as well as] medianews reportsandfragments of speeches by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King"
(p. 205). Nothingin this passageis untrueper se, butby beginning
fromthe categoryof the postmodernandthenretroactivelyfishing
for elements of hip-hopto justify this categorization,Shusterman
overlooksthe context of such appropriation.Much of the above is
CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 133
bettercharacterizedin otherways, and indeed the inclusion of the

nonmusicalcontenthe highlightsis often (butnot always)political.
Theme songs and advertisingjingles can also have a political
effect, with or withoutthe intentionof the artist,as they are often
counterposedto descriptionsof ghetto life and echo Brecht'sgoal
of revealing"a knowable,but . . . contradictoryouterreality"that
l
estrangesand activatesthe audience(Lunn, 1982, p. 122). These
(significant) difficulties aside, hip-hop does indeed selfconsciously combine styles, but does this warrantShusterman's
postmoderndistinction?Again, no, as Brecht's avant-gardetheories demonstrated"aflexible positionwhich allowedthereworking
of manydifferentaestheticforms . . . andinfluenceswhichhe made
his own" (Lunn, 1982, pp. 120-121).
Despite the popularity of Walter Benjamin in the academy,
Shusterman(2000) somehow feels comfortable, buttressed by
Jameson'snotion of the "postmodernor technologicalsublime"in
makingthe audaciouslink betweenthe embracingof technologyin
aestheticproductionand postmodernism(p. 208). Here, he again
fails to come to termswithhip-hopreality,as the decision of graffiti
artistsandmusiciansto turnto technologywas not madein a philosophicalvacuumbutratherin a highly structuredreality:"Ata time
when budget cuts in school music programsdrasticallyreduced
access to traditionalforms of instrumentationand composition,
inner-city youths increasingly relied on recorded sound" (Rose,
1994, pp. 34-35). Moreover,as Lunn(1982) observes,"thecubists
show a more hopeful, or at least open attitudetowardthe social
meaningof industrialsociety . . . [and]This is moreexplicit in variants or successorscubist impulse after 1917,"and such successors
would include the constructivistsand Brecht himself (p. 49). His
epic theater,in which "humansand social relationswere shown to
be constructionscapable of being 'reassembled,'"sought, above
all, to use technology to attackthe "cyclical myth or the eternalizing of the present immediate"(pp. 103, 122). With regardto
localization and temporality,Shusterman(2000) sees hip-hop as
suggestive of "the Deweyan message that art is more essentially
process than finished product"by "explicitlythematizingits own
temporalityin its lyrics" (pp. 206-207). However,the nominally
Dadaist dramatistErwin Piscator,whose impact on Brecht could

hardlybe overstated,as the two workedtogetherin Berlin during
the 1920s, "used modern technical media such as multiple and
simultaneousfilm projections,newspaperheadlines, and moving
platforms... to define the historicalera of that struggle"(Lunn,
1982, p. 55).
It is within his discussion of Shusterman's(2000) most important characteristicof postmodernaesthetics- the underminingof
aestheticautonomy- thathe subsumesnearlyall discussionof politics, and the way in which he does so is suggestive. Rap, it seems,
underminesthe autonomy of art through "its belligerent insistence on the deeply political dimension of culture" (p. 21 1).2
- via this abstractandahistoricalnotionof "culture"
Shusterman
is thereforeunable either to admit a nonsubsumptiverelationship
betweenartandpolitics (i.e., thatthe two exist independently)or to
recognizean instrumentalsituation(i.e., in which artis a meansto
political ends). This puts him in an awkwardposition, as the presence of both apolitical and explicitly political rap prove the unwieldiness of his framework.Even if we accept this roundabout
attackon aestheticautonomy,however,we arestill in difficultterritory with relation to the postmodern, as the cubists and constructivistslaid the groundfor the subversionof aesthetic autonomy, andBrechtwould makethis centralby seeking "todemystify
the notionof artas an autonomousandprivileged'illusion'of life's
integration"(Lunn, 1982, p. 119). His alternative,innovativefor
both aestheticandMarxisttheory,was the subsumptionof aesthetics underproduction,as the value of art"derived... not from any
allegedly privileged position 'above' the tumult of the everyday
world,butfromthe opposite:art'spositionas partof the productive
forces of society" (Lunn, 1982, p. 120).
If the individualcharacteristicsof the postmodernwere scatteredwidely amongdrasticallydifferent20th-centuryartforms as
Shustermansuggests, or indeed even characteristicsof different
strainsof the modernistavant-garde,we might be sympatheticto
his claims for the novelty of aestheticpostmodernism.But given
thatthese characteristicscan be seen not only in closely relatedand
allied wings of the avant-garde,but for the most parteven as con-
verging in and aroundthe workof an individual,we cannotbe so

generous as to overlook it. Rather,a distinctionbetween artistic
mainstreamandavant-gardemay indeed serveus better,andthis is
preciselywhatis offeredin PeterBurger's(1984) seminaltext Theory oftheAvant-Garde.3
Despite citing the worktwice, Shusterman
fails
to
realize
that
the book is directedin largepartagainst
(2000)
the very sort of conflation of which he himself is guilty (pp. 311,
6f., If.). Burger(1984) defines the avant-gardeas consisting of a
sustainedattackon the institutionof artcombinedwith an undermining of the organictotalityof the individualworkof art(pp. 8384), and we have seen both of these elements play implicit and
explicit roles in Shusterman's argumentagainstan oversimplified,
straw-man "modernism."Burger's (1984) analysis, moreover,
leads us out of Shusterman'squandaryby emphasizingthe importanceof political engagementto "theavant-gardisteprotest,whose
aim it is to reintegrateart into the praxis of life, reveal[ingl the
nexus between autonomyand the absence of any consequences"
(p. 22). Hence, an avant-gardework of art is that in which "engagement itself is the unifying principle that articulates itself
throughoutthe work,"and this is only achievedvia its nonorganic
character:
Wheretheworkis no longerconceivedas organictotality,theindito theworkas a
vidualpoliticalmotifalsois no longersubordinate
wholebutcanbe effectivein isolation.Onthe basisof the avantgardistetypeof work,a newtypeof engagedartbecomespossible.
work
Onemayevengo a stepfurtherandsaythattheavant-gardiste
doesawaywiththeold dichotomybetween"pure"and"political"
art.(pp.90-91)
It is perhapsof little surprise,given our discussion thus far, that
Burgeremphasizesthe importanceof Brecht,"themost important
materialist writer of our time," for comprehendingthe importance of the avant-garde(pp. 88-90). But before embarkingon a
Brechtiananalysisof post-gangstahip-hop,I mustfirstdisentangle
some misunderstandingsregardingthe political engagement of
hip-hopthat Shustermanand othersleave largely unresolved.
A multitudeof authorsgo to greatlengths to deny the political

contentof hip-hop,andit is no coincidencethatthese areoften the
same authorswho wish to divorcethe genremost radicallyfromits
socioeconomic andhistoricalroots. Althoughwe have seen a tacit
dismissal of politics in Shusterman'sframework,perhapsa more
importantreferencepoint is the analysis thatTim Brennan(1994)
lays outpartiallyas a responseto the former.In a drawn-outdiscussion thatis most strikingfor its open contradiction,Brennanseeks
to emphasizethe "feel"of rap,andin doing so takesaim at a variety
of targets- the most importantof which, as suggestedin his offensive title, is the assertionby some critics that rapjust is political.
Although admittingthat much rap "offers a rich exposure of a
domesticimperialism"andthatrapperssuch as "Paris,Tupac,and
The Coup (all Oaklandbased) often voice an implicit left agenda
that sounds very much like the Panthers,"his approachis one
of reverse reductionism (suggesting that a proper appreciation
revolves arounda pop cultureanalysis of "feel")thatleads him to
fall into the self-help trap,concludingthatrapis all aboutbusiness
(p. 688).4If an "appreciation"of rapimplies devaluingthose who
would use it progressively,and moreoverthose who took to the
streets of LA (Los Angeles) in desperation,then one might be
inclined to sacrificetrueappreciationfor a more internaland intimate cooperativerelationship.
If Brennan'sreactionto Shustermanfails to resolve the question
of politicalrapas posed above, wheredoes this leave us? One crucial point to recognize is that despite his express desire to avoid
Shusterman's "aestheticization," Brennan (1994) admittedly
remains within the realm of a formalistic approach, merely
attemptingto develop "a differenttheoreticalapparatusthan the
familiarone of postmodernism"(p. 676). He even toys with the
idea that "salvagingthe aesthetic [may] merely petrify rap,"but
despiteciting AmiriBaraka,who mightrejectthe latterin favorof a
sort of Black anti-aestheticunder the guise of "poems that kill"
(Baraka,1973, p. 213), Brennan(1994) admitsfailureandattempts
to recreate an alternative (but no less appropriative)aesthetic
framework(p. 676). FollowingBaraka,however,is the crucialstep
that he was unwilling to take, especially given the clear lineage
betweenthe Black artsmovementandthe developmentof hip-hop

culture.Indeed,as Gladney(1995) observes,"Blackarthas always
been rooted in the anger felt by Afrikan-Americans"and that it
"cannotbe divorcedfrom this reality"(pp. 291-292). We are immediately reminded of the central assertion of the avant-garde:
namely,that artmust not be separatedfrom the praxisof life.5
Aside from questioning the weighty postmodernistclaims of
Shusterman,I hope to have establishedthe relevanceof Brechtand
his culturalmilieu to the questionof political hip-hop,if only indirectly.The remainderof the discussionwill be devotedto an analysis of some elementsof hip-hopthatraisethe specterof Brechtin a
more salient way, and I will use Brechtianaestheticstacticallyin
the interestof advancingthe effectivenessof post-gangstapolitical
hip-hop.
SELF-PRODUCTION AND DIDACTICS

Perhaps the most useful element of Brecht' s theories for an interpretation of hip-hop is his notion of aesthetic democracy, which
developed most clearly in debate with Lukacs:
Brecht'sview of the emancipatorypotentialsof a redirectedmodern
technologywas relatedto his critiqueof artas the "closed"creation
of an omniscient author "distributing"his/her finished cultural
productsto an audience Culturewas not seen by Lukacsas qualitativelyredefinedby self-determining,collectivist production,but
as the passive quantitativedistributionof the given traditionalliterary forms. . . . Brecht envisioned modern media, if functionally
reutilized,workingagainsttraditionalelitistpractices.(Lunn,1982,
p. 126)
Specifically, Brecht discussed the potential for a universal two-way
radio that may at present remind us of something like the Internet,
but if we step back to the late 1970s, such an idea evokes something
akin to a self-produced and interactive musical phenomenon originating in the South Bronx.6
The developmentof hip-hop revolves arounda singularlycrucial but often overlookedmedium:mixtapes.These represent"the
othermusic industry,the one wherelabels don't exist, . . . wherethe
CDs are sold by vendorshawkingthem off dirtyblanketson city
streets,andbootleggingis encouraged"(Reid,2003). Althoughthe
origins of the mixtape were not particularlydemocratic- fairly
expensive recordingsof hip-hop concerts and personalizedsong
mixes made by DJs for individuals- technologicaldevelopments
have facilitatedtheir productionand broadenedtheir availability.
Today,a mixtapehas come to mean a combinationof "unreleased
'exclusive'tracks. . . Freestyles . . . DJs' special mixes of songs or
theblendingof two differenttracks. . . [and]Turntablistsandartists
speakingout on currenttopics,"among otherthings (Reid, 2003).
Brecht emphasizes how "a democraticallycontrolledtechnology
could dissolve the previously closed processes of social and culturaltransmission"through,in his own words, "turningthe audience not only into pupils but into teachers"(Lunn, 1982, p. 127),
and in a technical sense, mixtapes do indeed fulfill such a role.
Anyone with an access to turntablesand a CD burnercan begin to
producetheirown rapsor establishtheirmixing talentsas a DJ, and
for an extraordinarilylow cost these tapescan reachlocal distribution points. As SamirMeghelli (personalcommunication,December 2, 2003), a memberof Philadelphia-basedhip-hop collective
MidniteChildren,has observed,"self-productionis crucialto the
hip hop culturalmovement,"and its origins are also "organicand
indigenousto the community"in which such culturefoundits subsistence, as the idea of "self-sufficiencyand self-production,carriedover . . . [in] Black ArtsMovementfolks, like AmiriBaraka. . .
who stressedthe importanceof establishingoutletsfor the production and distributionof Black Art"(see also Gladney,1995).7
Noted hip-hop commentatorNelson George (1998) once observed that the broad trend towardthe commercializationof rap
"hasmade rap more democratic- but is democracygood for art?
Hiphopwas, at one point, a true meritocracy"(p. 113). But given
the sustainedimportanceof mixtapesin lesseningthe financialrisk
of record labels seeking new talent- one mixtape hawker observes,"Look,therewouldn'tbe a rapindustryif it weren'tformix-
tapes" (quoted in Boucher, 2003)- George's facile equation of

commercializationand democracy does not hold water. Rather,
although concerns about commercializationare certainly valid
(andindeedprerequisitefor an understandingof hip-hop),George
remainsblinkeredby a sort of Lukacseannotion of democratization as distributionand fails to recognize that mixtapesrepresent
anothertype of democratization.They serve as a crucial medium
through which the rap underground,acting as a sort of gadfly,
bestows legitimacy on the mainstream. More crucially, selfproductionis consideredby many directlyto counteractcommercialization, as the lattercan be defined as a forcible separationof
rap music from the broaderculturalcontext of hip-hop (Shomari,
1995, pp. 30-31).
As suggested before, the mixtape has always played a crucial
role in the developmentof hip-hop, but there is reason to believe
thatits once-declininginfluenceis in resurgence.Evidencefor this
lies both in the fact that last year's most commerciallysucessful
rapper- 50 Cent- emergedfrom years of mixtape dissemination
andthatestablishedartistssuch as P. Diddy areusing them as testing groundsto "break"new talent.In fact, "in the battle of legitimate albumsversus mixtapes,mixtapes are increasinglythe winners. ... At a time when the 'real'music businessis crumbling. . .
the mixtapeindustryis thriving"(Reid, 2003). By dint of its selfproducedcharacter,accessibility, and facility of distribution,the
hip-hop mixtape is a profoundly Brechtian medium. As such,
mixtapesrepresentan often overlookedsource of hope for escape
from what has been characterizedas a zero-sumdilemma of dissemination:"InHegelianfashion,rappers'effortsto staytrueto the
music's core areunderminedas they try to expandits reaches- an
irresolvableconundrumthat exists when popularcultureclashes
with mass culture"(Lusane, 1993, p. 49).
But merelyto say thatthe mixtapequa mediumis Brechtianin a
technical sense is only half of the story, as the real usefulness of
Brechtis his emphasison didactics.8The importanceof didacticsis
most marked in Brecht's "teaching" plays, or LehrstUcke
roughly,those writtenbetween 1928 and 1934 that demonstrate
"hisintentionto conveyin dramaticformthe lessons of Communist
doctrine"(Gray, 1976, p. 43). But the overt didacticism of the

Lehrstilckeand his later wielding of the V-effektagainstAristotelian catharsisarebest interpretedas distinctandhistoricallyconditioned means towarda consistentend: the creationof "anactivist
and collectivist value structure[that]would help emancipatethe
lower classes" (Lunn, 1982, pp. 116-117). It is aroundthe centrality of this didactic element that we will now consider hip-hop
mixtapes, the resurgence of which has coincided with another
importantrise thatbearsthis secondcharacteristicof Brecht:thatof
post-gangstapolitical hip-hop.
Dyson (1996) has observedthat"by 1991 the rules andrulersof
hip-hop were changing, with biting black nationalist commentaryand an Afrocentricworldviewgiving way to sexual hedonism
and the glamorizationof violence. Public Enemy failed to react"
(p. 167). Although such a statementoverlooksthe descriptiveimportanceof muchso-calledgangstarap,it is an accuraterepresentation of the initialdecline of the politicallyprescriptiverapthathad
been dominantin the late 1980s. Perhapsthe firstpoliticalrapsong,
if one excludes the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron,is "TheMessage,"releasedin 1982 by GrandmasterFlash andthe FuriousFive
(see, e.g., Jones, 1994, pp. 36, 55; Stephens, 1991, p. 56), and
althoughmanycounterposeits austerityto the later"hedonism"of
gangstarap(Dyson, 1996, p. 166), the truthis thatthe two sharea
descriptivequality.The fact thatthe song opens with the mundane
observationthatthereis "brokenglass everywhere,people pissin'
on the stairsyou know theyjust don't care"is no coincidence, and
the ultimate development is toward a narratorthat is rendered
unstableby conditions,warning,"don'tpush me, cause I'm close
to the edge."This descriptivequality is sharedby two icons who
would, despitethe posthumousascriptionof the label, come to signify gangsta for much of the mainstream:Tupac Shakurand the
NotoriousB.I.G.: "Ultimately,Tupacand Biggie, like most of the
controversialand best rapperswho came after Public Enemy's
political spiels, were both poets of negation. . . [who] madeharsh,
contemplative,graphic, deliberatelyviolent American pulp art"
(George, 1998, p. 48). Whetherit be Tupac'sdescriptionof "thug
life,"Biggie's descriptionof the crack-sellingimperativein Brook-
lyn, or even the early antipolice rhetoricof Compton's N.W.A.,

whose memberswould go on to spearheadsome of the most flagrantly violent rap of the period, so-called gangsta rap rarely
transcendeddescription.But thereinlies its importance:
Rather than attempt to explain in global terms the relationship
betweenjoblessness, racism,and the rise of crime in the inner-city
communities, gangsta rappersconstruct a variety of first-person
narrativesto illustratehow social and economic realities in latecapitalistL.A. affect young black men . . . the use of "I"to signify
both personaland collective experiencesalso enables gangstarappersto navigatea complicatedcoursebetweenwhatsocial scientists
call "structure"
and "agency."In gangstarapthereis almostalways
a relationshipbetween the conditionsin which characterslive and
the decisions they make. (Kelley, 1996, p. 124)
Aesthetically,we are in this passage remindedclearly of both a

cubistperspectivalism,in which a total view can only be achieved
throughrotatingthe object of inquiry,and also of Burger's(1994)
observation of the avant-garde that "the individual political
motif ... is no longer subordinateto the workas a whole butcan be
effective in isolation"(p. 90). Althoughit is self-evidentthat such
rap remainsdidacticallyincomplete (thoughI hesitate to use this
term,as suchrapmakesno granddidacticclaims),it removesa fundamentalobstaclefor our understanding:It revealsthe ridiculousness of the culture-of-povertyargument,described as a trap by
some (Rose, 1994, p. 144; see also Grosfoguel,1999;Kelley, 1997;
Reed, 1991), therebyrevealingthat, to "paraphraseMarx, young
urbanblackmen maketheirown history,butnot underthe circumstances of their own choosing" (Kelley, 1996, p. 124). The full
importanceof such a step will become evidentin the course of the
analysis,as we will see thatsuchdescriptiverevelationshighlighta
significantdrawbackof PublicEnemy's"politicalspiels,"preventing the latter(andindeedmost earlypoliticalrap)fromprovidinga
substantivelydidacticalperspective.9It would take the historical
playingout of the heighteneddescriptivenessof the gangstaera,its
underminingof the culture-of-povertyargument,and subjective
identificationwith its realism to allow for the full integrationof

both faces of didacticism.
Indeed, the immediate gangsta-eradecline of politically prescriptiverapwould not last long, as withina few shortyearsa number of less well-known artists- including Paris, Nas, The Roots,
Common,Mos Def and Talib Kweli, The Coup, and dead prezwouldmaketheirappearancein the undergroundas "organicintellectualvoices . . . hip-hopGramscians"influencingthe mainstream
(Dyson, 2003, p. xiv). The last of these, and the most recent to
appear- dead prez- representsone of the most unflinchinglydidactical acts ever to gain a widespreadaudience, and theirrecent
move into the mixtapearenacan be understoodas a unificationof
two centralelements of Brecht's theory (and indeed elements indigenous to hip-hopitself): productionand politics.10
Nelson George (1998) is certainly onto something when he
observes that "hip hop is not a political movement in the usual
sense . . . [having]had surprisinglylittle concretelong-termimpact
on AfricanAmericanpolitics"(p. 154).n But he continuesby noting that "Hiphop's majorproblemas a political movementis that
MCs [emcees] are not social activists by trainingor inclination"
(pp. 154-155), and although such a statementwould be accurate
with regardto the majorityof rappers,it is activelyunderminedby
- andas
the effortsof deadprez.Activistsfirstandrapperssecond12
such embodyingBurger's(1984, pp. 89-90) emphasison engagement as a unifying principle- the duo composed of M-l and Stic
came to be active in the UhuruMovement,a secularcontenderfor
post-PantherBlack nationalism.Their 1999 debutalbum,Let's Get
Free (selling 300,000 copies), featureda censored cover of guntoting Soweto insurgents,and the video for their hit single "HipHop,"whose explicitly instrumentalview of the medium is best
summedup in the repeatedchorus"It'sbiggerthanhip-hop"(dead
prez, 1999a), was visibly Maoist inspired and ended up tacitly
bannedfrom MTV.
Dead prez was originally signed to Steve Rifkind's semiminor
label Loud Records, and afterthe label folded, their contractwas
sold off to ColumbiaRecords in 2001. Despite attemptsto avoid
theirfate- M- 1 recountsthat"Wetriedto runfromthe plantation"
(quotedin Fayemi, 2003)- dead prez ended up on a majorcorporate label that was none too interestedin releasing inflammatory
material.When it came time to release their second studio album,
RBG:RevolutionaryBut Gangsta, Columbiaheld back and, in an
attempt to get their voices out while skirting contract restrictions, dead prez adoptedthe moniker"dpz"and began to release
independent-labelmixtapes:TurnOffthe Radio: TheMixtapeVolume 1 in 2002 and Get Free or Die Tryin':TheMixtape Volume2
shortlyaftertheirofficialdroppingfromColumbiain June2003.
Of the first mixtape,M-l notes
Ina goodwaythatexperienceof beingboughtandsoldandfeeling
likea slaveledus to thinkof waysto do-for-selfonourown.That's
whenwe producedthemixtape,TurnofftheRadio:Volume7. ...
aboutIraqandotherissues,
thatalbumhelpedustomakestatements
whentherereallywereno avenuesontheradiooranywhereelseto
do it. (Fayemi,2003)
What is particularlyinterestingabout this passage is that the
hostile atmosphere of commercial hip-hop is such that selfproductionbecomes almost a necessary preconditionof political
hip-hop.In what follows, I will discuss the dpz mixtapesandtheir
Brechtianqualities,with an eye towardthe formulationof a theory
of didactic hip-hop. Methodologically,I will focus on a central
theme within the mixtapesand see how the provisionof divergent
perspectives on that theme facilitates comprehension of and
response to it. Such an approachmakes aesthetic sense given the
avant-gardeemphasison underminingthe sanctityof the individual
workof artin favorof individualpolitical themes,butmoreover,it
hopes to avoidthe incoherenceandcontradictionembodiedexplicitly in Brennan's(1994) individuationof rap songs but practiced
tacitly by most critics.13
The didacticintent of the two dpz mixtapesis clearestin guest
MC AskariX's statementthat "I put the message in the music to
wake you up out your sleep" (dead prez, 2003b). However,
Brechtiandidacticsis morethanthe mereplacementof a message,
and the lifelong struggle of the playwrightagainst what he perceived as the catharsisof traditionalaestheticsis a testamentto the
difficultyof the task.14Inhis 1930 play TheMeasuresTaken,Brecht

closes with the assertionthat"only when instructedby realitycan
we changereality"(as cited in Gray,1976, p. 44), andit is this fundamentalobservationthat serves as our startingpoint. A better
quotationfromwhich to begin with the mixtapesmightthenbe the
following: "My life ain't worth a damn unless I'm dealing with
reality. . . andI would ratherdeal with the truthandfalsehoodthan
being fake with my people andclaiming 'it's all good'" (deadprez,
2002c). As will be seen, the dpz mixtapesweave realityandpropaganda- descriptiveandprescriptive- with a skill thatis no doubt
rooted in their anti-imperialistactivist education and which, in
many ways, representsa characteristicBrechtianismas well as
arguablya dialecticaladvanceover even the most overtlypolitical
elements of earlierhip-hop.
There are several centraldidactic axes that extend throughout
the work of dead prez and the two mixtapes,and for our purposes
we will trace the progressof the most central,from which many
others emanate: the "war on drugs" and the criminalizationof
Black urbanyouth. Withthe Black prisonpopulationrecentlysurpassing 1 million, it is perhapsa surpriseand more likely a shock
thatmainstreamhip-hopis not morepreoccupiedwith the drugwar
and its impact. Rap responses to the subject vary, as of his own
crackdealingBiggie contendsthat"Iwas just tryin'to make some
money to feed my daughter"(Notorious B.I.G., 1994), and even
afterTupaccriticizesas "sleazy"the selling of crackto children,he
concludeshis verse with the fatalismof "that'sthe way it is" (2Pac,
1998). The most sophisticatedanalyses of the issue, not surprisingly, emergedfrom militarizedLA, but Ice Cube's "ABird in the
Hand"and"TheProduct,"Ice-T's "NewJackHustler,"andNWA's
"Dope Man"remainalmost entirelywithin the realm of the firstpersonnarrativeandarein manyways underminedby theprofound
inconsistencyof the rapperswho createdthem (Henderson,1996,
p. 330). Moreover,Public Enemy frontmanChuckD's collaboration with Partnershipfor a Drug-FreeAmericais suggestiveof prescriptionwithout context (and as such, the inversion of gangsta
shortcomings),as is his statementin aninterviewaboutthe deathof
Tupacthat"Niggasneverwin in the druggame. Even when we kill
ourselvesover that,it's just the bottomof the barreltype of stupid15

ity"(quotedin DaveyD, 1996). Theproblemwith suchassertions,
as discussed earlier,is that they fall into the individualreductionism of the culture-of-povertytrap,viewing individualconsciousness as determinantin the last instance.16
As will be seen, like most of the hip-hopcommunity,deadprez
reverethe late TupacandBiggie, andtheirdescriptionof the catch22 of crackdealing is strikinglysimilar.As the chorusof "Sellin'
D.O.P.E."observes, "Sellin'dope, servin'weed, we have to hustle
to hustlejust to eat,"and continues
ain't no hope in the streets,you broke- you sell dope
all my young niggas outside hustlin'coke
you know the drama,if you ain't sellin' crackthen its ganja . . .
I ain't plannedto get rich from sellin' that shit- it was
survival. . .
but who am I? Just a young nigga caughtin the mix
and if this weed don't sell, I'm gonna cop me a brick.
(deadprez, 2002d)
The renunciationof the responsibility of poor, young Blacks is

framed in terms on par with the gangsta-erarappers,as seen in
Stic's recountingof his youth in Florida:
the job is a joke- they ain't hiring . . .so what otherchoice do i
have?
I've got niggas on the Ave pushin' slabs that'll breakme off a
portion
so I can standon my own two . . .
whetherI make a recordor serve dope, I refuse to keep bein'
broke . . .
as long as I come up- don't give a fuck aboutthe method.
(dead prez, 2003d)
Here, we see a clearrecognitionof the fact thatdespite ChuckD's

stricturesabout "stupidity,"dead prez explicitly reject the argument imposedby mainstreamculturethatit is irrationalfor young
Blacks to engage in the drugtrade- and thatto do so is precisely
what is rationalwithin that context.17The sophisticationof dead

prez'sanalysislies in the factthatthey do not stopthere,andrecognition of this rationalitydoes not underminean equallyfundamental recognitionof the overall effect of the drugtradeon the Black
population:"Theone thing bigger thandope games is prison:one
million niggas inside"(deadprez, 2002d). But the effect of the presentationtranscendsa merely catharticdespair,as this seemingly
impossible situationis first confrontedby something akin to the
moraloutrageof comparisonthatBrechtsaw as "conduciveto critical thought"(Lunn, 1982, p. 116): "WhenI look at all the niggas
theyhit with madtime, in proportionto the big kingpins,it don'tfit,
you can get caughtwithbarelya half-a-slab,andthejudge sentence
you like you ranthe Ave"(deadprez, 2002d). The divisionof labor
thatmakesup the drugtradeis putintoperspectivewiththe elementaryobservation,in a conversationby Stic abouthis brother'sbout
with crackaddictionand prison,that "Wedon't own no boats, we
don't own no planes, we don't make no cellophanebags to bag it
up, wejust caughtup in thegame"(deadprez,2003f, italics added).
Althoughgangstarapperssoughtto negatethe blame on young
Blacks withouteffectively shiftingit, andwhereasmore"preachy"
elementsplace the majorityof the responsibilityon individuals,the
politicaltrainingof deadprezhas allowedfor a sharpercritiqueand
the identification of an enemy by, as emphasized by Brecht,
"reveal[ing]the contemporarydynamicsof collective social structures"(Lunn, 1982, p. 116). They allege thatthe U.S. government
(via the CIA) has been centralto the importationof crackcocaine
andthatthe structureof laws andthe economy providea legal and
financialincentivefor the continuedcriminalizationof Blacks via
the waron drugs.The formerchargehas been forgottenor ignored
by most Whites but remains in the foregroundfor many Black
Americansfor obvious reasons, with a recent study showing that
59%of Blacks surveyedbelieve it to be atleast a possibilityandone
quarterbelieve it to be the truth(Waters,1997, p. 117). This allegation is raisedby dead prez (2003e) in trademarkstyle:
didn'tknowdrug-dealing
was a government
job . . .
business
controls
America
.
.
.
illegal
the White House is the [crack]rock house,

and Uncle Sam is the numberone pusher-man.
Moreover,the chargethatcapitalismbenefits from prison laboris

undeniable,and the gulaglike implicationsof such a fact are not
lost on dead prez (2003f):18
it's a war,even thoughthey don't call it a war
it's chemical war,unleashedon the black and the poor
and it benefits the police, lawyers, andjudges
thatprofiton prison-industrywith federalbudgets . . .
who profits?It's obvious, and it's going too good for them to
stop it.
Giventhe developmentto this point, one wouldperhapsnot be surprisedif dead prez were to fall back into hopelessness or, equally
daunting,a broadbut ineffective oppositionalismcharacteristicof
even the most pointedgangstacritiques.This is not the case, however,as the music has the same sortof utilitarianurgencythatdrove
Brecht(Lunn, 1982, p. 99), and activistpotentialis even explicitly
assertedin suchstatementsas "it'snot impossibleto makea change
in our lives" (deadprez, 2003f) and "we hip to this game tho, and
we feelin to changethis whole reality"(deadprez, 2002f). The latter is especially instructive, as it reflects our starting point in
Brecht'snotion that only by graspingreality,and indeed a reality
thatis obscuredby traditionalopinions andpolitics, does one gain
the insight that reality itself is a construct,and that despite structuralconstraintsit is also somethingcapable of being dismantled
and reconfigured.
The assertionof the potentialfor transformation,no doubt the
result of the fact that dead prez approachedmusic via political
activism, is then extended into prescription,thereby serving as a
sort of bridge between the pessimistic description of some socalled gangstarappersand the disconnectedprescriptionof some
knowledgerap.In the deadprezmixtapes,this prescriptionhas two
significantelements:an ethical prescriptionlinkedto the denialof
the culpabilityof Black youth andapolitical prescription.The for-
mer takes the form of a renunciationof political obligation and

assertionof a rightto resist, a sortof ground-clearingexerciseprerequisite to any revolutionaryactivity (see Norwood, 2002) and
arisesmost crudelyin a song titled "Fuckthe Law,"whose chorus
states "you wonderwhy we burnthe cities down, cause we don't
give a fuck- the time is now" (dead prez, 2003a). But the same
point is made in a much more subtle mannerwhen, aftera severe
indictmentof the Americanjudicial and legal systems, they argue
that "rightor wrong, we say fuck the law, cause the law wasn't
made for us- ghettoprisoners"(deadprez, 2003e). In this formulation, the argumentis much closer to those made by PeterSinger
(1974) andMichael Walzer(1970), with the formerarguingthata
lack of sufficientrepresentationin a political system negates the
obligation to its law and the latter observing that conditions are
such thatBlack Americansare indeed in many cases freed of such
obligation (p. 48). Whereas those succumbingto the culture-ofpoverty argumentwould recreate structuresof obligation, dead
preztakestheirethicalcue fromthe descriptivenessof gangstarappers, and moves forwardaccordingly.
The explicitly political prescriptionpresent in the mixtapes is
voluminousand many sided. Althoughits total breadthcannotbe
accuratelycoveredhere, it suffices to note briefly thatit involves a
radical,and indeed almost Sorelian, separation- the rejectionof
voting,the negationof legality andpost-9/11 patriotism,as well as
a politics of political, cultural,and economic sabotage (see especially deadprez, 2004). But theirstrategicapproachis summarized
on the firstmixtapein whatamountsto a declarationof war,where
a list of accusations- with the shoutedresponse"That'sWar!"- is
followed by prescription:
marchingin the streetsis a strategyof WAR
knowing self-defense is a strategyof WAR
soldiers try to link with othersoldiers in the WAR
Revolutionariesgotta know the artof WAR
Whatabouthip-hop?Use that,matterfact,
fuck a rapbattle,what abouta gat battle?
(dead prez, 2002e)
This verse provides both a broadvision of what is consideredto

be useful politically- within which we see a diversity of tactics
and the importanceof a "circulationof struggles"(Cleaver,2000,
p. 58)- as well as propoundinganexplicitly instrumentalvision of
aesthetics by deemphasizingthe traditionallegitimization technique of verbal proficiency in favor of usefulness in struggle. In
both mixtapes, the two interludestitled "Hood News" drive this
point home by servingas a "newspaperof the ghetto"(Reid, 2003)
and highlighting recent developments such as the Patriot Act,
deathsat the handsof police, andeven the arrestandincarceration
of theirown guest rapper,AskariX.
The most significant component of the dpz mixtapes is their
ambitiousfusion of Black nationalistandAfrocentricpolitics with
the more recentlycultivatedgangstaimage. This is done symbolically throughthe translationof MarcusGarvey'sred, black, and
green nationalist flag into the catchphrase "revolutionarybut
gangsta"and then converselyof the respectfulterm"O.G."(original gangster)into "OriginalGarvey."Substantively,the tapes then
commandeerthose admirablequalitiesthatthey see as havingbeen
gleanedfromthe gangstaera,raisingthe gang to nearlythe level of
a Guevaraistguerrillafoco. In the presentationof an ideal revolutionary,the mixtapesanswerthe question"Whattype of soldieris a
RBG soldier?"with "webangin'for the red,black, andgreen,ain't
with no red, white andblue,"andagainconverselythat"tome, a G
[gangsta]is a freedom-fighter"(dead prez, 2002f). This is a position no doubt drawn from their political involvement, as at one
pointdeadprezframeUhuruleaderOmaliYeshitelaas an O.G. and
insert a clip of a speech in which he attributesto the broadly
oppositionalnotion of "fuckthe police" the characterof "a statement of revolutionaryculture"(dead prez, 2002b). The natureof
the ideal gang is explainedas a unified ghetto movement:
what is a gang? A gang is an organization
a formulationof riderswith a common foundation
a nation,a tribe,unified by a common creed
dedicated,readyto bleed for what they believe
hardlike the Mafia, but smartlike Malcolm . . .
chainlinkedto yourbrotherlike in thehullof a slaveship,

(deadprez,2003c)
This position on gangs adds the significantelement of streetunity
to the dead prez political platform- arguing to the notorious
Bloods and Crips that "it's one team: get up and let's ride"(dead
prez, 2002a)- while also placing normativeconstraintson what
exactlythe existinggangs shouldstrivetoward.Althoughthe unification of streetgangs surfacedin the earlierwave of rap, it rarely
transcendedthe "Stop the Violence" or "We'reall in the Same
Gang"mentality- that is to say, it was focused on the immediate
threatof Black-on-Blackviolence at the expense of broaderpolitical aims.A betterreferencepointfor framingthe workof deadprez
is certainlySam Greenlee's(1969) seminalTheSpook WhoSat by
the Door, in which the first black CIA agent uses the skills he is
19
taughtto politicize the gangs of Chicago in a bid for liberation.
It is in the goal of the political the outcome of struggle that
we come full circle in an understandingof the advancemadeby the
dpz mixtapes.Perhapsas an additionalsuggestionof why passivity
andreconciliationarenot the solution,the admissionarisesthat"I
blameit on the system,buttheproblemis ours,it's not a questionof
religion,it's a questionofpower"(deadprez,2003f, italics added).
But to understandthe crucial distinctionbetween their notion of
power and that of many gangsta rappers,one must also recall
the caveat that "powerain't money, dog, it's self-determination"
(2002e). One is immediatelyremindedof the recent spate of discussion in Europeregardingthe two notionsof powerexpressedin
many languages, which translateroughly as "power to" versus
"powerover,"with deadprez clearlyfavoringthe former(Virno&
Hardt, 1996, p. 263). This qualificationis crucial, especially in
light of deadprez's embracingof elementsof gangstaculture,as it
preventsa reconciliationwithpoweras exercisedwithinthe system
thatgangstarapdescribesand as such, a possible escape from the
concernthatghettocentricity"drawsits arsenalfromthe dominant
ideology" (Kelley, 1996, p. 139). Although much of the flagrant
offensiveness and danger within rap grows directly from the
descriptionof life on the street- as poverty begets the celebra-
CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 15 1
tion of wealthandpowerlessnessbegets the celebrationof domination, in misogyny and elsewhere- dead prez is attemptingto salvage those elements crucialto moving forwardwhile vaccinating
against the "spiralingmatrixof empowermentand reaction"that
preventsgangstarapfrom "projectinga liberatingandprescriptive
paradigmfor the future"(Lusane, 1993, pp. 36, 49).
IMPLICATIONS
Althoughthis dialecticaldevelopmentin hip-hopremainsa bit

fuzzy, comparisonto past rap criticism will throw into relief its
advantagesboth in understandingthe developmentof rapmusic as
well as offeringa positivevision for the future.Specifically,we will
be consideringthe point-counterpointoffered by two of the most
importantpieces of rap scholarshipto date: Errol Henderson's
(1996) discussion of Black nationalism and Afrocentricityand
Robin D. G. Kelley's (1996) analysis of gangsta rap. Like many
otherworks,thesetwo considerthe importanceof the interactionof
but Henderson'smodel fails partlythroughits inabilsubgenres,20
to
termswith the very subjectivedevelopmentsthathe
to
come
ity
problematizes,andalthoughKelley is more sensitiveto the importanceof the latter,the scope of his contributionis such thathe does
not make the most of his findings.
Henderson(1996, pp. 313-314) utilizes Karenga'stypology of
justificationsfor Black nationalismto identifythe sortof nationalism based on sharedcultureas less reactionarythaneitheroppression basedor programmaticnationalisms.He sees, moreover,a linear progressionwithin hip-hop nationalism:from oppression to
agenda, and finally, with X-Clan, to shared Afrocentric culture
(pp. 314-315). Henderson'sdiagnosisof the earlywave of political
rapis correct- as he accuses PublicEnemy andothersof fostering
a "mythof action"(pp. 323-329)- butdespitenotingthe emphasis
that KRS-One and the Black Panthers placed on the lumpen
underclass,he neverthelessfails to come fully to terms with that
underclass,andit is herethathe runsinto difficulty.He documents
the rise of a "nihilisticandself-destructiveset of tenetsthatemerge
from the drive for survivalism"and even notes that the subjective
developmentwas flowing away from religious organizationand
toward gangsta, but nonetheless seems to believe that merely
affirmingAfrocentricitywill be enoughto stemthe tide. It is on the
topic of gangstasubjectivitythatHenderson,in an extendedfootnote,takesissue with Kelley's (1996, pp. 136-140) identificationof
a "ghettocentric"culture,centeredon the racial,class, and spatial
identityof the "nigga."Henderson'sargumenton this subjectis not
convincingin the least- not least for its philosophicallyuntenable
associationof the wordwith its originalusage, butequallybecause
he fails to recognize the valid complaint against some Afrocentricitythatthe word"nigga"andits culturalmilieu embody.Specifically, Kelley highlights the way in which gangsta rappershave
takenaim at an overemphasison Africa and a concomitantdevaluation of Black sufferingin the United States, which is justified
by the culture-of-povertyargument.Such a dichotomyarisesperhaps most clearly in the classic anthem of Afrocentricity- whose closing verses mark a clear distinction:
"A.F.R.I.C.A."
"they[i.e., Africans]need help, butso do we- themwith theirgovernment,us andmentality."The implicationthatAmericanBlacks,
especially those representingthe urbanunderclass,do not have a
problem with the U.S. government is downright wrong, and
gangstarapperswere entirelyjustified in critiquingthe construction of such a false dichotomy.
Henderson'sframeworkof differenttypes of nationalismfails,
aboveall, becauseit has a staticnotionof "culture"andas suchcannot accommodateKelley's identificationof a new sort of ghettocentric Black culture. The clear irony of such an essentialistic
approachis that it is merely an inversion,a mirrorimage of those
culturally determinist "clash of civilizations" arguments that
would attemptto fix an Americanor Westerncultureanddefendit
from perceivedthreats.21
But beyond this, Kelley (1997) has more
that
essentialistic
visions of culture"reducetheir
recently argued
to
cardboard
subjects
typologies" and have explicitly served the
sort of social-scientific analyses that feed into the culture-ofpoverty argument:"Once culture is seen as a static, measurable
thing- behavior... it is not hardto cast blackpeople as pathologi-
cal" (pp. 17, 9-10). Although Kelley's sights are trainedon social
scientists and Black conservatives,Henderson'sapproachshows
thatprogressiveandeven radicalcriticscan slip almostimperceptibly into a dangerousposition,conflatingcultureandbehaviorin an
attemptto defendAfrocentricity.The dialecticaldevelopmentthat
we have seen in rapsubvertsKarenga'sandHenderson'stypology
of nationalism,nudgingit in a positivedirection,andit is no coincidence that dead prez's incorporationof the song "A.F.R.I.C.A."
into "I'm an African" seeks to fuse Afrocentricitywith ghettocentricityby replacingthe chantednames of Africancountriesin
the original with the names of diasporic communities- "Puerto
Rico, Haiti, and J.A., New York and Cali, F.L.A." (dead prez,
1999b). Moreover,dead prez has continuedto subvertfixed culturalcategories,as their most recent foray into the mixtape arena
has been their track "Hell Yeah,"in which Roc-a-fella rap entrepreneur Jay-Z delights in disproving those critics who would
counterposebusinessrapto Afrocentricpolitics,22shouting"Weon
the sametracknow,baby! Whatyou gonnacall us now?"(DJEnvy,
2004).
The significance of such a culturalfusion is hardto overstate:
Much as Marx recognized capitalismas a prerequisiteto revolutionarymobilization,so too is dead prez engaged in a process of
dialectical Hegelian Aufhebung, and taking advantage of the
gangsta-era aggregation of ghettoized Blacks- expressed most
clearly in descriptiveand violent rap (nominallythe antithesis of
political rap's thesis)- as a first step towardunificationand radicalization(synthesis).23Such a dialecticaldevelopmentis, at root,
a process of relentless self-criticism,of the type that Tate (1993)
demands and which Burger (1984) associates with the surging
efforts of all avant-gardeculturalmovements. Furthermore,one
could characterizeHenderson's difficulties as arising from an
overlyphilosophicallyidealist perspectivethatoften accompanies
Islamic rap (i.e., mind over matter,knowledge as a weapon)viewing Karenga'sthree culturalspheresas more or less isolated
and dictated by individual choice- and as such is particularly
susceptible to sliding into the culture-of-povertyposition.24The
gangsta imperativeis a more philosophically materialist one-
emphasizingthe realities of life in the ghetto and moreoverdemonstratingthe inconsistency of the Afrocentricposition. Our approach has been more flexible and anti-essentialistthan that of
Henderson,as the tacticaluse of the instrumentalaestheticframework of Brecht has allowed us to be more sensitive to didactic
approachesto mobilizationand, more important,to betterunderstandthe broaderdevelopmentof rap.This development,contrary
to Henderson,is not one of isolated spheresbut one that must be
characterizeddialectically if we are to simultaneouslyinfluence
the direction of hip-hop while maintainingan understandingof
actualhistoricalconditionsandrespectingthose who speaksubjectively fromwithin such a position. Lusane(1993) notes of gangsta
rapthat
the conflictedlivedexperiencesof rappersgive rise to theirconsciousnesswhichinturnformsthesubstance
of theircreativework.
Rap'spedagogy,liketheinitialstageof allpedagogiesof oppressed
andstrugglingfor copeople,emergesincomplete,contradictory,
herence,(p. 42)
The developmentthatI haveidentified,it is hoped,representsa less
contradictoryand more complete and coherentpedagogy for the
futureof political hip-hop.
In an interviewon the impactof the likes of dead prez, another
progenitor of political rap- KRS-One- suggests that hip-hop
developscyclically andthattoday'spoliticalartistswill give way to
another generation of less serious rap (in Thompson, 2002,
pp. 263-264), and it is perhapsnot surprisingthat Bertolt Brecht
consistently attackedthis dangerous"cyclical myth" that served
only to immobilizethe presentanddiscourageaction(Lunn, 1982,
p. 122). Withoutyielding to determinism,it is clear thatat least in
the case of hip-hop, there is some cause for hope that dialectical
developmenthas indeed been occurringand that subjectivedevelopmentswithinthe industryhavedrivenforwarddidacticpotential.
Insofaras aesthetic theories serve to illuminatewhat happenson
the ground,be it in the mainstreamhip-hop industryor on street
corners,we should embracethem. This is what we hope has been
achievedwith BertoltBrecht,whose theorieshavethe advantageof
being by naturedidacticandbroadlyinstrumentaland,as suchless,

prone to be misused in an appropriativemanner.But as with all
surgingsocial phenomena,we must allow contentto dictateform,
be it in the realmof academictheoriesor criticalmoralizingagainst
lumpenelements of our own society and culture.Those of us who
valuethepoliticalcontentof hip-hopneed to be constantlyawareof
the impact of our own academic work, and more important,we
must be self-reflexive regarding the situated perspective from
which we speak if we want to avoid the stifling of hip-hop:It is
the closest thing the world currently has to a "Black poem,"
and following Baraka (1973, p. 214), we must not attack it for
speaking. . .
"Silently
orLOUD."
NOTES
1. Here, I am interestedless in assertingmy interpretationof the context of sampling
thanwith demonstratingthatShusterman'sframeworkclouds the differentcontextsthatdo
indeed exist.
2. See the sharpresponseto suchpositionsofferedby RobinKelley ( 1997, pp. 37-42).
3. Many thanksto MartinJay for bringingto my attentionthis importantwork.
4. For a good, nonreductivediscussion of rap that also emphasizes feel, see Kelley
(1997, pp. 37-42).
5. 1hope thatthis is not perceivedto be runningafoul of Robin Kelley's (1997, pp. 3742) insights,as I am not reducingrapto politics butmerelyseeking an approachthat(unlike
ShustermanandBrennan)allows for a properunderstandingof those elementsof rapthatare
undeniablypolitical.
6. Lukacs'smoredistributiveviews, on the otherhand,when transposedinto the 1970s
evoke somethingmorelike AndyWarhol'sludicrouscommentthatCoca-Colais democratic
because it is availablein similarform to rich and poor alike.
7. Meghelli also emphasizesthe importanceof the Nationof Islam's "do-for-self' ideology in this trend,and althoughI agree with Kelley's (1997, pp. 79-91) worriesaboutthe
reactionaryelementsof Nationof Islampolicy, it also appearsthatdo-for-selfcan be potentially transformativeif it is radicallydivorcedfrom culture-of-povertyreasoning.
8. 1 am temptedto engage in a sustaineddiscussion of stylistic similaritiesbetween
mixtapesandBrecht,thatis, a discussionof the V-Ejfekt,butsuch a broaddiscussionwould
necessarilycome at the expenseof the elementsthatI feel aremorecrucial.It sufficesto note
here,first,thatthe basis of rapis such that"distancing"is often presentand,second,thatthis
is even more prominentin the mixtape, whose didacticalshock value is often higher and
whose low fidelity productionparallelsBrecht'saffinityfor anti-illusionistprops.
9. See specifically ChuckD's (1997, pp. 241-262) characterizationof gangstarapas a
"cry for help" and his defense of Reverend Calvin Butts and C. Delores Tucker.This
has been describedas
approachis not limitedto PublicEnemy,as KRS-One's"edutainment"
borderingon "pretentious"(Henderson,1996, p. 312).
10. Shomari(1995, p. 44) emphasizesthe workof Parisas a successful exampleof total
self-production,but often his critiquesdo not extendbeyondthe individualmembersof the
Bush family. As such, he clearly misses a fundamentalpoint of Brechtiandidacticsand in
doing so slides dangerouslyclose to conspiracytheory(see also Byrne, 2003, pp. 18-25). It
shouldbe notedthatthe accuracyof this articlehas been attackedby Parishimself. Regardless, recentresearchin the Black communityunderminesthe traditionalassociationof conspiracytheorywith political paralysis(Waters,1997, pp. 120-121).
11. But Lusane (1993) has also observed,credibly,albeit with referenceto the current
wave of post-civil rights leaders, that hip-hophas had more impact than all recent Black
political leaderscombined.
12. This pointseems to be overlookedby Kitwana(2002, p. 155). The authorattemptsto
maintainGeorge'sassessmentdespite explicit mentionof dead prez.
13. Such an approachis somewhatstrange,as it clearly maintainsthe quintessentially
modernistorganicismof the individualpiece. It is also demonstrablyfutile andcontradictory
as, in Brennan'spiece, his desirefor a taxonomyof rapgenresleadshim to fail: He characterizes the seminal5% Islamic/MaoistDigable Planetsas "CandyRap"alongsideKris Kross,
lumpsthe 5%notionof minds/wordsas weaponsas manifestedin the PoorRighteousTeachers as a "boast"andin fact is forcedto doublecategorizeindividualsongs such as one by Del
tha FunkeeHomosapienas both "prankster"
and as anticommercialization.Even if such a
frameworkwere useful- which is doubtful- it would still be far from coherent.
14. Althoughit has been objectedthatBrechtiandidacticsdependat least in parton content, this argumentfails on two levels. First,Brechtof all people would have been loath to
attachhis methodto a specific politics- it is aboutdialecticaleducationandsocietalcontradictionand,as such, certainlyleans towarda certainsortof politics (withinwhich deadprez
fit comfortably),but is not reducible to them. Second, a programmaticreductionismof
Brecht'stheorieswould precludeany comparisonwith an age as distantas the post-Soviet,
postindustrialpresent.
15. ChuckD's (1997, pp. 247-262) positionon gangstarapis slightlymorenuanced,but
he still insists on a full counterpositionbetweenthe latterand"positiverap,"andindeedit is
disturbingthat he devotes considerablespace to discussing the gang "problem"while neglecting to even discuss drugsand the drugwar.
16. Sucha positionputsChuckD closer to someonelike HenryLouis Gateswho, despite
identifyingstructuralimpedimentsto the agency of Black youths,paradoxicallyplaces the
futureof theraceon thecapacityof the latterto integrateintothe (mythical)Americandream.
See Grosfoguel (1999, p. 415) on the individualreductionismembodied in this founding
myth. Also on this subject,see the discussion of JamesBaldwin in Norwood(2002).
17. As fundamentalandwell documentedas this pointis, manyaretoo blinkeredto recognize it or refuse its political implications.See Cockburn(1989).
18. Forthose who woulddoubtthe prevalenceof prisonlabor,the profitmarginit allows,
or the exploitativenessit implies with relationto wage labor,it must be noted thatmanyof
America'slargestcorporations- from Starbucksto Nike- employ prisonlaborand sometimespay as little as one tenthof theirstandardfree-marketwage (Barnett,2002). Onthe role
CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIAN HIP-HOP 157
of the profitmotive in the Stalinistgulag, and hence the aptnessof the analogy,see Lewin
(1985).
19. Incidentally,a recentarticleon the film versionof TheSpookshedsadditionallighton
the strikingdegree to which even progressiveBlack intellectualsbuy into the American
dreammyth,as HenryLouis Gatesattemptsto framehis own workas a sortof fulfillmentof
Greenlee'svision: "Weall wantedto be insidethe system,integratedintothe historicallyelite
white institutionsof America, transformingthem from inside" (quotedin Nichols, 2004).
The irony- clearto anyonefamiliarwith the story- is thatGreenlee'sherouses knowledge
gained within the system to then get out and transformthe system from without.
20. Most studies use similardistinctions:Lusane(1993) emphasizesthe importanceof
gangstaand political rap (which togetherconstitute"hardcore");Brennan(1994) counterposes the gangsta to the preacher;Ogbar (1999) counterposesX-Clan to gangstas; and
"First Person" (2002) draws a distinction between the "Black capitalist spirit of selfdetermination"of Jay-Zandthe revolutionary"utopian,twenty-firstcenturyAfricanity"of
dead prez and Black Star,concludingthatboth are insufficient;the list could be extended.
21. SamuelHuntingtonis, of course,the undisputedchampionatperpetuatingsuchfallacies. See his attackon Islamic culture(Huntington,1996). More recently,the same author
(Huntington,2004) has takenaim at Latinoculture.
22. Jay-Zcould almost be respondingdirectlyto "FirstPerson"(2002), which drawsa
distinctionbetween the two artistsalong capitalist/revolutionary
lines.
23. A step that is implicitly recognized, albeit fatalistically,by KRS-One in Shomari
(1995, pp. 34-36).
24. It is hopedthatthe use of these terms{idealistandmaterialist),whose philosophical
connotationis completely distinctfrom theireverydayusage, will not be misleading.
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George Ciccariello Maker studiespolitical theoryat the Universityof California,

Berkeley.His interests include radical theory- especially autonomist, anarchocommunist,feminist, and existentialistphilosophies- non-Westernphilosophies,
colonialism and coloniality, and the contemporaryanticapitalist "movementof
movements."

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BRECHTIAN HIP-HOP

Didactics and Self-Production

Focusing on the shortcomings of existing aesthetic approachesto rap

In an article on the groundbreakingmilitant rap group Public

130 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

notion of a postmodernaestheticsand its applicabilityto actually

At the outset of his chapteron the subject, Shusterman(2000)

ventions which are common not only to modernismas an artistic

132 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 133

bettercharacterizedin otherways, and indeed the inclusion of the

134 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

Dadaist dramatistErwin Piscator,whose impact on Brecht could

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 135

verging in and aroundthe workof an individual,we cannotbe so

136 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

A multitudeof authorsgo to greatlengths to deny the political

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 137

betweenthe Black artsmovementandthe developmentof hip-hop

SELF-PRODUCTION AND DIDACTICS

138 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 139

tapes" (quoted in Boucher, 2003)- George's facile equation of

140 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

doctrine"(Gray, 1976, p. 43). But the overt didacticism of the

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 141

lyn, or even the early antipolice rhetoricof Compton's N.W.A.,

Aesthetically,we are in this passage remindedclearly of both a

142 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

identificationwith its realism to allow for the full integrationof

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 143

144 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

difficultyof the task.14Inhis 1930 play TheMeasuresTaken,Brecht

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 145

ourselvesover that,it's just the bottomof the barreltype of stupid15

The renunciationof the responsibility of poor, young Blacks is

Here, we see a clearrecognitionof the fact thatdespite ChuckD's

146 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

what is rationalwithin that context.17The sophisticationof dead

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 147

the White House is the [crack]rock house,

Moreover,the chargethatcapitalismbenefits from prison laboris

148 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

mer takes the form of a renunciationof political obligation and

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 149

This verse provides both a broadvision of what is consideredto

150 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

chainlinkedto yourbrotherlike in thehullof a slaveship,

Althoughthis dialecticaldevelopmentin hip-hopremainsa bit

152 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 153

154 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 155

being by naturedidacticandbroadlyinstrumentaland,as suchless,

156 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIAN HIP-HOP 157

158 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

CiccarielloMaher/ BRECHTIANHIP-HOP 159

Jones, M. (1994). Say it loud! Thestory of rap music. Brookfield,CT:Millbrook.

160 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ SEPTEMBER2005

George Ciccariello Maker studiespolitical theoryat the Universityof California,

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