Type of Document	Master's Thesis
Author	Wicks, Amanda Stacy
URN	etd-09182018-092547
Title	Hip-Hop and the Dilution of Resistance in the Mainstream
Degree	Master of Arts
Department	English
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Ben Tran Committee Member Vera Kutzinski Committee Member
Keywords	popular culture rap Kendrick Lamar Hip hop
Date of Defense	2018-12-15
Availability	restricted
Abstract Hip-Hop music has undergone a major transition from its inception in the late 1970s to the 21st-century. The genre shifted from being an underground counter-culture, to being at the center of the mainstream. This transition has spawned dueling schools of thought amongst scholars regarding the current state of Hip-Hop. One school of thought is predicated upon a desire for Hip-Hop to return to its origins of consciously speaking truth and engendering real-life political and social change. The other school of thought basks in Hip-Hop’s mainstream success and acknowledges that there are Hip-Hop artists who still present real, conscious messages. Intervening in the ongoing debate about Hip-Hop’s status, I offer a more nuanced approach that problematizes both schools of thought by examining the inevitabilities of mainstream success. Pointing to the work of Kendrick Lamar as an example, I probe the tension between resistance and mainstream consumption in an effort to reveal the reality of Hip-Hop’s fate. When met with mass-consumption, the power of socially and politically engaged messages is ineluctably diluted rendering Hip-Hop’s position in the mainstream much more complex than what has been previously explored.
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