'That crack in the concrete': Hip-hop, politics and the archive in Black urban video culture, 1989--2004

The aim of my project is to open up hip-hop to a wider discussion of contemporary Black, radical politics. In so doing, I shift the exclusive focus away from the culture's aesthetics, which tends to occlude the political aspects of hip-hop. I examine the historical and cultural implications of "the real" and representation for Black American subjects and the influence of these implications on hip-hop cultural participants. I argue that video media at large, including music videos, video art, Internet and news video, and other forms, presents a model for democratic representation that hiphop culture has failed to acknowledge or enact.;In addition, the work also includes an archive of 35 original videos (available upon request from the author). The dissertation uses the medium of video to explore its operations as a commercial, artistic and political tool within hip-hop culture. Because hip-hop has not critiqued its own lack of diversity with respect to its masculine voice and unfocused political commitments, my project seeks to demonstrate that archiving hip-hop video culture could allow for this much needed, self-reflexive study of hip-hop politics. This archival project solidifies hip-hop's significance as a critical lens for interpreting black contemporary politics in general.;My dissertation project is interdisciplinary in both content and method, located of the intersections of Media Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Africana Studies and Fine Arts. It breaks new ground by seeking to highlight the voices of Black and Latina women working within the field of hip-hop scholarship and documentary film, even as its parameters extend beyond the boundaries of gender discourse.