| This project employs a Black feminist approach to the study of critical political economy to explore contemporary power relations among entertainment industries that produce, market and distribute rap music and an urban sensibility that influences popular culture in the United States. Rap music videos are a site of racial and gender formation that upholds prevailing heteronormative ideologies of Black masculinity that has not be investigated in relation to the process of creating images in hip hop via lyrical content, music videos, and corporate control. Qualitative interviews, music industry research data, consumer market research, research literature and popular sources were used to explore indicators of commercialization, and to outline the significant years for rap in mainstream radio and music video television, and to historicize the commercialization of rap music and explain how the expansion of hip hop into mainstream American culture is based in ideologies of race, gender and sexuality that inform the reproduction of images. Literature from in the areas of political economy, cultural studies, masculinity studies, Black feminism, critical social theory and women's studies are used to examine the link between the organizational structure of the music industry, ideologies of Black masculinities, and the cultural production of racialized and gendered images in rap music videos. This study concluded that, for rappers, their roles as entertainers, resulting in part from the commercial success of this genre of music, is mediated through the political economy of the music industry. This suggests a conscious realization of image control, and signifies a possible disconnect between the staged persona of the rapper and his or her real identity (going against the traditional 'keeping it real' mantra of hip hop culture). |
