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Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy
In this explosive book, Houston Baker takes stock of the current state of Black Studies in the university and outlines its responsibilities to the newest form of black urban expression—rap. A frank, polemical essay, Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy is an uninhibited defense of Black Studies and an extended commentary on the importance of rap. Written in the midst of the political correctness wars and in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, Baker's meditation on the academy and black urban expression has generated much controversy and comment from both ends of the political spectrum.
117 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Houston A. Baker Jr.
72 books22 followersHouston A. Baker is Distinguished University Professor and a professor of English at Vanderbilt University. He has been awarded fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities and has been a resident fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the National Humanities Center. He has served as president of the Modern Language Association and as editor of the journal American Literature.
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June 25, 2024
AN “ACADEMIC” ANALYSIS RAP WITHIN THE BLACK STUDIES FRAMEWORK
Houston Alfred Baker Jr. (born 1943) is Professor of English at Vanderbilt University; he served as president of the Modern Language Association, and editor of the journal ‘American Literature.’
He wrote in the Preface to this 1993 book. “The present essay is the result of a short-term visiting fellowship at Princeton University… My topic was the relationship between black urban influences and formation of Black Studies during the 1960s; I was concerned as well with the relationship of one contemporary form of black urban culture, namely rap music and poetry, to black academics. The guiding idea of my reflections was the coextensiveness of ‘inside’ and ‘out’ in the actual process of Black Studies’ founding. This idea was expanded to include the interrelations between the ‘outside’ expressive cultural energies of today’s black urban youth and contemporary scholars ‘inside’ the academy. If my understanding of contemporary cultural studies is correct, considerations of such inside/outside negotiations constitute part of that project’s work.” (Pg. ix)
He observes, “Black Studies scholarship grew and prospered, especially in history and literature. And new disciplinary initiatives provided dramatically reterritorialized spaces for black graduate students, faculty, and administrators who had not even dreamed of such academic entry during pre-Black Studies centuries. If today there are demonstrably fewer programs than, say, in 1973, there is still greater resilience and more abundant scholarly and personnel opportunities than ever before. If funding balances and shifts of ideological allegiances have diminished a REAL black studies, these factors have done little to diminish the spirited force of Black Studies as a simulacrum.” (Pg. 25)
He comments, “Applying [Professor Kimberle] Crenshaw’s intersectionality to the 2 Live Crew… is rather, I suspect, like deciding whether one is going to vote for George Bush as a man or woman, or as a WHITEPERSON. That is to say, by any standard that I can envision 2 Live Crew is bafflingly controversial for one reason only: media networks and ‘instant experts’ have made them so. I am not suggesting, of course, that 2 Live Crew’s productions in themselves are innocuous. But I do believe that the controversial might be reserved in this day and age for things that are unusual. And there is certainly nothing unusual about the persecution, arrest, and prosecution of black men within a psychosocial frameup of sexuality in America. So why do we need to make choices about whether 2 Live Cres’s misogynistic, violent, juvenile lyrics directed precisely against humanity (conceived, idealistically, as people who would live together in harmony) should be condemned?” (Pg. 71-72)
He concludes, “I believe rap is here to stay. Other forms such as ‘house’ and ‘hip-house’ and ‘rap reggae’ may spin off, but rap is now classical black sound. It is the ‘in effect’ archive where postmodernism have been dopely sampled for the international nineties. It is the job of Black Studies to provide an adequate hearing.” (Pg. 100)
He adds in the Afterword, “A new story of Black Studies is part of the mandatory academic work of rewriting, reversing, or forestalling---at least for the foreseeable future---what Blanchot calls the ‘catastrophe.’ It seems high time, then, for those of us who are inside to get seriously busy about the business of Black Studies for the nineties---to bust a move and rigorously bring the scholarly noise for a new generation.” (Pg. 103)
This book will interest those studying contemporary African-Culture from an ‘academic’ perspective.
Houston Alfred Baker Jr. (born 1943) is Professor of English at Vanderbilt University; he served as president of the Modern Language Association, and editor of the journal ‘American Literature.’
He wrote in the Preface to this 1993 book. “The present essay is the result of a short-term visiting fellowship at Princeton University… My topic was the relationship between black urban influences and formation of Black Studies during the 1960s; I was concerned as well with the relationship of one contemporary form of black urban culture, namely rap music and poetry, to black academics. The guiding idea of my reflections was the coextensiveness of ‘inside’ and ‘out’ in the actual process of Black Studies’ founding. This idea was expanded to include the interrelations between the ‘outside’ expressive cultural energies of today’s black urban youth and contemporary scholars ‘inside’ the academy. If my understanding of contemporary cultural studies is correct, considerations of such inside/outside negotiations constitute part of that project’s work.” (Pg. ix)
He observes, “Black Studies scholarship grew and prospered, especially in history and literature. And new disciplinary initiatives provided dramatically reterritorialized spaces for black graduate students, faculty, and administrators who had not even dreamed of such academic entry during pre-Black Studies centuries. If today there are demonstrably fewer programs than, say, in 1973, there is still greater resilience and more abundant scholarly and personnel opportunities than ever before. If funding balances and shifts of ideological allegiances have diminished a REAL black studies, these factors have done little to diminish the spirited force of Black Studies as a simulacrum.” (Pg. 25)
He comments, “Applying [Professor Kimberle] Crenshaw’s intersectionality to the 2 Live Crew… is rather, I suspect, like deciding whether one is going to vote for George Bush as a man or woman, or as a WHITEPERSON. That is to say, by any standard that I can envision 2 Live Crew is bafflingly controversial for one reason only: media networks and ‘instant experts’ have made them so. I am not suggesting, of course, that 2 Live Crew’s productions in themselves are innocuous. But I do believe that the controversial might be reserved in this day and age for things that are unusual. And there is certainly nothing unusual about the persecution, arrest, and prosecution of black men within a psychosocial frameup of sexuality in America. So why do we need to make choices about whether 2 Live Cres’s misogynistic, violent, juvenile lyrics directed precisely against humanity (conceived, idealistically, as people who would live together in harmony) should be condemned?” (Pg. 71-72)
He concludes, “I believe rap is here to stay. Other forms such as ‘house’ and ‘hip-house’ and ‘rap reggae’ may spin off, but rap is now classical black sound. It is the ‘in effect’ archive where postmodernism have been dopely sampled for the international nineties. It is the job of Black Studies to provide an adequate hearing.” (Pg. 100)
He adds in the Afterword, “A new story of Black Studies is part of the mandatory academic work of rewriting, reversing, or forestalling---at least for the foreseeable future---what Blanchot calls the ‘catastrophe.’ It seems high time, then, for those of us who are inside to get seriously busy about the business of Black Studies for the nineties---to bust a move and rigorously bring the scholarly noise for a new generation.” (Pg. 103)
This book will interest those studying contemporary African-Culture from an ‘academic’ perspective.
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