'The Power of Your Voice Could Redirect Every Truth': Rap as Resistant Discursive Practice

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Flakne, April

Keywords

Rap, Foucault, Cultural Studies, Discursive Practice

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

The content of this project is guided by this consideration: what tools can we use to understand the strategies of conscious rappers who discuss political issues in their lyrics? Accordingly, in this thesis we aim to investigate the extent to which conscious rap is engaging in a strategy of creating new discourses in order to resist dominant ideas about power in the United States, specifically examining parallels between the rhetorical tactics of rap artists and the idea of resistance proposed by Michel Foucault. Thus, I have chosen to analyze three rap songs that express ideas about power and resistance in order to examine possible affinities with Foucault's proposals. To this end, we will examine Foucault's and Marx's concepts of power and discursive resistance. Additionally, we will examine some of the historical connections between Marxist theory and Black Liberation movements, and then outline a brief history of rap, and describe the method of analysis. Finally, we will take up the analysis of the songs by dead prez, Saul Williams, and Immortal Technique. We will show that these songs take the form of resistant discourses in the spirit of Foucault. Ultimately, the fact that these tactics of resistance are expressed in rap songs represents an important part of the strategy; these songs have the potential to be extremely influential and to spread throughout the culture, communicating ideas about power and resistance to individuals at all levels of society.

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