Critical Hiphopography in Streetdance Communities (Hard Love Part 2)

Abstract

Based on in-depth interviews conducted with several women ethnographers of Hip Hop dances, this chapter explores experiences of critical hiphopography—a method that combines multiple grounded approaches through the social imperatives of Hip Hop culture and critical research strategies. The interview content touches on three themes: Hip Hop’s show and prove ethos, the complications of researching in community, and the impact of academic institutional power on research. The chapter emphasizes the challenges of doing hiphopography and explores how folks have attempted to work through them. It argues that critical hiphopography in practice provides research strategies that center community, are attentive to power, and disrupt academic conventions.

The First Time I Heard: Black Feminist Approaches to Hip Hop Methodologies

“…For example, the invention of Hiphopography, first coined by James Spady, seeks to "combine the methods of ethnography, biography, and social and oral history" (Alim, 2006, p. 969). Spady argues that hierarchical divisions between the "researcher" and the "researched" should be purposely kept to a minimum when engaging with Hip Hop because the aesthetics, the values, the use of language, and the modes of interaction are so deeply personal (Johnson, 2022). Drawing from D. Soyini Madison's (2005) work on critical ethnography, Spady contends that Hiphopography should be a "self-reflective ethnographic approach" (Johnson, 2022), one that holds in view an autobiographic impulse at the intersections of history and culture.…”

“…For example, the invention of Hiphopography, first coined by James Spady, seeks to “combine the methods of ethnography, biography, and social and oral history” (Alim, 2006, p. 969). Spady argues that hierarchical divisions between the “researcher” and the “researched” should be purposely kept to a minimum when engaging with Hip Hop because the aesthetics, the values, the use of language, and the modes of interaction are so deeply personal (Johnson, 2022). Drawing from D.…”

“…Drawing from D. Soyini Madison’s (2005) work on critical ethnography, Spady contends that Hiphopography should be a “self-reflective ethnographic approach” (Johnson, 2022), one that holds in view an autobiographic impulse at the intersections of history and culture. It is not just about interviews and fieldwork.…”