Introduction

Abstract

To what extent and how does independent hip-hop challenge or reproduce US mainstream hip-hop culture and US culture more generally? This chapter attempts to address this age-old question. The author also reviews the history and literature on hip-hop culture, provides an overview of the underlying theory and methodology, and gives an outline of the remaining chapters. His research combines neo-Marxist, critical race, intersectional feminist, and queer theories, as well as Mansbridge and Morris' (Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2001) concept of oppositional consciousness. The research design utilizes a mixed methods approach, which includes content analysis of twenty-five indie albums from 2000 to 2013 and interviews with forty-six members of the independent hip-hop community, to uncover the historical trajectory of independent hip-hop in the post-golden era and how it has affected the culture today. Keywords Independent hip-hop • Mainstream hip-hop • Post-golden era • Race and class • Gender and sexuality • Oppositional consciousness Hip-hop, or the cultural movement that developed during the late 1970s, and hip-hop music (aka rap music), or the aspect of hip-hop that focuses on the musical style where rhyming speech is done to the beat of CHAPTER 1 Introduction