The Big Payback I
Day and time: Thursday (March 19) · 10:30–12:00
Location: Job Lounge
Format: Talks
Project Noise: Queensbridge Public Houses, Neoliberalism & the Ascent of Hip-Hop America
Presented by: Jonathan Fenderson
This paper is an exploration of the communal and carceral soundscape of New York City public housing. Bringing together questions from typically unrelated fields, the project wrestles with the profound relationship between Hip-Hop, public housing, and neoliberal governance. It asks, how can we draw new understandings about urban life, governance, race, and class by interrogating the musical and artistic production emanating from residents in America's largest public housing complex, Queensbridge Houses. Moreover, how can we resist the urge to think of Hip-Hop’s legacy as a resource extracted from poor, working-class, Black and Latino communities, and instead re-imagine it as a public resource that refuses the contradictory internal logic of neoliberialism—held up by municipal divestment and economic austerity, on one hand, and investment in hyper-policing, on the other? It draws on historical archives, periodicals, visual media, interviews, and an amazing array of albums, songs and sonic production, in its effort to rethink the way scholars study Hip-Hop. Delving into the social fabric, built environment and State policies that shaped the sound, the work challenges scholars to think through the ways hip-hop is rooted in immediate local experiences, even as it has grown into a dominant global phenomenon. At the same time, the project maintains a sharp focus on quotidian tenant life while tracing a distinct and singular neighborhood tradition of musical creativity that spans Hip-Hop's 50 years; stretching from live DJs in the park in the 1970s to Nasir "Nas" Jones' 2021 Grammy award winning King's Disease
Constructing culture: Mediation of rap in Spain through the innovations of Teo Lucadamo and Bewish de la Rosa
Presented by: Irene de Blas Álvarez
Rap in Spain is a field full of contradictions in itself: a deterritorialized space. Its revolutionary character is accompanied by heteronormative imagery and capitalistic naturalisations. Empowering discourses are intermingled with sexist narratives. This never-ending dissonance is repeated and not properly discussed in Spanish historiographies (Reyes and El Chojín, 2010; Ricky Lavado, 2021; Nicolás Buckley and Jaime Valero, 2024). However, how can Spanish artists today articulate a discourse of resistance through rap in a world full of hate speech, fascism and new discriminatory impositions? How to navigate between appropriation, appreciation and cultural innovation in rap and Hip Hop culture? While there is no definitive answer, there are artists seeking new ways of knowing, creating and relating based on rhizomatic structures (Deleuze and Guattari, 1980) which transcend linear narratives and boundaries of musical genres.
This article explores the artistic directions of Teo Lucadamo and Bewish de la Rosa, two artists who engage with mental, social and ecological paradigms, cultural appropriation, rural territories, eco-fascism and the rise of neoliberalism. In order to find a common ground, they debate the simple fact of calling themselves rappers. To defeat the monsters, they innovate and create their own atmospheres, sounds, genres, and stylistic cuttings filled with irony, comedy and traditional rhythms.
