@article{ref1,
title="Hip-hop, gangs, and the criminalization of African American culture: a critical appraisal of Yes Yes Y'all",
journal="Journal of Black studies",
year="2019",
author="Aprahamian, Serouj",
volume="50",
number="3",
pages="298-315",
abstract="It is commonly assumed that hip-hop was born when street gangs in the Bronx, New York, channeled their energy from violence and crime to music and artistic expression. I critically interrogate this dominant narrative through an examination of the influential book Yes Yes Y'all: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop's First Decade (hereafter &quot;YYY&quot;). Drawing from the original interview transcripts used for YYY, I compare the gang-origin narrative espoused in the book with the primary accounts of early hip-hop practitioners featured within it. Special attention is given to the divergences between the two sources, demonstrating how the claim that hip-hop came from gangs is unsubstantiated by relevant interviewee accounts. I discuss how the prevalence of this false narrative in studies of hip-hop history overall is part of a broader historic pattern of associating working class African American culture with criminality.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0021-9347",
doi="10.1177/0021934719833396",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021934719833396"
}