Hip-hop culture is more than just music or clothing. It has certain expectations and rules that must be followed by its members. Those rules are founded in a shared lived experience and tend to reflect the social climate of the communities in which hip-hop has its origins. As a result, those who don’t share this lifestyle and are not affected by larger social structures in the same way are unable to fully relate to the incidents recounted in hip-hop music, portrayed in graffiti, conveyed by spoken word artists. The motivation for maintaining this stringent adherence to these rules involves a claim of authenticity, financial gain, and an overall improved quality of life.
Hip-hop can be viewed in terms of Bourdieu’s concept of a field. It exhibits his characteristics of such. The rules of hip-hop culture have changed some over the years but rules do remain in place. It is possible that the rules have changed to reflect the changing demographic of hip-hop culture’s audience. For many years, the boundaries of hip-hop extended to include non-whites, particularly black, Latino and West Indian youth. As the audience has changed, the topics addressed in hip-hop music have also undergone significant change. The artistic expressions laced with social commentary were also a means to make money. Those first hip-hop pioneers entered contests and had battles (non-violent lyrical, dance, or tagging) to convert their talents into “economic capital.” From its inception, deejays and mc’s, break dancers, graffiti artists all sought recognition and respect from their peers, also known as “street cred.” In the words of De La Soul, “the stakes is high.” The impoverished, disenfranchised communities where hip-hop culture took shape were places to be escaped. So, these youth that were integral to the formation of a culture that exemplified the shared experiences of their communities, raged against the external structures that informed their lives.
In come artists like Vanilla Ice. Prior to his commercial success with the song Ice, Ice Baby, Vanilla Ice was performing in the underground hip-hop scene to predominantly black audiences. As a result, he built up a level of “street cred” that allowed him access in a mostly black hip-hop scene. Once he faced the option to crossover into the pop market, his capital did not transfer. “When one speaks of specific capital, this means to say that this capital is effective in relation to a particular field, and therefore within the limits of that field, and that it is only convertible into another kind of capital on certain conditions” (Bourdieu, 73). He lost his audience base, became a gimmick artist and then faded into music oblivion. In his case, there wasn’t a need for the capital that he had acquired in the hip-hop scene causing his subsequent crossover into pop music to ostracize his former fans. As Ice-T points out in the video clip, if he had just played by the classic hip-hop rule of “keeping it real,” presented himself as himself, he might have survived as an artist.
Hip-hop can be viewed in terms of Bourdieu’s concept of a field. It exhibits his characteristics of such. The rules of hip-hop culture have changed some over the years but rules do remain in place. It is possible that the rules have changed to reflect the changing demographic of hip-hop culture’s audience. For many years, the boundaries of hip-hop extended to include non-whites, particularly black, Latino and West Indian youth. As the audience has changed, the topics addressed in hip-hop music have also undergone significant change. The artistic expressions laced with social commentary were also a means to make money. Those first hip-hop pioneers entered contests and had battles (non-violent lyrical, dance, or tagging) to convert their talents into “economic capital.” From its inception, deejays and mc’s, break dancers, graffiti artists all sought recognition and respect from their peers, also known as “street cred.” In the words of De La Soul, “the stakes is high.” The impoverished, disenfranchised communities where hip-hop culture took shape were places to be escaped. So, these youth that were integral to the formation of a culture that exemplified the shared experiences of their communities, raged against the external structures that informed their lives.
In come artists like Vanilla Ice. Prior to his commercial success with the song Ice, Ice Baby, Vanilla Ice was performing in the underground hip-hop scene to predominantly black audiences. As a result, he built up a level of “street cred” that allowed him access in a mostly black hip-hop scene. Once he faced the option to crossover into the pop market, his capital did not transfer. “When one speaks of specific capital, this means to say that this capital is effective in relation to a particular field, and therefore within the limits of that field, and that it is only convertible into another kind of capital on certain conditions” (Bourdieu, 73). He lost his audience base, became a gimmick artist and then faded into music oblivion. In his case, there wasn’t a need for the capital that he had acquired in the hip-hop scene causing his subsequent crossover into pop music to ostracize his former fans. As Ice-T points out in the video clip, if he had just played by the classic hip-hop rule of “keeping it real,” presented himself as himself, he might have survived as an artist.