From the Rotten Apple to the State of Empire: Neoliberalism, Hip Hop, and New York City’s Crisis

Abstract

This article analyzes representations of hip hop culture alongside of the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis to reflect how responses to the crisis transformed the city once heavily invested in public resources into a model of neoliberal success. The article highlights how hip hop becomes a focal point of urban racial and class crisis through media representation, which helped mask the urban landscape’s neoliberal transformation. It also argues that hip hop culture arises from the particular context of the neoliberalism and, because of this, hip hop critically reflects upon this context and represents it.