Polynesian Youth Hip Hop: Intersubjectivity and Australia's Multicultural Audience

Abstract

Australia's multicultural demographics are reflected in its communal hip hop scene. Artists and audiences are drawn from various cultural backgrounds, establishing hip hop culture as a space marked by everyday multiculturalism. This article explores hip hop as a contact space in which the intersubjectivity of creative performances negotiates new identity performances. Focusing on case studies of Polynesian youth hip hop in Sydney and Melbourne, this article explores the intersubjective sphere of artists and audience and the creativity they generate. This will be exemplified through the Polynesian hip hop artists 6Pound, Australia's first hip hop choir MASSIVE and the Big Noiz Krew at the Got Swag event. The case studies discussed illuminate hip hop as a community of practice in which creative interaction generates shared knowledge. Drawing on hip hop's principle of ‘keeping it real’, Australia's communal hip hop scene will be discussed as a contemporary multicultural sphere in which changes in identity and collective knowledge are performed. Based on Australia's Polynesian youth hip hop, it is argued that in the context of everyday multiculturalism intersubjective hip hop performances negotiate individual and collective identifications that establish local belonging.