Review of Christopher Dennis, "Afro-­‐Colombian Hip-­‐Hop: Globalization, Transcultural Music, and Ethnic Identities."

María Elena Cepeda

doi:10.5070/d81128586

Abstract

Reviews Christopher Dennis. Afro-‐Colombian Hip-‐Hop: Globalization, Transcultural Music, and Ethnic Identities. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012. 181 pp. ISBN: 978-‐0-‐7391-‐5056-‐6 MARIA ELENA CEPEDA Williams College In recent years Colombia has emerged as the topic of a small but significant corpus of scholarly monographs dedicated to its vibrant popular musical production in relationship to questions of ethno-‐racial identity, gender, globalization, transnationalism, memory, and nationhood. While the majority of this research has concerned itself with so-‐called “ethnic” genres such as salsa, vallenato, and cumbia, Christopher Dennis instead offers readers a highly descriptive introduction to Afro-‐Colombian hip-‐hop, an expressive form overwhelmingly associated with African American urban youth. Lucidly composed in a manner largely unburdened by specialist jargon and heavy theorization, Dennis’ book is suitable for academics and lay readers alike, but should be of particular interest to Colombianists and students of Afro-‐diasporic cultural production. Combining on-‐site interviews and data gathered during informal interactions with Afro-‐Colombian hip-‐hop performers with various scholarly sources and lyrical examples, he effectively deals with the lack of appropriate published material facing most scholars of contemporary Colombian popular culture. (Interestingly, as the author reveals, even the very label “Afro-‐Colombian hip-‐hop” is something of a recent terminological novelty; Colombians tend to simply refer to the music as “hip-‐hop” or “Colombian hip-‐hop,” echoing the often ambivalent location of ethno-‐racial identity within the genre itself). Arguing that hip-‐hop constitutes a fertile example of the multiple impacts of globalization, Dennis employs the genre as a lens onto the unique challenges provoked by socio-‐cultural and economic change within the local context. A discussion of the multiple ways in which U.S.-‐centric hip-‐hop simultaneously impacts Afro-‐Colombian socio-‐political concerns as well as engenders new forms of hybrid cultural expression in fact forms the nucleus of the study. While a critique of globalization thematically unites the book as a whole, its early chapters are also devoted to an elementary overview of hip-‐hop's introduction to Colombian popular culture, with particular emphasis on the structural factors undergirding its integration into local musical networks. Dennis dedicates considerable effort in later chapters to delineating the symbolic and material uses of Afro-‐Colombian hip-‐hop, characterizing it as a skillful form of socio-‐political commentary regarding the Afro-‐Colombian community, a means of articulating Afro-‐Colombian difference and pride in the interest of self-‐preservation, and a vehicle for expressing a uniquely Colombian form of blackness. Many of the arguments offered throughout are supported by lengthy lyrical examples that comprise a valuable written archive of current Afro-‐Colombian cultural production in some instances not available elsewhere. Afro-‐Colombian Hip-‐Hop’s focus on urban Afro-‐Colombian culture offers a necessary alternative perspective on an understudied community so often framed as disconnected from modernity and treated instead as a static relic of rural folklore within academic and public discourse alike. Building on Peter Wade's foundational critique of the ideological role of mestizaje in Colombian popular music, Dennis also contributes to a more detailed understanding of Colombia’s 1991 constitution and the impacts that its problematic attempts at re-‐imagining a multicultural nation vis a vis black and indigenous subjects have wielded on Afro-‐

Highlights

In recent years Colombia has emerged as the topic of a small but significant corpus of scholarly monographs dedicated to its vibrant popular musical production in relationship to questions of ethno-‐racial identity, gender, globalization, transnationalism, memory, and nationhood
While the majority of this research has concerned itself with so-‐called “ethnic” genres such as salsa, vallenato, and cumbia, Christopher Dennis instead offers readers a highly descriptive introduction to Afro-‐Colombian hip-‐hop, an expressive form overwhelmingly associated with African American urban youth
Combining on-‐site interviews and data gathered during informal interactions with Afro-‐Colombian hip-‐hop performers with various scholarly sources and lyrical examples, he effectively deals with the lack of appropriate published material facing most scholars of contemporary Colombian popular culture. (Interestingly, as the author reveals, even the very label “Afro-‐Colombian hip-‐hop” is something of a recent terminological novelty; Colombians tend to refer to the music as “hip-‐hop” or “Colombian hip-‐hop,” echoing the often ambivalent location of ethno-‐racial identity within the genre itself)

Summary

Introduction

In recent years Colombia has emerged as the topic of a small but significant corpus of scholarly monographs dedicated to its vibrant popular musical production in relationship to questions of ethno-‐racial identity, gender, globalization, transnationalism, memory, and nationhood. Title Review of Christopher Dennis, "Afro-‐Colombian Hip-‐Hop: Globalization, Transcultural Music, and Ethnic Identities." Afro-‐Colombian Hip-‐Hop: Globalization, Transcultural Music, and Ethnic Identities.

Results

Conclusion