Conference Agenda

Eminem’s imitative and immersive approach to hip-hop and Blackness for his debut album Infinite (1996) had failed. The commercial and critical success of Eminem’s next album, The Slim Shady LP (1999), was partially due to his open confrontation with his white identity through mockery and parody of common tropes and stereotypes of whiteness (Kajikawa, 2009). But this adopted farcical persona is only half of his Sock and Buskin image; the other half features manic and unpredictably violent tendencies inspired by fellow white Detroit hip-hop duo, Insane Clown Posse (ICP). Hip-hop scholars (e.g., Gholz, 2010) have long noted Eminem’s proclivity for disturbing rhetoric, but none have discussed terror as a vital component in his artistic negotiation of whiteness. In this paper, I explore the dynamics of whiteness in hardcore rap that provided the necessary social conditions and stylistic blueprint for Eminem’s meteoric rise.

Incorporating methodologies from critical race studies, musicology, and music theory, I build upon Kajikawa’s theoretical framework to argue that it was the lacing of comical absurdity with the horrorcore model of excessive violence, provided by ICP, that was crucial to Eminem’s monumental success. I label this common persona the crazy white boy, a crude, obnoxious, and in-your-face character that emerged sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Not defined by socio-economic status or location, the crazy white boy features manic unpredictability frequently combined with destruction and violence. For Eminem, the crazy white boy broke a code for what it meant to be hardcore as a white rapper amidst hip-hop’s gangsta ethos. White craziness became a substitute for Black “hardness.”

Beyond illuminating the history of Detroit hip-hop, I argue that violence was a prominent socio-cultural marker of whiteness for musicians in the 1990s. Still, white rappers necessitated a balance between morbidity and comedy to present an authentic self to a hip-hop audience—Eminem’s comedic front only provided the context for his psychotic turn. This research offers an additional layer of complexity to those situations when the presence of whiteness emerges in historically Black genres.

This paper explores the fusion of Southern hip-hop and Japanese popular music in Megan Thee Stallion’s Megan (2024), drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Paul Gilroy (1993) and Yayoi Everett (2021). Gilroy’s concept of the Black Atlantic emphasizes how diasporic identities are shaped by transnational cultural exchanges, challenging fixed notions of race and nation. Everett challenges the East-West binarism that reinforces orientalism and marginalization, emphasizing more nuanced readings of musical interculturalism. We put forth a reading and hearing of Megan (2024) that emphasizes globalism, multiplicity, and interculturalism in hip-hop and Japanese culture. Through this interconnectedness and betweenness, Megan constructs an authentic and empowering narrative in her identity. Through analyses of the music, lyrics, and the music video, we argue that Megan (2024) offers a dynamic, fluid approach to identity construction that transcends boundaries and speaks to the complexities of empowerment, transformation, and global interconnectedness in both Japanese and African-American culture (McKevitt 2010, Gipson 2019).

An example of this hybridity can be observed in “Mamushi” (viper). Megan Thee Stallion uses both literal and symbolic representations of snakes—figures linked to danger, seduction, and power in various cultures—to amplify her themes of empowerment and dominance. By embracing this motif, Megan asserts control over her narrative and aligns herself with the mystique and strength traditionally associated with snakes. The track evokes Japanese folk music while the video quotes Japanese folklore (Kiyohime) and Noh play (Dōjōji). Similarly, "BOA" draws from Japanese anime culture, its visuals evoke a high-energy, surreal, cinematic, and dynamic storytelling that borrows from Japanese anime, symbolizing identity transformation and female empowerment (Hemmann 2014). By incorporating these references, Megan signals her own fluidity in self-representation and identity construction, embracing and fusing diverse cultural elements into her art.

This paper concludes that Megan (2024) constructs identity through the hybrid construction of her racial and cultural identity, following the recent emergence of Japanese popular culture in hip-hop (McCleod 2013). Megan (2024) integrates textual, visual, and symbolic elements that purposefully align with the album’s themes of transformation and rebirth, expanding the possibilities of Black identity in a transnational context and redefining global representations of Blackness.

In a 2019 release titled “Sounds of the Skeng”, British-Ghanaian rap artist Stormzy took direct aim at the relationship between British and American rap, scornfully decrying that “You man just love beggin’ it too much, you man love the Americans too much”. His use of British slang in the song’s title (skeng being London slang for gun) further entrenches this work in a confusing duality: being both entirely about, and desperately attempting to disaffiliate from, America – or in this case, the “American” rappers by whom Stormzy believes his fellow artists are “too” enamoured. In attempting to capitalise on Britishness - as antithesis to Americanness - as a unique selling point within their music, Black-British rappers find themselves stuck in aural, linguistic, and ideological binds.

Artists such as West London rapper Central Cee attempt to reimagine aural ties with American hip-hop, interpolating and sampling classic R&B and hip-hop riffs amidst a blur of MLE, or Multicultural London English, a sociolect native to the British capital. Others, such as politically conscious rapper Dave, collaborate with American rappers on distinctly British terms, with Dave inviting artist Jack Harlow to film a music video in which the pair pose in the English countryside and against the London skyline. This paper will explore the liminality of America in Black-British rap: from the historical influence American hip-hop has wielded on UK rap across the Black Atlantic, to the upswell of Black-British nationalism, and the subsequent distancing Black-British rappers have undertaken to distinguish themselves as an independent cultural entity.

Drawing on the works of Paul Gilroy, Aniefiok Ekpodoum, and Dan Hancox, I ultimately argue for a renegotiation of the relationship between Black-British and African-American rap and hip-hop. I characterise key aural, visual and linguistic tenets of the Black-British rap identity, and in doing so invert typical analyses of Black-British rap in relation to its American counterpart. Rather than questioning the way in which American hip-hop inspires Black-British efforts in the same genre, I provide a lens through which it can be asked: what are contemporary American rap artists now taking from the UK?