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Abstract

This project contains an ethnographic and interview-based study of White rappers in Chicago. The research was fueled by a single question: How do White rappers create and maintain authenticity when they are clearly inauthentic by the standards of hip-hop? Though the term authenticity is used often in sociology and other literatures, the author seeks to unpack this mechanism in search of the specific social processes at work. The author begins with a brief account of his methods and then moves to a literature review that includes a broad study of culture and identity; an ethnographic account of White rappers in the United Kingdom; studies of authenticity in the country, punk, blues, and rap music scenes; and an examination of linguistic and rhetorical devices used by rappers. The body of the article explores several aspects of culture: how the rappers in the study learned how to rap, an examination of two cultural objects (live performance and recorded music), and an exploration of two broad categories of rappers, described as backpackers and gangstas. Throughout the article, the author focuses on areas where the current literature does not match up with his own research in hopes of nudging these theories in new directions.

Keywords

Hip hop culture race ethnicity identity

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Backpackers and Gangstas: Chicago’s White Rappers Strive for Authenticity

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