Rap music, philosophy, and the academy : redefining discourses in Medellin
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Rap music as it exists in Medellin, Colombia is a complex and complete expression of life in the city and, consequently, has the scholarly potential to be incorporated into the university curriculum. As a musician from Medellin myself, I evaluate this music with consideration of the biases of the academy where I was trained, as I believe such institutions must actively and honestly engage in conversation about rap's role in the city's musical context. Through this effort, I aim to challenge the implicit connotations associated with labeling rap as merely "popular" music. Two sources particularly useful in this endeavor were The Cambridge Companion to Hip-hop, an interdisciplinary collection of essays whose authors analyze in depth the four elements of the movement: MC'ing, DJ'ing, break dancing (or breakin'), and graffiti, and philosopher and cultural critic Julius Bailey's Philosophy and HipHop: Ruminations on Postmodern Cultural Form in which the author reveals the levels of philosophical meaning in the textual and graphic elements of hip-hop. To achieve the aim of this thesis, I investigate the rapper's attempts themselves to challenge the popular association of their work with popular music by analyzing multiple lyrics by Alcolirykoz, Ultrajala, Laberinto ELC, and Crudo Means Raw. I direct special attention to Vestigios de la Peste, the group whose members I interviewed personally and whose work provides the main body of evidence for this study. I also examine local "conversations" between hip-hop culture and the Western musical canon as exhibited through combining Western orchestration with performances of Alcolirykoz's rap songs. The results of this study reveal that rap in Medellin represents not only the worldview of its creators through the lens of neighborhood life but is grounded in the unique philosophy presented in its lyrics through which a sincere plea for understanding, acceptance, and change is expressed. Consequently, the genre's contributions to social identity, its performance as a philosophical practice, and the artistic objectives in common with the Western canon, make it viable as a topic of scholarly work and allow for its successful inclusion in Medellin's college classrooms.
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M.A.