Spinning Records: How Hip-Hop is Used in the Tucson Community

Abstract

The phenomenon of hip-hop began as a local musical practice in New York in the 1970s and from that local practice developed into a formally recognized musical genre, and furthermore, into a viable and distinct culture – a way of life – in its own right. Hip-hop has expanded its formerly narrowly-defined demographics and indoctrinated a broad cultural diversity of contributing artists to become a truly global musical and cultural phenomenon. Hip-hop culture is signaled, enacted, and expressed fundamentally through rapping, deejaying, graffiti, and dance. It was designed to accommodate and support dual identities for its practitioners, through both an acquired identity of affiliation within hip-hop and an identity of affiliation within the locale in which they develop and operate. The members of the Tucson, AZ hip-hop community, the subjects of this study, claim that what defines Tucson’s hip-hop is not how it sounds, but how it is used within the local hip-hop community as well as within the greater Tucson community. This study examines the relationships, symmetrical and asymmetrical, that exist between hip-hop and Tucson. Furthermore, I demonstrate how hip-hop deejays in Tucson serve a pivotal role in connecting the local hip-hop community to the greater Tucson community. Their idea of a hip-hop identity is fluid; therefore, through adaptable performance practice, they can achieve different aims at different times to satisfy different target audiences. Ultimately, what is most vital to their success, and by extension that of the hip-hop community in Tucson, in general, are their multipronged efforts to establish and maintain a strong sense of community through education, collaboration, and support of their fellow artists.