Uploaded June 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
“Now tell us who the terrorist is”: British-Arab Identity Politics in UK Hip-hop
Justin A. Williams - University of Bristol
Email: Justin.williams@bristol.ac.uk
/// ABSTRACT
Given hip-hop’s African American origins and associations with “blackness,” it seems unsurprising that hip-hop studies has focused on figures and theories belonging to the “Black Atlantic” (Gilroy 2002) to frame hip-hop in the UK and in Europe (Rollefson 2017). And yet, several youth cultures beyond Black culture employ the language of hip-hop to express their diasporic hybrid identities in the UK, negotiating aspects of ethnically-defined national belonging vis-a-vis what Modood and Salt (2011) call the “tacit whiteness” of British identity.
This paper focuses on rappers such as the Palestinian-British “First Lady of Arabic Hip-hop” Shadia Mansour and Iraqi-British rapper Lowkey. I discuss the ways in which their Middle Eastern Diasporic identity acts as a “third space” (Bhabha 1994) context for wider political critiques, with lyrics frequently discussing war, terrorism and post-Imperial power relations in the Middle East. Given Britain’s role in “mandatory Palestine,” Iran, Iraq and other Arab nations after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Arab-British rappers engage forcefully with the UK’s colonial and neocolonial politics. An analysis of selected tracks and music videos including Mansour’s “The Kuffiyah is Arab” and Lowkey’s “Cradle of Civilization” shows the relationship between these complex identities. Amidst the critical engagement with the macrocosm of war and the microcosm of their own displacements, these examples reveal sentiments on politics and belonging in postcolonial Britain that are individually unique yet diasporically related in a “family of resemblances” (Lipsitz 1994; Hill 2007) via hip-hop’s cultural citizenship.
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
“Now tell us who the terrorist is”: British-Arab Identity Politics in UK Hip-hop
Justin A. Williams - University of Bristol
Email: Justin.williams@bristol.ac.uk
/// ABSTRACT
Given hip-hop’s African American origins and associations with “blackness,” it seems unsurprising that hip-hop studies has focused on figures and theories belonging to the “Black Atlantic” (Gilroy 2002) to frame hip-hop in the UK and in Europe (Rollefson 2017). And yet, several youth cultures beyond Black culture employ the language of hip-hop to express their diasporic hybrid identities in the UK, negotiating aspects of ethnically-defined national belonging vis-a-vis what Modood and Salt (2011) call the “tacit whiteness” of British identity.
This paper focuses on rappers such as the Palestinian-British “First Lady of Arabic Hip-hop” Shadia Mansour and Iraqi-British rapper Lowkey. I discuss the ways in which their Middle Eastern Diasporic identity acts as a “third space” (Bhabha 1994) context for wider political critiques, with lyrics frequently discussing war, terrorism and post-Imperial power relations in the Middle East. Given Britain’s role in “mandatory Palestine,” Iran, Iraq and other Arab nations after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Arab-British rappers engage forcefully with the UK’s colonial and neocolonial politics. An analysis of selected tracks and music videos including Mansour’s “The Kuffiyah is Arab” and Lowkey’s “Cradle of Civilization” shows the relationship between these complex identities. Amidst the critical engagement with the macrocosm of war and the microcosm of their own displacements, these examples reveal sentiments on politics and belonging in postcolonial Britain that are individually unique yet diasporically related in a “family of resemblances” (Lipsitz 1994; Hill 2007) via hip-hop’s cultural citizenship.
