Years ago, when I interviewed for a job at Amoeba Music’s San Francisco store, a manager explained that one issue with people claiming musical expertise in hip hop is that they tend to know only about hip hop and no other genres. This might sound like a dubious mischaracterization since hip hop’s musical compositions have historically been predicated on the knowledge and sampling of previously released songs. Where the genre’s foundations may be rooted in soul and funk (e.g. James Brown and Parliament Funkadelic), many of its most celebrated beat makers have broken boundaries with regard to source material, techniques, and imagination. Nevertheless, over a lifetime of movement in and out of hip-hop corridors, I have witnessed a level of truth to the store manager’s claim and, at times, would even count myself among the (semi-)siloed.
It is with this paradox in mind that I consider the expansive contributions of...
University of California Press