Producing The Cause: Branded Social Justice, Hip-Hop and the Promotional Public Sphere
Open Access
- Author:
- Kumanyika, Chenjerai
- Graduate Program:
- Mass Communications
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 06, 2013
- Committee Members:
- Matthew Paul Mcallister, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Charles Elavsky, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Matthew Frank Jordan, Committee Member
Nicole Sheree Webster, Special Member - Keywords:
- Branding
Popular Cultural
Activism
Cultural Industries
Hip-Hop
Social Movements
Cultural Studies
Social Media - Abstract:
- Many contemporary forms of culturally based civic engagement—including what might be called “hip-hop” activism—blur the lines between entertainment, activism, and corporate efforts. Such civic and cultural activities prompt several questions: What constitutes effectual communicative action in the contemporary public sphere? What are the limits of hip-hop activism and branding in helping organizations respond to the contradictory pressures of the promotional public sphere? What dimensions of meaning, participation, advocacy, protest, and human relationship slip through the brand's dynamic processes of enclosure? Ultimately, what is the social and cultural significance of different forms of hip-hop activism in the age of social media and branding? This dissertation explores these issues and others through a comparative case study of the social-change efforts of two organizations, 1Hood and Street King (SK). While the organizations under analysis operate on very different understandings of what constitutes substantive social change, they both deploy heavy use of social media, the rhetoric of “movement," the promotional capital of hip-hop celebrities, the language and techniques of branding, and the communicative tools of the hip-hop genre. 1Hood is a Pittsburgh-based, media savvy, grassroots coalition led by political hip-hop artists Paradise “the Arkitect” Gray and Jasiri “X” Smith. The coalition uses the texts and tactics of hip-hop activism to address a variety of injustices including local and national police brutality and murder, economic inequality, unequal media representation, and other civil rights issues. Simultaneously, local and national political issues serve as platform for the “hip-hop careers” of both artist/activists. The intentional development of 1Hood as a brand assists these artists in mobilizing the efforts of an ideologically diverse range of local and national organizations, but also may complicate its relationship with other constituent organizations working on similar goals. Alternatively, SK offers a model that its founders claim will eliminate the need for “inefficient” progressive coalitions like 1Hood. Associated with Hip-Hop artist and entrepreneur Curtis “50 Cent,” and a brand of energy drink, SK promises to donate 1 meal to a child in Africa for each energy drink sold. The company partners with the U.N. World Food Program and claims to be an example of “conscious” philanthro-capitalism at work. In addition to working to overcome the inherent contradictions of corporate, “bling" philanthropy, the brand is also strongly tied to Jackson's entertainment career rebranding. After exploring theoretical concepts related to the promotional public sphere, the brand commodity, promotional capital, and constitutive rhetoric, this study uses a combination of political economy, textual analysis, interviews and participant observation to examine and compare the historical and ideological origins, specific branding practices, creative and cultural work, and constitutive rhetoric of the two cases. The study argues that conceiving of complex sets of social relations as brands helps activists, entertainers, and corporate actors to gain leverage in the promotional public sphere. But the promotional mandate and discourse of the brand can quickly become predatory and all encompassing, foreclosing critical questions, fully democratic participation and alternative solutions to important social challenges.