Browsing by Subject "Rap"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Black is the new Black : defining Afro-German Blackness through the influence of American media
(2022-05-09) Daniels, Alessandra T.; Fulk, Kirkland A.; Ibarrola, Mary E
Due to the lack of Black representation in Germany for Afro-Germans, many have turned to media from the United States to relate to and understand their identities. Using hip-hop, radio, and podcasts, Afro-Germans have expressed how they relate to both their Germanness and their Blackness unapologetically declaring where they come from and conferring with other Afro-Germans in a communal space about their experiences as Black people in Germany. In the 1980s, these kinds of conversations were often done in literary circles, however, from the 1990s and into the 21ˢᵗ century, oral media made the stories of Afro-Germans available to a wider audience. In this paper, I argue that American forms of media such as hip-hop, Black radio, and podcasts have influenced Afro-Germans to create their own media in a space where their narratives are not often heard. Hip-hop created by Afro-Germans specifically emphasizes how their identity is perceived in German society while radio that incorporates Afro-German experiences has connected their stories to that of the wider African diaspora. The connection to the United States through radio allows for a collective Black consciousness amongst diasporans and gives Afro-Germans the opportunity to explore how they relate to their nation and their heritage. In these discussions amongst people of African descent in both the United States and Germany, the theme of Afrocentrism is a core component of seeking out one’s heritage. Through the establishment of their own podcasts, Afro-Germans have created media to broadcast their intimate experiences of rediscovering their Black identities while growing up in a Eurocentric society. Ample research on the influence of American hip-hop and rap culture in Germany exists, and with my research, I expand the scope further to look specifically at how Afro-Germans discuss their identities with African Americans via radio and with each other through the art of podcasting. By creating their own media and touching on topics representing their community, Afro-Germans define how they wish to be seen by the rest of German society.
"I can turn karaoke into open mic night" : an exploration of Asian American men in hip hop
(2013-05) Jackson, Tamela Teara; Tang, Eric, 1974-
The purpose of this report is to explore the ways in which Asian American men participate in hip hop culture, and what this participation says about their politics and representation in United States media and popular culture. This is done through an analysis of Freestyle Friday All Star, MC Jin, a Chinese American emcee from Queens, New York, as well as DJ Soko, a Korean American DJ from Detroit, Michigan. I argue that their participation is a desire for political power and creative visibility rendered on their own terms.
Poetic organization and poetic license in the lyrics of Hank Williams, Sr. and Snoop Dogg
(2010-12) Horn, Elizabeth Alena; Crowhurst, Megan Jane; Hancock, Ian F.; Epps, Patience L.; Mooney, Kevin E.; Fitzgerald, Colleen M.
This dissertation addresses the way a linguistic grammar can yield to poetic organization in a poetic text. To this end, two corpora are studied: the sung lyrics of country music singer Hank Williams, Sr. and the rapped lyrics of gansgta rap artist Snoop Dogg. Following a review of relevant literature, an account of the poetic grammar for each corpus is provided, including the manifestation of musical meter and grouping in the linguistic text, the reflection of metrical grouping in systematic rhyme, and rhyme fellow correspondence. In the Williams corpus, final cadences pattern much as in the English folk verse studied in Hayes and MacEachern (1998), but differ in that there are more, and therefore more degrees of saliency. Rhyme patterns reflect grouping structure and correlate to patterns in final cadences, and imperfect rhyme is limited to phonologically similar codas. In the Snoop Dogg corpus syllables do not always align with the metrical grid, metrical mapping and rhyme patterning often challenge grouping structure, and imperfect rhyme is more diverse, as has been shown to be the case for contemporary rap generally (Krims 2000, Katz 2008). Following Rice (1997), Golston (1998), Reindl and Franks (2001), Michael (2003), and Fitzgerald (2003, 2007), meter, grouping and rhyme are modeled as driving phonological, morphological and syntactic deviation in Optimality Theoretic terms. In the Hank Williams corpus, metrical mapping and grouping constraints are shown to drive a number of linguistically deviatory phenomena including stress shift, syllabic variation and allomorphy, while rhyme patterning constraints govern syntactic inversion. In the Snoop Dogg corpus, rhyme fellow correspondence and rhyme patterning constraints play a more significant role, driving enjambment, syllabic variation, and allomorphy. Some linguistically deviatory phenomena derive from ordinary language variation, e.g. (flawr)~(flaw.[schwa]r), and some do not, e.g. syllable insertion in insista. The latter is more common in the Snoop Dogg corpus.
Power flows to rap flows : power dynamics within the cultural sphere of Putin’s Russia
(2017-04-20) Selman, Brian Elliot; Garza, Thomas J.
In the weeks after Novaya Gazeta published a petition retaliating against the Russian government’s annexation of Crimea in early 2014, cultural leaders who had signed this petition began to find themselves labelled across the majority of Russian media as “Nazi sympathizers” and “traitors.” As these slanders in the media worsened, venues all over Russia began to cancel these same artists’ public appearances. This phenomenon of apparent repression that swept throughout Russia following the publication of this anti-intervention petition is what I term the “blacklist effect.” In the same way that a blacklist denies those whose names appear on it access to services, recognition, work, or other privileges depending on the context, these Russian artists who oppose Russian military intervention in Ukraine are repeatedly and systematically barred from appearing publicly before large crowds, painted as “traitors” by the majority of Russian press, and as a consequence are ostracized from large swathes of Russian society, especially amongst those who support the government and its foreign policy. This study provides a detailed analysis of the “blacklist effect” using Russian hip-hop as a case study, relates the “blacklist effect” to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s use of soft power, and considers the consequences of this pattern of repression for the future of Russia
Role of local electrostatic fields in protein-protein and protein-solvent interactions determined by vibrational Stark effect spectroscopy
(2014-05) Ragain, Christina Marie; Webb, Lauren J.
This examines the interplay of structure and local electrostatic fields in protein-protein and protein-solvent interactions. The partial charges of the protein amino acids and the polarization of the surrounding solvent create a complex system of electrostatic fields at protein-protein and protein-solvent interfaces. An approach incorporating vibrational Stark effect (VSE) spectroscopy, dissociation constant measurements, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations was used to investigate the electrostatic interactions in these interfaces. Proteins p21Ras (Ras) and Rap1A (Rap) have nearly identical amino acid sequences and structures along the effector-binding region but bind with different affinities to Ral guanine nucleotide dissociation stimulator (RalGDS). A charge reversion mutation at position 31 alters the binding affinity of Ras and Rap with RalGDS from 0.1 [mu]M and 1 [mu]M, to 1 [mu]M and 0.5 [mu]M, respectively. A spectral probe was placed at various locations along the binding interface on the surface of RalGDS as it was docked with Ras and Rap single (position 30 or 31) and double mutants (both positions). By comparing the probes' absorption energies with the respective wild-type (WT) analogs, VSE spectroscopy was able to measure molecular-level electrostatic events across the protein-protein interface. MD simulations provided a basis for deconvoluting the structural and electrostatic changes observed by the probes. The mutation at position 31 was found to be responsible for both structural and electrostatic changes compared to the WT analogs. Furthermore, previous identification of positions N27 and N29 on RalGDS as "hot spots" that help discriminate between structurally similar GTPases was supported. The RalGDS probe-containing variants and three model compounds were placed in aqueous solvents with varying dielectric constants to measure changes in absorption energy. We investigated the ability of the Onsager solvent model to describe the solvent induced changes in absorption energy, while MD simulations were employed to determine the location and solvation of the probes at the protein-solvent interface. The solvent accessible-surface area, a measure of hydration, was determined to correlate well with the change in magnitude of the probe's absorption energy and the displaced solvent by the probe.