The Construction of Oppositional Culture in Hip-Hop Music: An In ...

The Construction of Oppositional Culture in Hip-Hop Music: An In-depth Case
Analysis of Kanye West and Tupac Shakur


Running Head: Oppositional Culture in Hip-Hop Music




Travis L. Gosa and Hollie Young
The Johns Hopkins University


Word Count: 8996


Abstract

Given the prominent, yet controversial theory of oppositional culture used to explain the poor
academic achievement of black youth and recent concerns that hip-hop is leading black youth to
adopt anti-school attitudes, we examine the construction of oppositional culture in hip-hop
music. Through a qualitative case study of song lyrics (n=250) from two of hip-hop’s most
influential artists—“conscious” rapper Kanye West and “gangster” rapper Tupac Shakur, we find
oppositional culture in both artists’ lyrics. However, our analysis reveals important differences in
how the two artists describe the role of schooling in adult success, relationships with teachers
and schools, and how education is related to authentic black male identity. Our findings suggest
a need for reexamining the notion that oppositional culture means school resistance.

Acknowledgements & Correspondence

We thank Karl Alexander, Katrina Bell McDonald, and Pamela Bennett for comments that have
improved this manuscript. Portions of this paper were presented at the Southern Sociological
Society meetings, New Orleans, LA, March 25, 2006. Direct correspondence to Travis L. Gosa,
Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD
21218; E-mail: Lgosa1@jhu.edu.

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Introduction

While black youth coming to age in post-Civil Rights America have made striking gains in
academic achievement and attainment (Ferguson 2001; Lee 2002), there are growing concerns
that some black youth are adopting identities that eschew working hard in school and shun high
achieving blacks as betraying “real” blackness.1 Classified as oppositional culture and the
burden of acting white (e.g., Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Fordham 1996), this collective black
identity maintains negative assessments of the opportunity structure, distrusts schools, and labels
pro-schooling behaviors and attitudes as “inauthentic” or “acting white.” Black boys appear
doubly burdened by oppositional culture, as emerging notions of authentic black masculinity
may label intellectual pursuits as “feminine” or “soft” (Reese 2004).
One of the probable culprits in transmitting oppositional culture to black youth is hip-
hop.2 The ascendancy of hip-hop as the dominant black youth culture in the late 1980s coincides
with the stalling of black achievement gains (Ferguson 2001), and even affluent black youth
seem to be negatively influenced by hip-hop (Pattillo-McCoy 1999). As a black male-dominated
genre, the “gangsta-thug” conception of black masculinity prevalent in hip-hop has been said to
sabotage the achievement of black boys (Reese 2004; Tucker 2006; Kane 2005). Despite the
belief that hip-hop “holds blacks back” (e.g., McWhorter, 2005), little is known about
achievement-related judgments and messages in hip-hop music. Is hip-hop telling our black
youth that school does not pay off? Or, that resisting school is “keeping it really black”?
In response to concerns about the corrosive influence of hip-hop music on black youth
development and achievement, we examine the construction of oppositional culture in hip-hop
music. Specifically, we examine what rappers are saying about the utility of education, trust and
conflict with schools, and the relationship between school success and black/male authenticity.


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Our case analysis of oppositional culture in hip-hop focuses on two rappers whose music
embodies the two dominant, rival strands in the genre: the "conscious political camp" and the
"gangsta camp" (Boyd 2002). Textual content analysis of this powerful youth culture are drawn
from songs (n=250) by prominent “conscious” rapper Kanye West and “gangsta-thug” rapper
Tupac Shakur. Our analyses utilize QSR-Nudist, a qualitative computer software package that
identifies thematic patterns in unstructured data.
Comparing the lyrics of Kanye and Tupac, we found similarities and differences in their
construction of oppositional culture. While both artists perceive blocked labor market
opportunities, distrust most white institutions, and define blackness in opposition to white
society, they differ in their representation of schooling. The “conscious” Kanye raps about the
uselessness of schooling for black success, teachers and schools as agents of black oppression,
and black authenticity without education. “Gangsta” rapper Tupac develops an achievement
ideology that presents education as a profitable route to upward mobility for black youth, and as
an authentically black way to subvert white oppression. These findings support recent research
showing that oppositional culture can function to encourage academic achievement (e.g., Akom
2003).

Oppositional Culture and the Schooling of Black Youth

Popularly known as oppositional culture and the burden of acting white, Ogbu’s and Fordham’s
cultural ecological thesis posits that the poor academic achievement of black youth can be
attributed to the adoption of an oppositional collective identity. Black youth who adopt
oppositional culture maintain negative assessments of the opportunity structure, distrust
dominant (white) group members and institutions, and label pro-schooling attitudes and


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behaviors as inauthentic or “acting white” (e.g., Ogbu 1978; Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Fordham
1996).
Sociologists have long noted that adolescents of all backgrounds generally dislike school
and tease peers for being “uncool” or “nerds” (e.g., Coleman 1961); however, oppositional
culture, as defined by Ogbu, is not simply about ubiquitous peer pressure. It connects the larger
ecology of racial disadvantages and white supremacy to the schooling strategies and beliefs of
black youth (Ogbu and Simons 1998; Ogbu 1992, 1994). According to Ogbu, three forms of
discrimination—“instrumental” (e.g., racialized curriculum tracking), “relational” (e.g.,
unwarranted negative assessments by teachers) and “symbolic” discrimination (e.g., degradation
of black speech)—dramatically shape black collective identities and schooling trajectories (Ogbu
1979, 1987, 1994, 2003).
As a coping mechanism and form of resistance to discrimination, blacks may adopt a
collective social identity or “sense of we-ness” (Ogbu 2004:3) that opposes whites and their
oppressive treatment, and, by extension, interprets education as yet another way to dominate
blacks (Ogbu 1994; Fordham 1999). Similar to Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of “habitus,” this
oppositional “cultural model” is “the way that members of a minority group understand or
interpret their world and guide their actions in that world” (Ogbu and Simmons 1998:169) and
“allows choices of action that result in individual differences in schooling outcome” (Ogbu
1992:287).
Three decades of ethnographic research conducted by Ogbu and associates document
how the adaptation of oppositional culture hinders the academic achievement of black youth
across socioeconomic backgrounds. For example, in both low-income “Capital High” in
Washington D.C (Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Fordham 1996; 1999) and in the affluent, suburban


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schools of Shaker Heights, Ohio (Ogbu 2003), three types of oppositional beliefs are found to
prevent black students from reaching their full academic potential.

Oppositional instrumental beliefs include believing that going to school and studying
hard will not be rewarded with good paying jobs due to continuing racial discrimination. Failing
to view schooling investments as a profitable enterprise, blacks maintaining oppositional
instrumental beliefs instead pursue alternative routes to success not involving education,
including illegal activities, entertainment, and sports (Ogbu 2003).
Oppositional relational beliefs include a strong degree of distrust toward whites and
agents of white institutions, especially schools and teachers. School rules and norms are
interpreted as potentially destructive, and teachers are seen as not having the best interest of
black youth in mind. As a result, those who subscribe to oppositional relational beliefs are in
conflict with the schooling institution or disengage altogether.
Oppositional symbolic beliefs represent appropriate black attitudes and behaviors defined
in opposition to those thought to be appropriate for whites. Such beliefs include the interpretation
of typical pro-schooling attitudes and behaviors (e.g., speaking “standard English” and studying
hard) as symbolically wanting to be like “them” rather than “us.” Engaging in these activities is
viewed pejoratively as “acting white.” When school achievement becomes racialized, black
students who want to pursue academic success have to cope with the burden of acting white by
proving that they are still authentically black (Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Fordham 1996, 1999).
While many black youth are able to circumvent these accusations through clever strategies, such
as masking their high marks, the concern is that too many succumb to these understandings of
school achievement and chose not to work hard in school.




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Oppositional Culture and the Schooling of Black Males

The emerging research on oppositional culture suggests that black boys may be more susceptible
to adopting oppositional identities than black girls. Given the educational crisis facing our black
male youth, we are concerned that otherwise intelligent black boys are rejecting formal education
as a means of success, adopting instead identities that eschew school achievement and peer
groups that privilege street culture over school culture.

We know that black boys, like most other children, begin school as eager learners,
indistinguishable from other students in their professed interest in school and desire to do well
(Entwisle, Alexander, and Olson 1997). Black boys also begin school with levels of achievement
similar to that of black girls (Fryer and Levitt 2004). Before long, though, black males are seen
as displaying problem behaviors by teachers (Rong 1996), and are most likely to be labeled
deviant, reprimanded, and sent to the principal’s office (Irvine 1990). As the conflict escalates,
many black males are “tracked out” in early high school, by way of suspension and expulsion
(Hrabowski, Maton and Greif 1998; Irvine 1990), or remain “tracked into” special education at
rates double other students (Polite and Davis 1999:35). By the end of high school, only 43% of
America’s black males who enter 9th grade graduate from 12th grade (Orfield et al. 2004).3 Young
black men are noticeably missing from the post-secondary landscape (Harvey 2002), as they are
more likely to be incarcerated or somehow involved with the legal system than enrolled in
college.4
More so than black females, black males seem to be having a difficult time being “smart
and black” (e.g., Akom 2003; Horvat and Lewis 2003). For instance, Ogbu and Fordham’s
original City High study (e.g., Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Fordham 1996) indicates that black
males may be seen as unmanly when they achieve. More recently, Carter (2005) finds that most


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of the black (and Latino) males in her New York study are “non-compliant believers,” who
disengage from school, cut classes, fail to complete assignments, and struggle with the various
social and cultural codes of formal schooling (Carter 2005:36).5 In what could be called the
“feminization of acting white,” she finds that these males of color are relatively unsuccessful at
simultaneously asserting their black masculinity and succeeding in school. National data on
adolescents shows similar problems. Fryer and Torelli (2005), for example, find that black males
face a heightened risk of losing friends when they achieve academically.


Hip-Hop and Oppositional Culture Themes

Concerns over oppositional culture among black youth, especially black males, has led some to
wonder how hip-hop may be involved. Hip-hop has emerged as a major site of cultural
production and agency for today’s generation of black youth. For many black youth, hip-hop has
“transcended the realm of entertainment to become an integral aspect of identity and a lens
through which [they] understand the world” (Ferguson 2001:372). Despite growing
commodification and white appeal, hip-hop maintains a relatively strong effect on the beliefs,
behaviors, and identities of black youth (Anderson 2003), and black youth use hip-hop to define
a sense of blackness, black masculinity, and history (Dimitriadis 2001).
To be sure, youth construct their identities and judgments about schooling from parents,
teachers, peers, and their own sense of the world. But at the same time, it is understandable the
way many black youth look to hip-hop. Faced with structural dislocation from economic
opportunities and the fragility of traditional black families, the “hip-hop generation” now
receives much of their information, culture, and identities from hip-hop (Kitwana 2002, 2005;
Dimitriadis 2001). For disadvantaged black youth, hip-hop artists may be the only source of


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“social capital” to black adults who are financially secure (Carter 2005). And for middle class
black youth, hip-hop provides a way to maintain connections to less fortunate peers (Pattillo-
McCoy 1999). Concerning boys specifically, the hyper-masculine swagger and bravado idealized
by rappers may help protect black males from the harshness of white society (Majors and Billson
1992), and facilitate social bonds in urban settings where interpersonal violence is common place
(Anderson 1999; Stanton-Salazar 1997).
Given this context, it is appropriate to inquire whether messages about achievement,
blackness, and masculinity that are promoted in hip-hop are sabotaging the achievement of black
youth. Reese’s (2004) study black males in Los Angeles and Atlanta suggest that emerging
notions of black masculinity and authenticity include anti-intellectualism, “being hard,” and
hyper-sexed. In his “Realness Survey” “gangsta-thug” rappers are seen as “real black men,”
while potentially more “positive” role models are ignored. For example, 92% of black males
knew that Surge Knight was the co-founder of gangsta rap label Death Row Records—only 31%
knew that Kwesi Mfume was the director of the NAACP.
Reese (2004) finds black males in his study interpreting anti-education messages from
hip-hop, such as “reading is not cool” (40% of his sample had not read a non-school book in the
past year), while national trends indicate a wider relationship between hip-hop and black
achievement. Using test score data from 1971 to 1996, Ferguson (2001) observes that declines
in black overall black achievement and pro-schooling behaviors (e.g., reading outside of school)
mirrors the ascendancy of hip-hop music. According to Ferguson, black youth who identify with
the messages of hip-hop music are turning away from schooling.
Of course, correlational trend data alone do not prove that hip-hop causes black youth to
turn away from schooling, but it supports what teachers, parents, and children are telling us.


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Among lower-class blacks in Baltimore, teachers report that black boys in the third grade
consider getting shot nine times and going to jail (a la 50 Cent, a popular gangsta rapper) to be a
promising route to occupational success (Kane 2005). More, it appears that even affluent black
children are not immune to what Pattillo-McCoy (1999) calls the “ghetto trance” of hip-hop
music. Affluent black parents in a recent CNN documentary report that their children are turning
to “rap music's gangstas and thugs” for “an alternative to be authentically black.” Seeing good
grades as acting white and education unlikely to pay off, one youth profiled in the documentary
comments: “I’m going to be a rapper...Rappers don’t study” (CNN 2004).

Research Design, Data, and Analytic Strategy

In response to these concerns about the corrosive influence of hip-hop music on black youth
development and achievement, we examine the construction of oppositional culture in hip-hop
music.

While there are various “flavors” of hip-hop music, it is useful to distinguish between
two dominant voices in hip-hop today: 1) the "gangsta camp," defined by those like Tupac, Jay-
Z, or Snoop Dogg; and 2) the "conscious political camp" associated with Kanye West, Common
Sense, Mos Def, the Roots, and Talib Kweli (Boyd 2002). These two subgenres differ on their
emphasis of violence and sex, and their social class orientation. Gangsta rappers typically present
lower class, inner-city perspectives, while conscious rappers are typically more middle class in
their outlook (Boyd 2002).
We employed an in-depth case study design to explore how these two different types of
hip-hop construct understandings concerning the importance of formal education, relationships
with “white institutions,” and race-gender authenticity and school success, We compared the
lyrical content of the most famous “thug-life” rapper Tupac Shakur with that of “conscious


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rapper” Kanye West. Beyond being a “gangsta” and a “conscious” rapper, respectively, Tupac
and Kanye have become the most influential male, black rappers from these two camps (See
Table 1 and Table 2).
Qualitative content analysis was conducted on the lyrics of 250 songs from these two
artists’ commercially available albums (Kanye, n=2; Tupac, n=12). QSR-Nudist computer
software was used to discover thematic and conceptual patterns in the lyrics. Based on the three
major components of Ogbu’s oppositional culture thesis, we examined the presence of
achievement-related judgments concerning (1) instrumental beliefs about the opportunity
structure, including the role of education in “making it,” perceived returns to schooling, and
alternative routes to success; (2) relational beliefs about trust and conflict with white institutions,
including trust/distrust and conflict with teachers and the schooling process; and (3) symbolic
beliefs about black and black male authenticity, specifically how notions of real blackness and
masculinity are presented in relationship to pro-school behaviors, values, and success.
A semi-open, iterative analysis approach was used to probe the instrumental, relational,
and symbolic content of the songs. We systematically listened to the songs, read the lyrics, and
applied thematic codes to lyrics pertaining to three types of beliefs. Also, “open” codes were
applied to lyrics within the three areas, and to content that didn’t quite fit pre-existing notions of
oppositional culture. This semi-open approach allowed for deducing the major tenants of
oppositional culture, while still allowing new themes to inductively emerge from the hip-hop
artists themselves. During the process of listening, coding, reading, and recoding, analytic
memos were used to capture emerging themes and contradictions in the song content.
Rapdict.org, a popular on-line dictionary of hip-hop terms, was used for clarification when the
meaning of hip-hop jargon was in question.


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