Collective Identity in Freestyle Rap

George Figgs

Abstract for paper presented at
Conference of the Georgetown Linguistics Society
The Language and Identity Tapestry: Linguistic Re/presentation of Identities in Social Interaction
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
February 18-20, 2005

The goal of this paper is to explore how identities are created in improvised rap performances known as "freestyle." In the context of freestyle performance, I argue that identities are created and negotiated collectively through cooperative and respectful relationships between the performers.

Freestyle rap is considered a performance and form "concerned with deconstructing dominant ideologies " (Bauman and Briggs, 1990) that can also "create, enforce, or subvert social organization" (Bucholtz 2001). This is not only accomplished by the practice and habitus (Bourdieu 1991, Bucholtz, 1999) of the freestyle form, such as idiomatic expressions common in rap, but through the verbal art of incorporating references to dynamic events occurring in the context of the performance itself.
In this work I examine freestyle rap performances from a long-running hip-hop show in the Denver, CO area. Frequently, freestyle performances during this program take the format of what is called a "cipher", where the rappers (MC's) take turns while DJ's supply a music bed. This form of freestyle rap is distinct from freestyle "battles", popularized in films like "8-Mile", which consist of one vs. one competitions where participants attempt to prove themselves better than the other, frequently through the use of insults. In contrast, the ciphers analyzed in this study show freestyle rap as a collaborative social practice that reinforces community and identity by creating lyrics that acknowledge and respect the other performers and members of the local hip-hop community.

R: "…that they had asked for with my man, D the man, come and see the man, one time for my man D-5, we can rock live on the spot, I blaze with my blaze brothers crew"

Here, the first MC in the cipher acknowledges two members of the crew present that evening ("D the Man" and "D-5" ) in addition to mentioning the name of the collective that produces the program - "the blaze brothers".

Performances also reflect the context of the event as well - this passage makes reference by a visit from the police earlier in the afternoon during a BBQ that was part of the day's events.

N: "they're the boulder's swine-est, step back off the blaze brothers, we ain't doin nothing wrong "…

Out of context, this lyric reflect a general contempt for authority found in rap music, but in context, it creates solidarity between the community members attending the event, sharing and reinforcing the frustration of being disrupted by the police due to a suspicious noise complaint.

George Figgs is a PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Colorado, and associate editor of Colorado Research in Linguistics. He can be reached at George.Figgs@Colorado.EDU.

Colorado Research in Linguistics - Volume 18, Issue 1 - June 2005