ABSTRACT
The contested nature of authenticity in hip-hop scholarship pointed to a need for an empirical study questioning why so many artists reference 'keepin' it real' and similar discourses and whether notions of authenticity are imported along with hip-hop music or develop locally at the place of appropriation. This chapter consolidates the call for a re-conceptualization of authenticity in hip-hop, popular music and beyond. IT discusses authenticity and young people more generally in modern life. The chapter explores how insights into rappers' practices, struggles and conflicting identities are applicable to other artists in popular music. There is a dialectical relationship between rapper authenticity and hip-hop authenticity. The theme around 'rapper authenticity' versus 'hip-hop authenticity' can be rearticulated as personal versus social, or self versus collective. Managing struggles in modern day society whilst simultaneously seeking to live out authenticity, has led rappers to develop various approaches in response.
