ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I will focus on the public discussion on institutional racism and social justice currently being held throughout the United States of America through the Black Lives Matter movement (also called “The Movement for Black Lives”). By looking at five hip-hop activists' contributions to this discussion, my aim is to explore how social activism is shaped by rap artists involved within the social movement. Focusing on artists' participation provides a key point of entry into the organizing practices through which activism and hip-hop are articulated. My analysis shows that, in its articulation to social activism, hip-hop serves as a mode of engagement for mobilizing and organizing communities through creative and expressive processes initiated and sustained by the artists in this particular socio-historical and political conjuncture. Artists are key actors of social change and community organizing, working to create and implement democratic spaces authorizing various “voices” (Couldry, 2010) to participate in open conversations through artistic practices and discourse (Hall, 1992). Artists engage in diversifying citizen participation and facilitating acts of “coming into voice” (hooks, 1989), despite variations related to different strategies. By using hip-hop as a way to create connections with, within, and between their communities, they strive to bring into voice a complexity of issues that shape their communities (Clay, 2012). As it will be discussed, inputs from the artists offer some significant insights into the organizing process of a social movement, as well as into a critical reconceptualization of notions such as social engagement, education, and leadership.
