ABSTRACT
The focal point of this chapter is the ways in which male black artists have dealt with the stereotypical notions surrounding male blackness in Western culture. Of particular interest are the ways in which such strategies seem to emerge at a particular crossroads of affirmation and transgression, in response to the ever-present exchange between black artists and a white audience. The chapter starts by outlining some central aspects of the primitivism underlying the reception of black music in Western culture, and then focuses on the strategies available to male black artists when dealing with the white post-war popular music mainstream. The focus is on selected artists belonging to the beginning and end of the so-called ‘rock era’ of post-war popular music, respectively, that is, Little Richard from 1950s’ rock’n’roll and Public Enemy and Ice Cube from the commercial breakthrough of hardcore rap in the early 1990s.
