ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to generate new ways of thinking about work identity, exploitation, and motivation in relation to cultural labor. The argument and data presented is drawn from 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork exploring a hip-hop community in London. The chapter highlights the contributory factors as to why the focus of rappers has shifted from music to business and entrepreneurialism. In an overview of the London hip-hop scene, it suggest how its underground infrastructure and processes of digitization and fragmentation have influenced scene dynamics and artist roles. The theory behind cultural entrepreneurship, focusing on 'forced entrepreneurship', is then discussed and explained using empirical data. The chapter discusses the implications of the study and where future research could lead. American hip-hop was exported to the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Other media channels introduced hip-hop to England, including radio shows, mixtapes from New York, and imported 12-inch vinyl from independent record labels.
