Research Proposal

Andrew Negreiff

  1. Introduction 

My proposed research topic aims to investigate the interaction of geography with the development of distinct regional musical styles, specifically within the context of rap music in North America.  

Rap music is a genre for which regional differences – as expressed in musical style, aesthetic, and the surrounding cultural worldviews that inform the music’s creation – have historically been acknowledged and broadly commented upon, particularly in relation to the perceived cultural and musical differences that differentiate the two regional clusters of musical production that together constitute “East Coast” and “West Coast” rap.  However, from my perspective, the cultural geographic factors – including spatial variation in patterns of migration, climate, and urban development – which together form these regional differences, have not yet been covered in a focused and expansive manner.  

It is these factors that I hope to explore in depth, through a mixed-methods approach comprising both historical/archival research and participant interviews conducted with rap artists with distinct relationships to region/locality.  

Regarding this topic’s anchorage within a common qualitative research question – here the identification of societal structures and the ways in which said structures are created, maintained, legitimized, and/or resisted – a 2001 interview with rapper/musician Boots Riley from The Coup provides valuable context on the development of a regional rap sound within California’s Bay Area; I forward it here as an illustrative example of my research focus, as my research project would seek to explore all of the cultural geographic dynamics described by Riley in this interview (Beacham, 2023).  

Riley notes various factors present in the Bay – contrasting them with those of New York, conventionally considered Hip Hop’s birthplace – that he perceives as having contributed to the area’s particular regional aesthetic: a car-centered culture, engendered by the poor quality of public transit in the Bay, imbuing music with the distinct cast and cadence of private transit and the bass-accentuating sound of car-speakers; a less-congested, more spacious urban layout, allowing for car-centered “sideshows” as a space for communal song-sharing; and differences in patterns of migration, with Riley noting that black populations in Oakland had generally migrated more recently from the South than was the case in the Midwest and East Coast, resulting in musical/cultural reference points distinct from their eastern counterparts: “Out here you don’t have a big group of black folks that listen to jazz like you might have in New York” (Beacham, 2023, para. 15). 

The aforementioned dynamics would relate to the ways in which structures of society are created, while coverage of the maintenance over time of said structures can be found in Riley’s acknowledgement of the aesthetic remoldings weathered by changing socioeconomic circumstance; relating the lessened affordability of car speakers to a gradual shift from cars to clubs as the primary locus of Bay music engagement, an attendant shift to faster tempos in local rap music is described as the logical space-mediated outcome (Beacham, 2023).  Regarding the question of resistance, my research would also seek to explore the existence of music seemingly at odds with local regional styles – West Coast rap acts perceived as possessing a more “East Coast” style, for instance – noting that the decentralization of information and culture enacted by access to television and the internet has in a sense exacerbated naturally the extent to which musical artists resist the influence of their local surroundings, whether consciously or unconsciously, wanted or unwanted.  

  1. Literature review:

For the purpose of gathering background on my research subject and its coverage within academia, I conducted a preliminary search of preexisting academic literature related to the subject of regionalism in North American rap music, finding only a small number of articles.  This literature review focuses on summarizing what I felt were the most relevant and interesting findings from three different articles. 

The apparent dearth of articles easily findable through my university library’s search function conflicted interestingly with the claims of some of the articles I was able to find, with Tsitsos (2018) stating that “the connection between geographic space and art has been thoroughly examined in the case of rap music” (p. 270).  On the other hand, an article by French (2017), published one year earlier, expresses surprise at the “scant attention” paid to geographic study on American rap music, despite citing four examples he believes to have largely remediated these research gaps: all four are books published between 2001 to 2011, suggesting that much of the research on regionalism in rap music has been conducted outside of a straightforwardly academic context (p. 259).  

French’s article, which focuses upon the concept of “rap centers” – hot spots for the creation of rap music – and the ways in which the music has diffused to different areas through time, begins with a brief overview of preexisting geographic study within a rap context, noting that such research has largely been produced by non-geographers; French credits the ‘spatial turn’ in the humanities for this circumstance (French, 2017, p. 260).  A short description is then given of rap’s origins and their reliance on the historical transference of cultural phenomena through migration, most clearly exemplified by Jamacia-born hip-hop originator DJ Kool Herc’s adaptation of Jamaican toasting – “improvised speaking over beats” – into a South Bronx block party context (French, 2017, p. 261).  A quantitative mapping of the diffusion of rap music from 1979 to 2015 is then attempted by connecting the emergence of new rap artists with their hometown at the time of their debut release, showing a gradual diffusion of rap music from New York City to other urban centers throughout the map’s timeframe (French, 2017, p. 263-264).  Analysis of the particular ‘leap frog’ pattern of rap’s initial diffusion – dispersing from New York City to far-off urban centers in Los Angeles and Houston before reaching geographically closer locales in the Midwest – leads the author to credit hierarchical – technology-facilitated – diffusion as the primary driver in rap’s regional migration, rather than person-to-person transference (French, 2017, p. 265).  

Discussion of rap’s relationship to geography within the article focuses largely on the surface presence of geographic markers – such as city names, neighborhoods and area codes generally associated with impoverished inner-city environments – within lyrics and music videos, and the connection of said markers to perceived authenticity or credibility within the genre (French, 2017, p. 262).  The article also occasionally acknowledges the transference of cultural phenomena within the genre via proximity and migration, characterizing, for instance, the presence of “heavy drum and bass” within Atlanta rap as a result of “musical traditions that came to Atlanta from Jamaica via Miami”  – though such instances are few and far between, with distinct regional qualities of rap often described without any attempt to explore why such qualities emerged (French, 2017, p. 268).  

Next, Tsitso’s 2018 article argues for a more holistic and nuanced understanding of the relationship of musical genre to place, with a focus on techno and rap music – genres generally understood to have arisen in the late 70s and early 80s within Detroit, MI and South Bronx, NYC respectively (Tsitso, 2018, p. 270, 272).  Within the course of the article, Tsitso forwards an interesting proposal as to the social factors engendering the uniquely geography-centered nature of rap music culture (Tsitso, 2018, p. 272).  The article is informed by the anthropologist Mary Douglas’ conceptualization of “pollution” as a “symbolic violation… of social order” which engenders forms of ritualistic societal response intended to maintain order in the face of these violations (Tsitso, 2018, p. 271).  Tsitso applies Douglas’ lens to Detroit and the South Bronx during the emergence of techno and rap, framing both genres as symbolically purgative responses to the social order violations present within their respective incubating circumstances (Tsitso, 2018, p. 271, 272).  

The author forwards that, despite a common academic tendency to view techno and rap music as “products of the emergence of postindustrial America,” the founders of both genres possessed vastly differing relationships to their respective cities – three of the primary founders of techno having lived in Detroit’s Belleville suburb, in contrast with rap music’s initial anchoring within the urban environment of the South Bronx (Tsitso, 2018, p. 270).  For the Bronx, Tsitso speculates that the social order violation represented by “disruptive urban-renewal projects” such as the Cross Bronx Expressway – acknowledged as a “major motivating factor” in rap music’s emergence – was generative of the territorial stress within rap music, with the representation of one’s own neighborhood or city through musical expression standing as a demonstration of community resiliency in reply to disruptive attempts at urban redevelopment (Tsitso, 2018, p. 272).  In contrast, the emergence of techno in Detroit is attributed to the disinvestment and abandonment of Detroit’s city center, importantly framed not through the view of those dwelling within the city, but instead from the somewhat removed perspective of the suburb-dwelling, techno-innovating “Belleville Three,” with the increasing vacancy of the city framing human presence itself as a social order violation, engendering a mechanical musical aesthetic “virtually devoid of human presence” (Tsitso, 2018, p. 273).  

Lastly, Gilbers et al.’s 2020 article takes a semi-quantitative approach in the phonetic analysis of audio recordings of 16 different male African American rappers from the greater metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York City.  Said recordings were analyzed to determine presence and degree of difference with respect to rhythm and melody between the East and West coasts of America, as well as the extent to which regional speech patterns were predictive of similar rhythmic and melodic patterns in the rapping style of the same region (Gilbers et al., 2020, p. 718-719).  The 16 rappers were selected as respected representatives of their respective regions, having been subject to both critical and commercial success within their careers (Gilbers et al., 2020, p. 719).  

Analysis of the procured recordings – which comprised both regular conversational speech from interviews as well as recorded raps – incurred results which largely confirmed researchers’ preconceptions of the speech and rap of east coast rappers as “more monotone” and “less rhymically diverse” than that of their west coast counterparts, with this distinction being especially pronounced in conversational speech (Gilbers et al., 2020, p. 713, 734).  The results were also overall supportive of a predictive relationship between regional speech prosody – rhythm and melody – and regional rapping style, although rap recordings were generally found to exhibit greater pitch fluctuation yet reduced rhythmic variance in relation to speech recordings (Gilbers et al., 2020, p. 732).  The regional differences found in speech and rap flow between the coasts are particularly interesting in light of the article’s consideration of the distinct emotional associations produced by differing degrees of pitch fluctuation in rap music; reduced fluctuation of pitch engendering a “gritty, serious ambience,” while greater fluctuation is related to a relative irreverence or light-heartedness – which the authors stress need not necessarily correlate with a light-heartedness of subject matter, particularly within the context of the often gang-culture-informed subject matter of west coast rap music (Gilbers et al., 2020, p. 716-717).  

Notably, the rapper Kendrick Lamar stood as a strong outlier among west coast rappers with respect to pitch fluctuation, despite exhibiting similar conversational speech patterns as other west coast rappers, suggesting a factor of (possible) conscious deviation from regional norms as an artistic incentive theretofore unconsidered by the authors; interestingly, the authors fail to consider Lamar’s considerably younger age relative to most of the other research subjects as a possible factor in his deviance (Gilbers et al., 2020, p. 740).  

  1. Methods/Methodology:

I plan to use a triangulation of four different methods within my research process – research and analysis, interviews, focus groups, and narrative mapping – and I have organized each of these methods into their own distinct subheaded sections below.

Research and Analysis

My initial methods would involve extensive review, analysis, and organization of materials related to regionalism in rap music, allowing for a more informed perspective to draw from in my participant interviews.  Given the nature and relative youth of rap music as a genre, I am predicting that an important – perhaps primary – proportion of the historical/archival materials reviewed would consist of interviews with rap artists, which I would review with an eye towards regionalism-related discussion contained within said interviews. Reviewing prior interviews may also allow me to attain a sense of what questions related to regionalism tend not be discussed as much and therefore to possibly focus upon those questions more in my research and interviews.

In my review and consideration of rap-regionalism-related materials, I also plan to undertake some degree of Foucauldian discourse analysis: the analysis of ‘texts,’ which can be literal texts but also landscapes or collections of symbols, as a means of determining what ‘discourses,’ or ways of seeing the world, are communicated by said ‘texts’ (Hay & Cope, 2021, p. 333-334).  Within the context of rap music, texts ripe for analysis and comparison would include lyrics, lyrical delivery, musical (non-vocal/lyrical) elements, and promotional materials, which I would analyze with a view towards identifying what these components suggest in terms of regional variation in discourses, as well as how the discourses communicated by these components have shifted over time.  For example, I would seek to explore what regional discourses are espoused by the widening gulf in regional sounds between the East and West Coast in the early 90s, with the emergence of the ‘g-funk’ sound – which centred and developed a musical aesthetic commonly perceived as ‘soft’ to east coast sensibilities – contrasting irreverently with the more straightforwardly ‘rugged’ sound associated with east coast rap.   

I would conduct analysis of the aforementioned texts largely to aid my eventual conduction of interviews, as I would hope to discuss with participants how these discourses (as suggested by lyrical and musical styles, intonations, fashion) arose and what they feel is communicated by them.    

Interviews

Following preliminary research – which would also likely continue to an extent throughout the interview process– I would begin the process of conducting interviews with interested participants, ideally following a “practice” interview session conducted with a participant/collaborator open to offering feedback on the efficacy of my interviewing approach.  My intention is to interview anyone involved in the direct creation of rap music, with a focus on those who were active in the 80s and 90s – prior to the curbing of distinct regionalism enacted by the increasing predominance of the internet as a decentralizing cultural influence.  

I would ideally like the research to encompass a variety of perspectives upon each region – if focusing on California for instance, I would like to hear perspectives both from those who have lived in California since birth, as well as those who moved to California from other regions of the US or elsewhere; from those whose families have lived in California for multiple generations as well as those whose parents moved to the area within the course of their lives – allowing for a body of knowledge through which variability in individual experience of region and place could be expressed.  

While I plan to prepare a series of questions and prompts for each interview, I would ideally like my interviews to be guided more so by the interests and musings of the participants, to whatever extent they are comfortable with.  I am essentially hoping to create – or help create – something like an oral history in relation to my subject.  As long as the subject matter discussed is broadly related to the subject matter of regionalism in rap music, I am interested to hear anything participants have to say, and would be happy to let them guide the conversation if they wish.  

Focus Groups

If there is interest on the part of participants, I would also like to conduct a series of “focus group” interviews in which multiple artists would join together for a group discussion – likely moderated by me, possibly with a co-moderator as well – on the subject of regionalism in rap music.  I think a focus group could be a good opportunity to bring together artists with distinct relationships to rap regionalism; for instance, to bring together artists from Los Angeles associated with a classically “West Coast” sound with those associated with a more “East Coast” sound for a conversation in which they could discuss among each other their relationships to the classic “sound” of their region and what similarities and differences with regards to these relationships they possess.  

Another similar approach I would like to carry out within this format would be to organize a group consisting of artists from different regions, again to allow discussion of similarities and differences with regards to regionalism – to talk about and compare amongst each other, for instance, their most primary influences in music creation, or the songs that were regionally popular in their area growing up and their relationship to those songs.  It is my hope that such discussions could give insight into the variance and diversity of relationship to region in rap music; if similar sounds sometimes arise from sharply different influences, or vice versa – I, and I believe others, would find this fascinating to learn.  

My intentions driving the organization of the focus group configurations described above would be strongly exploratory; not seeking to explain any particular phenomena, nor to generate a new approach to any issue or problem, but instead to produce interesting discussion on the subject matter. 

Narrative Mapping

I am also interested in incorporating narrative mapping as an aspect of my research project, assuming necessary time and interest on the part of collaborators.  I would ideally like to combine mapping with the interview process, with interested interviewees heading out with me to point out and discuss areas within a given city/town of study which they associate as having particular cultural influence on the local/regional rap sound of the area – I would record these conversations, in addition to taking GPS coordinates and photographs of points of discussion, with these recorded components then being used in the mapping process, ideally in further collaboration with interviewees.  

  1. Power and Ethics

I am interested in carrying out this research on the basis that participants will not be subject to elevated (i.e. above that which would be experienced in day-to-day life) social, psychological, emotional, or physical risk as a result of their participation, and in the hopes that participants will be interested to explore through conversation their experiences of local/regional cultural geography and its interplay with regional/local rap styles.  

I believe that to navigate the power-relationships and potential risks involved in this research will entail consideration of ethical concerns that strike me as appropriate to consider in any and all interpersonal communications – all interactions between two different individuals possessing some element of potential risk, varied as people all are in their attributes, life experiences and preferred modes of interaction.  I would attempt to make sure, to the best of my ability, that any participation within the research project is driven fully by the participants’ positive interest in the subject matter, with full and clear opportunity to opt-out of further participation and/or to refuse having any and all of their knowledge utilized in the research if they so ultimately decided.  I would pay attention to the manner, body language, and verbal communication of participants and back off from any line of questioning that appears to be – or is said to be – unwanted.  

It is my plan to stress collaboration as much as possible within the research process; to inquire about and find those who are also passionate about the subject matter and work in partnership with them if interested, and to offer participants access to my research and the ways in which I have made use of their knowledge – including interview transcripts and recordings – allowing for feedback and discussion at multiple steps in the research process.  Informed consent will be attained by whatever form is preferred by individual participants, whether that be signed or verbal consent, and I will make sure that approval is attained from all involved participants prior to any form of publication of their knowledge.

I believe this collaborative approach will act to both maximize benefits (as a collaborative approach will ideally stress a level of participation determined by the interest and comfort of participants) and minimize risk (as participants will be ultimate decision-makers regarding what portions, if any, of their knowledge is ultimately published) on behalf of participants.

My research – in being focused on communicating the perspective of rap artists regarding regionalism in rap music – would be highly unlikely to feature any anonymous participation.  I assume this on the basis that the subject matter is unlikely to be perceived as sensitive by participants to a degree that anonymous participation would be advisable.  Since the research will focus upon public figures – recording artists – as participants, I also see the identity of the participants as an important part of the research, one which will contextualize the perspectives of the artists interviewed.  I acknowledge there may be cases in which participants do perceive aspects of the subject matter as sensitive; if such a case were to arise, I would follow the participant’s lead regarding how to move forward, deleting particular sensitive portions of recordings or transcripts if desired.  If such a participant requested anonymity due to sensitive information contained within interview transcripts or recordings, I would take that as an indication that the information is too sensitive to publish in any form, even anonymously.  

Regarding my positionality in relation to the subject, I am a longtime fan (and former private creator) of rap music, who has grown up and lived within British Columbia my entire life – an area I perceive as subject to high identification and collaboration with the rap scene down south in California.  For this reason, I predict there may be a bias towards West Coast artists as participants within the research due to proximity and connections, though this is not necessarily my preference.  I do not believe I am hoping for or assuming any particular outcome in terms of narratives or takeaways with the research; I only hope to help produce a set of interviews focused on regionalism in rap music, whatever that entails for the individual participants.  

Regarding bias and critical reflexivity: the bulk – if not the totality – of my published research will consist of interviews with participants, transcribed verbatim and/or offered, unedited, as audio or video recordings.  I believe this approach will stress the individual voices and perspectives of the participants, unmodified by the personal interpretations or sensibilities that would arise were I instead summarizing or paraphrasing the participants’ words.  If I do include a written article as a segment of my published research, I think inevitably some degree of personal bias or sensibility will be communicated, being guided as it is by my own personal perspective, though I would plan to curb the primacy of my own voice by focusing on collating the perspectives of rap artists rather than stressing my own interpretations.  I will also practice critical reflexivity – in terms of recognizing the subjective particularity of my own perspective as formed by my experiences and reference points – as a natural part of my research process, ideally aided by the feedback and opinions of any participants/collaborators interested in reviewing my work.   

  1. Purpose of the Research

Rap music – particularly within the 80s to 2000s time-frame – is commonly acknowledged as a musical genre for which regional distinctions have been considered paramount, with regionalism often being placed at the forefront of discourse surrounding the music to a degree unshared by other contemporaneous genres such as R&B and rock music.  Despite this, I perceive an apparent lack of research that seeks to explore the nature of these regional distinctions in an intensive and focused manner – particularly in a form that centers the voices and experiences of rap artists themselves.  

It is my hope that in carrying out and publishing this cultural geographic research – guided primarily by the knowledge of artists within the genre – I will push past this paradigm, encouraging the development of further research on regionalism both within rap music and music more broadly.  I believe, further, on account of rap music being a genre, as discussed above, especially associated with regionalism in the popular imagination, that rap artists and listeners may be especially likely to be interested in cultural geography, and my work as such would be primarily intended for a core-rap audience, providing a concentrated effort that will enlighten and satisfy those interested in an extensive exploration of the complexities of rap regionalism.

In allowing for artists to speak extensively about their experiences related to regionalism and the ways in which said experiences informed their creation of rap music, and publishing with accuracy their knowledge and thoughts for posterity, I hope to create a document which will engender greater cultural self-understanding for populations who have grown up or lived within the areas and regions covered within the research, as well as functionally allowing family members and friends of interviewed artists access to extensive conversations with said artists, recorded for posterity and available for future generations.  

Lastly, I also believe to explore intensively the nature of regionalism will necessarily entail a political geographic component stressing the effects of marginalized circumstances on music creation, bringing readers to bear with the accumulated effects of socio-economic disparities existing between regions and localities and the ways in which such conditions can form distinct cultures which in turn inform the music created within said cultures.  

  1. Conclusion:

It is my hope that through this proposal I have communicated the seriousness of my intent to carry out this project with the acuity, flexibility, care, and thoroughness I believe the subject matter warrants.  I believe as the world becomes ever more subject to the centralizing influences of the internet in its production of a global technology-mediated culture, that documentation of regional and local cultures becomes increasingly important.  While I believe the internet, in its provision of access to a breadth of valuable world culture and history, holds immense potential in stoking passions and promoting self-understanding, I believe there is also much of inspiration to be found in local and regional cultures developed in the absence of such access, and there is a message implicit to me in the distinct sounds produced by such circumstances: we all have a place in the world, we all possess our own unique voice and interpretation of where we are from.

  1. Bibliography:

Beacham, K. (2023, July 28). Boots Riley of The Coup (A 2001 Unreleased Interview). Medium. https://medium.com/@kevinbeacham/boots-riley-of-the-coup-a-2001-unreleased-interview-deccd324b9bd 

Forman, M. (2000). “Represent”: Race, Space and Place in Rap Music. Popular Music, 19(1), 65–90. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/stable/853712 

French, K. (2017). Geography of American rap: rap diffusion and rap centers. GeoJournal, 82(2), 259–272. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9681-z

Gilbers, S., Hoeksema, N., de Bot, K., & Lowie, W. (2020). Regional Variation in West and East Coast African-American English Prosody and Rap Flows. Language and Speech, 63(4), 713–745. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1177/0023830919881479

Hay, I., & Cope, M. (2010). Qualitative research methods in human geography (5th ed.). Don

Mills: Oxford University Press.

Hudson, R. (2006). Regions and place: music, identity and place. Progress in Human Geography, 30(5), 626–634. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132506070177

Tsitsos, W. (2018). Race, Class, and Place in the Origins of Techno and Rap Music. Popular Music & Society, 41(3), 270–282. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1080/03007766.2018.1519098

Wiggins, B. (2016). Race and place at the city limits: imaginative geographies of South Central Los Angeles. Ethnic & Racial Studies, 39(14), 2583–2600. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1149595