Abstract

“You Wanna Battle?: Negotiating Peer Reputation and Social Order in the Emcee Cipher”

To date, most studies treat Hip Hop as a cultural response to broad historical conditions.
These accounts are often rich in macro-level theory, likening Hip Hop culture to other forms of
social protest. While these studies provide a broad framework for understanding the historical
emergence of Hip Hop culture, they do not tell us about the everyday social functions and
meanings of Hip Hop. My research shows how individuals use Hip Hop culture to make sense of,
enrich, and organize aspects of their everyday lives. More specifically, this paper examines
how a group of working class African Americans men (ages 18-26) organize their relationships
with one another through weekly one-on-one rap battles. Each week, large groups of working
class African American men hang out and rap with one another on the street corner outside of
“Project Blowed”, a Hip Hop community center in South Central Los Angeles. Through participant-
observation of these battles, in-depth interviews with the participants themselves, and ongoing
relationships with participants in their everyday lives, this paper identifies the different ways
that one-on-one battles are used to negotiate and manage one’s reputation amongst their peers.
Ultimately, this study illuminates the moral worlds of working class African American men at my
site; by identifying what these men consider to be disrespectful, this paper also allows us to
see what they regard as respectable and meritorious.

Contact Info:
Jooyoung Lee
Department of Sociology
University of California, Los Angeles
213 Haines Hall
375 Portola Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551
Email: youngjoo@ucla.edu
(310) 820-3959