Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Rappalachia: B. Boys, Break Beats, and Banjos
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In this presentation, I will list the key players in Appalachia’s hip hop tradition (often referred to as hick hop) and examine the regional pride, symbolic values, and performance of marginalized identities found in their work. The rhetorical moves employed by these artists are often misunderstood by cultural outsiders because stereotypes of the Appalachian region cloud the context from which the music is crafted. While maintaining a rhetorical tradition that borrows from yet is also distinct from hip hop’s dirty south sub-genre, hick hop works to untangle a cultural thread at the intersection of authenticity, regionalism, and race in hip hop music. Appalachia, bounded by its namesake mountain range, is, more of a cultural region - a state of mind, a set of living conditions, an identity configuration - than it is a geographic region. In other words, this culture is defined as much by rhetoric as by geography. As such, hick hop artists can be differentiated by the manner in which they pay homage to Appalachia’s cultural heritage, employing region-specific rhetorical traditions while simultaneously negotiating their identities in relation to connotations of ignorance and poverty – social stigmas attributed to the “Hillbilly.” My goal is to advance scholarly conversations regarding regional, racial, and spatial identity in hip hop music while at the same time complicating stereotypical notions of life in Appalachia that undermine the diversity of people and perspectives found in the region.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Todd Snyder is a professor of rhetoric and writing at Siena College in Albany, New York. He is the author of "The Rhetoric of Appalachian Identity" (2014) and "12 Rounds in Lo's Gym: Boxing and Manhood in Appalachia"(2018). He is currently working on a book project that explores the performance of Appalachian identity in hip hop music.
Rappalachia: B. Boys, Break Beats, and Banjos
In this presentation, I will list the key players in Appalachia’s hip hop tradition (often referred to as hick hop) and examine the regional pride, symbolic values, and performance of marginalized identities found in their work. The rhetorical moves employed by these artists are often misunderstood by cultural outsiders because stereotypes of the Appalachian region cloud the context from which the music is crafted. While maintaining a rhetorical tradition that borrows from yet is also distinct from hip hop’s dirty south sub-genre, hick hop works to untangle a cultural thread at the intersection of authenticity, regionalism, and race in hip hop music. Appalachia, bounded by its namesake mountain range, is, more of a cultural region - a state of mind, a set of living conditions, an identity configuration - than it is a geographic region. In other words, this culture is defined as much by rhetoric as by geography. As such, hick hop artists can be differentiated by the manner in which they pay homage to Appalachia’s cultural heritage, employing region-specific rhetorical traditions while simultaneously negotiating their identities in relation to connotations of ignorance and poverty – social stigmas attributed to the “Hillbilly.” My goal is to advance scholarly conversations regarding regional, racial, and spatial identity in hip hop music while at the same time complicating stereotypical notions of life in Appalachia that undermine the diversity of people and perspectives found in the region.
