UC Riverside

This dissertation explores the commodification of rap in the United States and France. Specifically, this project examines the devolution of hip-hop into a neoliberal practice in which original messages become drowned out by sales pitches, or a neocolonial self-fulfilling prophecy. Specifically, I situate French and American rap historically to highlight the how the commodification of hip-hop reflects complicated and entwined relationships between social constructions of gender, race, and nationality. Especially central to this historical situation of hip-hop’s commodification is how creative expression is raced and gendered in different cultural contexts. This project finds productive sites of cultural and expressive dislocation through which French and American identity constructions are deconstructed through hip-hop.