Zuberi - Is This The Future - Black Music and Technological Discourse

SF-TH Inc
Is This the Future? Black Music and Technology Discourse

Author(s): Nabeel Zuberi
Source: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, Afrofuturism (Jul., 2007), pp. 283-300
Published by: SF-TH Inc
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241526
Accessed: 08-09-2015 10:50 UTC
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DISCOURSE
BLACKMUSICAND TECHNOLOGY
283
Nabeel Zuberi
Is This The Future? Black Music and Technology Discourse
therupture
of theMiddlePassageand
Introduction.FormusicalAfrofuturists,
of Africanculturearea "dematerialization"
slavery'sdestruction
(Eshun192).
Indiaspora,cultureis rematerialized
througha varietyof techniques,including
soundrecording.Sincetheslaveis property,sheis alienatedfromthecategory
of the human(Judy5). Thisprovidesthe conceptualspacein whichto argue
about the very idea of the human subject and to imagine posthuman
manifestations
of blacknessfromfigureslikebrothers(andsisters)fromother
planetsandcyborgsfromearthto morediffuseenergiessuchas IshmaelReed's
"JesGrew"in MumboJumbo(1972) (Williams154-76).Withtechnological
mediationssuch as sound samplesand computerviruses, even apparently
inanimateobjects "get a life," and so cause anxiety aboutthe boundaries
betweenthem(objectsor non-subjects)
andus (subjects).
Thetransnational
culturearoundbeatsandbass-heavymusicfixateson the
physicalityof music media such as computers,amplifiers,speakers,and
turntables.Like sf, this commodityfetishism sometimesanimatesthese
technologicalobjectsin spectacularfashion.For example,a graffitoby the
artistComponenton the studiowall of Auckland'sBase FM radiostation
showsthe giganticwoofersandtweetersof a soundsystemstackedin sucha
waythattheyconstructa hugeroboticfigure.InmanyR&Bandhip-hopmusic
videos, the imagejumpsforwardin time with the bumpof the music's low
frequenciesas if it is the skinof a wooferor subwoofer.In flyersandrecord
coversfordrum'n'bass
eventsandreleases,designersexaggeratethepixilation
of a soundpattern'sgraphicon a computerscreen.Inposters,animated
videos,
websites, stencils, and murals,the turntableand the stylus cartridgeare
as objectsof identification
reproduced
anddesire.The scratchDJ Q-Bert,for
example,usesthebiotechhybridlogo of a styluscartridge-insect
figureas one
of his signatures.
This attentionto thecorporeality
of musicequipmentandgadgetsextends
to thinkingaboutthesounditselfas material,particularly
sincethehip-hopera
liberatedthe fragmentin the formof the scratch,the break,andthe sample
from the record'ssurface.Cuttingand splicingaudiotapeand mixingtwo
soundsourcesspurredthis developmentearlierin phonographic
history.But
thetermthecomposerandsound
digitaltechnologiesintensify"schizophonia,"
theoristMurraySchaferusesto describethesplittingof musicfromits sources.
Oncewe beginto thinkof soundas matterthatcanbe brokenup intopliable
materialfor new contexts,the notionof "music"can be rippedfrom the
constraintsof traditionalmusic theory. The tone and timbreof the sonic
momentbecomethe focusfor analysis,ratherthanharmony,melody,andthe
totalityof the work. This forces us to thinkaboutthe affectivepower of
284
SCIENCEFICTIONSTUDIES,VOLUME34 (2007)
relativelyshortpiecesof music.Itencouragesa micrologicalattentionto sound

quality.But we must also considerboth the accumulatedand distributed
economicvalueof hypermobile
musicthatis networkedandwidelydistributed
on manymediaplatformsin evenmorelocations.Soundsareroutinelycloned
likeviruses.Theymutateas theytravelandtakeupresidencein differentsites.
Workon cinema'svisualeffects,emanatingfromsf film theoryin the last
decade,suggestsananalogousmovein thestudyof musicandrecordedsound.
BrooksLandonhasarguedthatstudyof cinema'sspecialeffectsmightproduce
"a modelfor whatscience-fictionfilm criticismmightdiscoverif it candraw
back from its preoccupationwith narrativesin science-fictionfilms and
considerthescience-fictional
filmproduction
storythatscience-fiction
hasitself
become"(40). Howmightthe close listeningto "effects"in musicchangeits
study,particularly
whenwe aredealingwithdigitallyproducedmusicthathas
becomeits own kindof "science-fictional
story"?It mightreturnus to the
medium,thephonicsubstanceandtextureof recordings;butwhilethiscritical
moveis valuable,suchtechno-centric
analysisrisksbecomingdeafto thesocial
andculturalforcesthatgive thesesoundsmeaning.
Ghostsin the machine.In 2005-06,I was struckby thecurrencyof theword
hauntologyin a numberof music blogs, discussionthreads,and reviews.
Writershad sampled and recontextualizedthe neologism from Jacques
Derrida'sSpectersofMarx(1994)andvia someof Derrida'sinterpreters
(Buse
andScott).ForDerrida,hauntologyis meantto frustrate
ontology.Spectersare
neitherdeadnoralive.Ghostsareelusive,hardto pindown.Yettheirmaterial
presenceconfoundsthe desireto separatethe pastandthe present.The ghost
existsnow, a shadowor traceof a bodythatonceexisted.Butit is notthesame
thing as that once live body or its dead remains.Because its uncanny
interruption
complicatesa linearsenseof timeandthereforehistoricism,the
ghost is a suggestivefigure for sf. Derridawritesthat fundamentally
"the
specteris the future,it is alwaysto come, it presentsitselfonly as thatwhich
couldcome, or comeback"(39). In otherwords,the revenantcan appearat
any timeto occupyourhomesandourfavoritehaunts.
Music aficionadosdid not grapplewith the Derrideanimplicationsof
hauntologyin muchdepth,butappliedthetermquiteliberallyto a widerange
of musicproductions,andnotonlyfromthefieldof "black"or "urban"
music.
Typicallybloggersgeneratedlists, recitingfromthepresentandrecallingfrom
thepast(see Dissensus).New exemplarsof hauntologyincludedUS pop-rock
tunesmithAriel Pink, the female folk-bluesduo CocoRosie,producersof
ambientelectronicaat the UK's GhostBox label, anddubstepartistBurial,
whose echoing slo-mo drum patternsconjuredup a noir soundtrackfor
London.The BBC RadiophonicWorkshop'sthemefor Dr Whoand Roxy
Music'sfirst two albumsfromthe early 1970s have been amongthe many
soundsexhumedfromthe archive.Butquiteoftensimplythe inclusionof the
words "haunted"
and "ghost,"andtheirvariouspermutations
in the titlesof
songs,tracks,andalbums,hasbeensufficientgroundsfor anartist'sinclusion
in the pantheonof hauntology.
DISCOURSE
285
Whatseems to unite these diverse pieces of music is theirattemptto capture

the grain of earlier playback technologies and recording methods. Simon
Reynolds and others have comparedAriel Pink's music to 1980s MTV pop as
heard through poor AM radio reception ("Web of Ghosts"). Pink's work
reminds me of listening to Radio Luxembourgin northernEngland a decade
earlier. Songs would become muffled in radio space. They would try to call
back to the listener in bursts as the music dissolved into the overlappingtones
of inter-station disturbance. The song might suddenly return with greater
contour and clarity for an indeterminatetime. Sometimes the Luxembourg
signal would disappearentirely and not resurfacefrom the noise until the next
day. CocoRosie, on the other hand, make many of their songs sound like they
were recorded in the jazz age through the "vintage" microphone effect that
makes the voice sound as if it has been transmittedthrough a long tube or
tunnel. Other examples of this fairly common effect include Beth Gibbons's
vocals for the 1990s group Portisheadand most famously Trevor Horn's voice
on The Buggles' hit that tried to capture an earlier moment of media
transformation, "Video Killed The Radio Star" (1979). The artists on Ghost
Box, such as The Advisory Circle, The Focus Group, and BelburyPoly, work
in a retrofuturistmode that resurrectsfragmentsof earlier analog synthesizer
tones throughdigital sampling. Like the Scottish duo Boards of Canada,their
names also suggest the cultural institutionsof a bygone state of modernism.
The technostalgia of their recordings also evokes the past through the
indecipherablevoices of children. These recordingsare ghostly because their
sound is deliberatelymuddied;it disavows the pristineduplicationof the digital
in preference for the noise of old media. The hiss of pre-Dolby tapes and
cassettes leaks from tracks by Germantechno artists Rhythm & Sound. The
static of the stylus on vinyl can be heard throughoutthe Burial album (2006)
and many pieces of music on CD and MP3.
Blogger k-punkcontendsthathauntologyis "thezeitgeist," but asks "Why
hauntologynow?" He answers: "Well, has thereever been a time when finding
gaps in the seamless surfacesof 'reality'has ever felt more pressing?Excessive
presence leaves no traces. Hauntology'sabsentpresent, meanwhile, is nothing
but traces" ("HauntologyNow"). This comment echoes new media theorists
Jay David Bolter and RichardGrusin's statementthat "ourculturewants both
to multiply its media and to erase all traces of mediation: ideally it wants to
erase its media in the very act of multiplying them" (5). Their book
Remediation (1999) argues, however, that periods of media transformation
involve the integrationof "old" media into "new" media. The invocation of
hauntology seems to respond to the shifting musical techno- and mediascape.
Music producersmeditateon the relationshipbetweenpast andpresentthrough
the presence of previous sounds or their simulacrain newly fashioned digital
recordings. This music may articulatea feeling of loss for old sounds and
technologies that have been superseded. But it may also pastiche, parody, or
revive them as integral elements of new works and genres. New music's
"specialeffects" demonstratemany modalitiesof attachmentto the sonic past.
Simon Reynolds-who claims to have first used "hauntology"as a term to
286
describenot quite"agenre,a sceneor a network"-laterditchedthe termfor

themoregeneral"haunted
audio"to describe"agenre-without-name:
moreof
a flavouror atmospherethan a style with boundaries"("Societyof the
Spectral"28). Ratherthanfocuson the outlinesof this musicalcurrentor its
I wantto pursueand developthe implicationsof
particularrepresentatives,
Reynolds'snotion of hauntedaudio to think about black music and its
mediations.
Diaspora ghosts. The Africandiasporahas a deep and troubledhistoryof
"ghostlymatters,"hauntingsthat have been centralto westernmodernity
(Gordon2). ToniMorrison'sBeloved(1987)andMichaelJackson'szombiein
the "Thriller"
video(1983)arejusttwo apparitions
thatimmediately
springto
life fromthepopulararchive.Blackmusiccultureseemsanappropriate
portal
throughwhichtoexaminetheemergingmediaarchitecture
of remembrance
and
to investigateperceptions
of (technological)
change.Musicianshavebeenatthe
forefrontof the interfacebetweenthe analogand digitalin the last twenty
years, excavatingthe audiorubbleof the past as they soundthe futureinto
being. For example,hip hop adoptedsamplersto keepsoul andfunksounds
alive.Chicagohousemusiciansresurrected
thediscostringsandsecularerotic
gospel voices on recordsthatwere burntin a pyre in theircity. They used
traded-insynthesizers,sequencers,anddrummachines.Jamaicans
wentback
to old colonialandAfricandrumpatternsin theircomputerized
riddims.The
ghostshave alwaysbeen in the house, even if theirappearanceshave been
intermittent.
Caribbean
poetandtheoristEdouardGlissanthasarguedthatblackAtlantic
historyis "characterized
by ruptures... thatbeginwitha brutaldislocation,the
slave trade"(62). He contendsthat "historicalconsciousnesscould not be
depositedgraduallyandcontinuallylike a sediment"(62). Insteadof a linear
conceptionof history,whatWalterBenjamincalls "homogenous
emptytime,"
black historical materialismis produced in circumstancesof "shock,
contraction,painfulnegation,andexplosiveforces"(62). Riffingon Glissant,
BlackBritishcriticBarnorHessearguesthatthis rupture"facilitatesfocuson
a systemof organizingexperiences,space, which is the projectof another
temporality,not only a differenthistory,but in effectthe historyof different
spaces:the Africandiaspora"(169). Oneof the goals for the descendantsof
displacedAfricanshas beenthe construction
of futurepaststhatlinkthemto
othersin diasporictimeandspace.
Fred Moten argues that the phonic substanceand syntax of black
performancesis often disguisedor deemedas "noise"(7). The screamand
songof the slaveembodya drivetowardsfreedomandsubjectivitythatis not
encapsulated
by verbalmeaningor standardmusicalform.A historyof black
aestheticcriticismhas describedhow theseutterancesexpressa yearningfor
an Africanoriginthatis impossibleto satisfy.Thepracticesandstructuresof
blackmusiccontinueto manifestthis diasporicresponseto time and space.
Improvisation,call andresponse,the breakandcut are symptomatic
of that
unfulfilleddesire.JamesSneaduses the futk of JamesBrownto illustratethis
DISCOURSE
287
"ifthereis a goalin sucha culture,it is alwaysdeferred;

differenttemporality:
it continually'cuts'backto the start,in themusicalmeaningof the 'cut'as an
abrupt,seeminglyunmotivatedbreak(an accidentalda capo) with a series
alreadyin progressand a willed returnto a prior series" (220). Leroi
Jones/AmiriBaraka'snotionof the "changingsame"is an oxymoronthat
mighthaveemergedfromsf literature.It has beenan influentialconceptfor
of past iterationsof blackness.
workingthroughthe novel transformations
Diasporictheorymakessenseof theplaybetweenrepetitionanddifference.It
and dialogicalconversationsin the phonographic
navigatesre-articulations
practicesassociatedwithebonics,theMCandDJbattle,theversion,thedub,
the break,the scratch,the mix, and the remix. In the visual field, graffiti
bombingandmethodssuchas "wildstyle"analogouslymodifytheword.Out
on thefloor,breakdancers,
dancehallqueens,andothersrespondto thespaces
anddirectionsof thegroovewithanever-expanding
of posturesand
repertoire
machinations
thatriff off eachother.
WaxingLyrical. In thebeginningwas the soundof theneedleon the record.
Be it shellacor 180-gramvinyl, thecracklingof thestyluson thegramophone
disc's surfaceis a familiarnoisein today'smusic.It is so commonin hiphop
that it is hard to single out one representativetrack that reproducesits
resonance.ButJerutheDamaja's"Statik,"thelasttrackfromhis debutalbum
TheSunRisesin theEast(Payday1994),pushestheideaharderthanmost.An
instrumental
loop thatfries like baconhelpsto bed downDJ Premier'sbeat.
In fact, Jeruconcludesthe albumwiththe dare, "Stepintomy realmandbe
friedby the static,"afterwhichhe disappearsandthe trackrunsout to the
insistentrhythmof the needlein the groove.The crackleof old recordsis a
ubiquitousbut multi-accented
sampletype in the toolkitof every producer
musicin thelasttwentyyears.Thisloopis partandparcelof
making"urban"
the resuscitation
of voices andinstruments
buriedin the vinyl archive.Other
timesit remindsus of the anticipation
of the firstnotesof a pieceof musicon
vinyl.Thecrackleeffectis generatedby thecrunchyabrasiveness
of thestylus
on wax, the soundof the machineitself, never mindthe music. The digital
technologiesof CD and MP3 pay homageto vinyl as theirolder sibling,
retaininga registerof themateriality
of recordsthroughtheirscratchiness
even
as theyaredigitized.Listenersboastof vinyl'ssonicqualitiesas a mediumtheanalogwarmnessandthephatnessof beats-and theycite theaudiophile's
statisticsthat apparentlyprove it. This is before one even gets to the
commodityfetishismaroundthe recordas a materialobject.Audiobloggers
of the labelof therecordand/orthepicturesleevealongside
postphotographs
theMP3file. Thatscratchiness
of needleon recordis theGroundZeroforDJs
who will releasean arrayof sharpertonesfromthe surfaceof therecordwith
themechanical
gesturesof theirpalmsandforearms.Theywill alsocreatenew
soundscapes
throughtheirtwo-andthree-turntable
mixes.Evenmusicianssuch
as DJ Shadow,whocraftbeatsusingthelatestportableanddigitalMPCMIDI
ProductionCentermanufactured
by Akai and mix music on their laptop
computers,alsoplayDJsessionsexclusivelywithseven-inchvinylsingles.The
288
archiveof vinyl maintainsa significantmarketpresencein both new and

secondhandform.
Blackhistoricalmaterialismin relationto musichas involveda richwax
poetics. Scholarshave dug deep in the grooves of the recordin orderto
Timeandtime
anAfricandiasporicaesthethicsof phonography.
conceptualize
againtheyreturnto the ur-figureof RalphEllison'sInvisibleMan.He is the
ideallistener,as he playsLouisArmstrong's"WhatDid I Do To Be So Black
AndBlue"andsmokesreeferinhisbasement.Invisibilitygiveshim"aslightly
differentsense of time, you're never quite on the beat. Sometimesyou're
ahead,sometimesbehind.Insteadof the swift and imperceptible
flowingof
time, you are awareof its nodes,thosepointswheretimestandsstill or from
whichit leapsahead.Andyou slip intothe breaksandlook around"(7).
Put the needle on the recordand the theoristsjust do not stop. Jazz
thatthemusic'shistoryhasbeenconstituted
historiography
hasacknowledged
in largepartby its recordedlegacy.Thatinsightextendsto othermusicalforms
andstylesin theageof recording.Oneof thepleasuresin readingPaulGilroy,
for example,is the revelationof his discophilia.Gilroyhas writtenaboutthe
of recordsas materialobjectsfor which"consumption"
is a weak
importance
term to describethe processesinvolvedin theircirculationand enlivening
presencefor subjectsand spaces at variousnodes in the diaspora(Black
Atlantic105-106).He hasalsorepeatedlyfocusedon the "ephemera"
of record
of blackness.Inhis book
sleevesas important
mediaspacesforrepresentations
he even gives propsto recordstores.
acknowledgments
ButGilroyhas alwayscheckedthetechniquesof phonography
andsought
to openup the record'ssurface.Evenbackin the dayas a graduatestudentat
the Centrefor Contemporary
CulturalStudiesin Birmingham,his essay on
discoursesof raceandnationin theanthologyTheEmpireStrikesBack(1981)
was sensitiveto the technologiesof musicreproduction
andto the materiality
of sound. He quotesanotherscholar of the curves of the needle and the
phonographicrecord, TheodorAdorno, when he describes"the political
efficacy of 'atelic, hermeticworks of art' in capitalistrelationsof cultural
production"
("Steppin'Out"300). Gilroydescribestheshockof specialeffects
such as gunfire,explosions,sirens, animals,scratches,and tape soundsin
Jamaicandubrecordsthat"exposethemusicalanatomyof thepiece, showing
how eachlayerof instrumentation
complementstheothersto forma complex
whole" (300). He describes in detail Black Uhuru's dub of "General
Penitentiary"
(1979) in which "thesyndrumbecomesa cell doorrepeatedly
slammingshut," and notes that in the WailingSouls' "KingdomRise &
KingdomFall" (1980) the word "economy"is transformedinto the word
"army"throughthe use of an analogdelay device (300). From this close
listeninghe speculatesthat"Itis temptingto view theprocesswhichlaysbare
the structurebeneaththe unifiedexteriorof the wholeunmodifiedversionas
an expressivehomologyfor the Rastaview of the world"(300).
Not quitea generationlater,throughthe prismsof electricjazz, hip hop,
house, techno,jungle, anddrum'n'bass,anotherBlackBritishcritic,Kodwo
Eshun, writes aboutDJs who scratchand producerswho samplevinyl as
DISCOURSE
289
releasing the "entelechy"of the record, liberatingand realizing its potentialas

an object. He suggests thatthe music opens up through "a microperceptionof
the actualmaterialvinyl" (179). Here Eshun rejects the academicemphasison
the archaeologyof concepts. Insteadhe borrows from MarshallMcLuhanthe
idea of the probe, which is adaptedfor speculative thought from the titles of
tracks and song titles or from science fiction. The productionof neologisms,
"concept manufacture"(178), and a micro-formalismhostile to sociological
and political understandingsof black music mark Eshun's work; he mobilizes
a new jargon to replaceacademicvocabulary.Like otherpostgraduatestudents
at Warwick University's peripheralCyberneticCultureResearchUnit, which
was headed by Sadie Plant and Nick Land in the mid-1990s, Eshun put his
record collection to work for theory with a database of sampled networked
sources, includingDeleuze andGuattari'srhizomatictheory, NorbertWiener's
cybernetics, Manuel De Landa's philosophy of science, J.G. Ballard's sf,
journalistErik Davis's techno-mysticism,andthe poststructuralismfor musical
trainspottersexemplified by Simon Reynolds's work. K-Punkand the dubstep
producerKode9 are also graduatesof CCRU, partof thatgenerationof young
scholars and artists inspired by the accelerated technological and sonic
imaginationof jungle and drum'n'bassmusic in the early 1990s. Their music,
blogs, and intermittentjournalism today are themselves haunted by the
aesthetic, theoretical, and political possibilities of that musical moment.
Eshun shares several affinities with New York academic Paul D. Miller,
who mixes and records as DJ Spooky That SubliminalKid. Miller's Rhythm
Science (2004) is a stateside version of Eshun's More Brilliant Than the Sun
(1998), though it lacks the precise shape and follow-through of particular
concept probes applied to specific musical tracks. Part creative treatise, part
autobiography, Miller's rhetoric aims to mimic DJ culture but ends up
embodyingthe particularlyfrenetic and chaotic sampling and mixing aesthetic
of his own so-called "illbient" music (as opposed to more glacial ambient
music). RhythmScience is eager to explore cyberspaceand Miller's claims for
the book are even more techno-utopianthanMore Brilliant Than The Sun:
Thinkof it as a mirrorheld up to a culturethathas learnedto fly again, thathas
released itself from the constraintsof the ground to drift through dataspace
continuouslymorphingits form in responseto diverse streamsof information....
This is a world where all meaninghas been untetheredfrom the groundsof its
origins and all signposts point to a road that you make up as you travel through
the text. (5)
As a discophile, Miller confesses that when he looks at his collection of

"somethingbetween 20,000 to 30,000 records," he gets "dizzy with all the
voices and potentialmixes" he could make because it is "infiniteand heady"
(36). Ecstasy is a powerful dimensionof such Afrofuturistrhetoric. In a 1998
story about CCRU's cyberfuturism,Simon Reynolds acknowledges that "the
mania of CCRU's texts-with their mood-blend of euphoric anticipationand
dystopian dread-is contagious. Much of the time they're trying to create a
290
'theory-rush'thatmatchesthe buzzthey get fromcontemporary

sampladelic
dancemusic"("RogueUnit").
Andthe buzzfromdrugs.ReviewingMoreBrilliantthanthe Sun,Angela
McRobbiecommentsthatthe "narcoticeffect intersectswith a philosophical
ambition,bothof whichare intensifiedby the furtherseductionsof computer
and the internet"(152). Eshun's hyperbole-or cyberbole-is sometimes
articulated
througha Nietzscheanlanguageof braveryandheroismin response
of academicinstitutionsand culturalstudies'banal
to the "delibidinizers"
critiqueof capitalism(qtd.in Lovink).ThoughReynoldsis ambivalentabout
as a "rogue
someof CCRU'sideologicalcurrents,he describesit romantically
of PhilosophyatWarwickUniversity,
unit"of thepoststructuralist
Department
personifiedby the figureof Kurtzin ApocalypseNow ("RogueUnit").The
andNietzscheansuperman
seemsunclearinthese
betweenposthuman
boundary
fantasiesof powerandthereforeall the moretroubling.
More mundanely,the male connoisseurshipinvolved in collectingthe
"right"recordsandits relationship
to hightheory,sf narrative,andspectacle
offer, in McRobbie'swords,"noopeningat all forprosaicquestionsaboutthe
politicsof musicin generalandmorespecificallythe sexualpoliticsof dance
music" (145). As Jason King remarkedat an ExperienceMusic Project
conferencein 2004, the Afrofuturistcanonof technoand hip hop is also
selectivelymaleandheterosexist.It prefersmusicwithoutvocalsandignores
recordingartistssuch as EarthWind& Fire, The UndisputedTruth,Missy
Elliot,Labelle,andSylvester.R & B, soul,disco,andhousemusicwithfemale
and transgendervoices have also drawnon the tropesof sf in their work.
AlexanderS. Weheliyerightlysuggeststhatin theirdesireto rejectthehuman
for the posthuman,someAfrofuturist
criticsoftenfail to examinethe various
technologicalmediationsof blackwomen'svoices as signifiersof "humanity"
or "soul."Weheliye'sownworkon soundeffectssuchas thevocoderandthe
presenceof the bleepsand audioqualityof gadgetslike beepersandmobile
telephonesin late 1990s R & B hits by female vocalists complicatesthe
human/posthuman
distinction("Feenin"'40). It also takes debatesabout
blacknessandtechnologyintothe broaderterrainof populartaste,beyondan
analysis limited to the pursuit of male cultural capital. Weheliye's
Phonographies:Grooves in Sonic Afro-Modernity(2004) develops his concern
withthe materialityof soundto beginto considerthe ways in whichgirls and

women use audio technologiessuch as personal stereos to fashiontheir
environmentsonicallyas they move throughit. This is still a rarescholarly
insight.Maybenowwe will havemorestudiesof theusesto whichblackgirls
and women have put recordsand turntables.While sympatheticto much
Afrofuturist
discourse,HermanGrayhastempereditstechnophilia
withanalysis
of theeverydaywaysinwhichmusiciansconceptualize,
integrate,andtalkabout
the use of digitaltechnologiesin theirmusicalproduction,as well as in its
consumption
(148-84;see also Zuberi).
Blackbodiesswinging.Thebodyis alsocuriouslyabsentfromsomeprominent
Afrofuturist
discourse.WhileEshunandMillerdescribethevirtualization
of the
DISCOURSE
291
humanbody in musical and audiovisualmedia such as recordsand videos, they

are less interestedin the feedbackloop as dancers,male andfemale, move to the
music. They also seem remarkablysilent abouthow black bodies continueto be
fetishized accordingto tiredtropesof racialotherness. David Cranehas argued
convincingly that hip black figures in many sf films serve to authenticateand
"naturalize"new technologies for white heroes. They "intermediate"between
cyberspaceandold technologieswith theirhip, urbanandsubcultural"realness"
(Crane 88).
In a great deal of popular commentary, the people who move on the
dancefloor are described as an amorphoussingular body manipulatedby the
DJ's control of the record decks. This may be due to masculine desires for
masteryandculturalassociationsof dance with the feminine. It could also be an
instance of the male fear of ceding any differential agency to women's
experience and pleasure on the dancefloor. Celebration of the communal
momentand religious trancevibe might have colored how we understandwhat
happens on the dancefloor. It might be the effect of a more prosaic
pharmaceuticaldeterminismthatbelieves thatEcstasymakeseveryone look the
same. To be more charitable,this disavowal of the embodiedbody is probably
an effect of a hegemonicphonographic(andmedia)history thatemphasizesthe
disembodiment that has accompanied recording and mediation of music
performancesever since the late nineteenthcentury.
In contrast, writing aboutthatkey musical institutionin the Black Atlantic,
the reggae sound system, Julian Henriques reminds us that sound is also
embodying (461). He describes the "sonic dominance" crucial to both the
aesthetics and experience of the sound-systemdance or session (452-53). The
amplifiers and speakers have to facilitate loudness with the low frequencies
resonating powerfully through the body. The lower abdomen should be
shudderingto the bass line. The power of "a sound"is also one element thatis
decisive in the competitionor sound clash of two sound systems in a dancehall
session. Henriqueslinks the matterof soundin records, throughamplifiersand
speakers, to the matterof humanbodies on the dancefloorby using the term
"transduction"(468). Literallymeaning "to lead or carry across," the word is
appliedto electromagnetic,sonic, andculturalforces thatoperatein a chainand
yet feed back and thus affect each other. Henriquesdescribes one dance, the
Drive By, in which men lean back and have one arm extendedin frontof them
as if driving a car (469). Such automationssuggest that the technocultural
gesturesof dancingbodies offer a ripe areaof studywhere Afrofuturismmight
intersectwith dance studies.
CarolynCooper'sresearchon the class andgenderdynamicsof theJamaican
dancehall,Sound Clash:JamaicanDancehall CultureAt Large (2004), has not
as yet substantiallyintersected with technologically-inflectedstudies of the
sound-systemsession. She argues that the elaboratedancing that animatesthe
buttocksof dancehallqueens is empoweringfemale display. Coopermakesthis
pointduringher appearancein IsaacJulien's 1994documentaryTheDarkerSide
of Black, which examineshomophobia,misogyny, and gun culturein Jamaican
dancehallmusic and US hip hop. In contrast,Paul Gilroy's voice-over for the
292
SCIENCE FICTIONSTUDIES, VOLUME 34 (2007)
film suggests that the desire for freedom and redemptionin soul and reggae
music has dwindledfrom encompassingcommunityto focusing on the nuclear
family and then to the individualblack body. In his writing, Gilroy argues that
this "revolutionaryconservatism"lauds the athletic bodies of black men and
women (Against Race 177-206). This is a more contradictoryreading of the
black body than is the celebration of virtualizationin Eshun's and Miller's
work. Gilroy's reading of rapper Snoop Dogg's use of a canine identity on
record and video exposes the way morphologiesand anthropomorphisms
yield
wider questions about the lack of black power in America: "Choosingto be a
low-down dirty dog values the infrahumanrather than the hyperhumanity
promoted through body-centeredbiopolitics and its visual signatures in the
health, sports, fitness and leisure industries"(AgainstRace 202-203). Gilroy's
manycommentson dancingblackbodies, however, also reveal a certaingender
blindnessandeven prudishnessthatcuts off productivedebatesaboutembodied
sexual politics in relationto black music. For example, as JasonKingpointsout
in an article about the producer Timbaland's "booty" music, "The ass is a
highly contestedand deeply ambivalentsite/sight.... It may be a nexus, for the
unfoldingof contemporaryculture and politics" (430). The work of King and
Coopercomplicatespat and singularunderstandingsof sexism andhomophobia
in the spaces of the hip-hop club and dancehall session and their audiovisual
representations.
Digital public culture and diasporic samples. Gilroy's pessimism about the
black public sphere resonatesa few years later in a commentaryby one of the
inspirationalfiguresof contemporaryAfrofuturism,AmericanwriterGregTate.
In a January2005 Village Voicearticle, Tate reflects on thirtyyears of hip hop,
concludingwith a futuristicscenario:
Twenty years from now we'll be able to tell our grandchildrenand greatgrandchildrenhow we witnessedculturalgenocide: the systematicdestructionof
a people's folkways.... We'll tell them how fools thoughtthey were celebrating
the 30th anniversaryof hiphopthe year Bush came back with a gangbang,when
they were really presidingover a funeral. We'll tell them how once upon a time
there was this marvelous art form where the Negro could finally say in public
whatever was on his or her mind in rhyme and how the Negro hiphop artist,
staring down minimumwage slavery, Iraq, or the freedom of the incarcerated
chose to take his emancipatedmotor mouth and stuck it up a stripper's ass
because it turnedout there really was gold in them thar hills. ("Hip Hop Turns
30"s)
This indictmentof black popularculture seen from an imaginedfuture seems

particularlyprescient,given thatit was writtenbefore HurricaneKatrina.Jay-Z
and Beyonce are still struttingtheir stuff for transnationalcorporationsReebok
and L'Oreal. Tate has always been a critical advocate for hip hop, and has
always argued that hip hop was both folk culture and late capitalist dream
machine. But the flurry of online debate in blogs within a few days of his
article's publicationwas as remarkableas his pessimistic vision of the future.
Most of the argument centered on whether his pronouncementsmarked a
BLACK MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGYDISCOURSE
293
generationgap betweenthe "old school," who believed in hip hop as a force for
social change and lamentedits tighthandshakewith the corporatedevil, and the
"new school," who realized hip hop's limited capacity to provide black
leadershipin the new millenniumand who emphasizedthe broadchurchof hip
hop with its many views-progressive, regressive, and statusquo. The talk on
blogs and in the threadsof discussiongroups ironicallytestifiedto the vibrancy
of a digitalblack public sphere. Hip hop was not, in fact, dead, despiteperiodic
jeremiads statingso from many of its participants.
A year later, in a February2006 review of threebooks addressinghip hop's
mixed accomplishments,Tate seems to have registeredthe key terms of the
online debateand admitsto a feeling of nostalgiaand loss for the early hopes of
hip-hop culture. Though he mourns the passing of its social and political
aspirations,he differs from Gilroy in an importantrespect. Gilroy mourns the
passing of the analog and the funkiness of live antiphony"killed by the deskilling process institutedby digital technologies"(qtd. in Green and Guillory,
253-54). ThoughTate is also mournful,he hints at the propheticpower of hip
hop for a society increasinglyshapedby information:
The paradoxcomes from feeling that hip-hop was sooo twentieth century, so
prefigurativeand definitiveof the late century, and yet just as full of portentfor
our twenty-first-centurynervoussystems. Our currentvision of the millennium
-that of a world rockedby organizedterror,cyberneticcapitalismandcreativity,
anda growingantidemocraticapparatusof policing andsurveillance-is the world
hip-hophas been reportingon since the early 1980s. ("The Color of Money")
Tate continuesto show a commitmentto the possibilities of digital exchange in

his work with the British Council's Black Atlantic Project, an initiative that
maintainsa dialoguebetweenUS andUK musiciansandwritersacrossthe wires
and wireless. The organizationuses the metaphorof the "chain-letter"as its
carrier for music and words and other media content backwardsand forwards
across the ocean, while Tate still stresses the need to bring "thebloody Middle
Passage into the room" so that its "clankingchains resonateacross the whole
body of this digitized, disembodied message mechanism" ("Unchained
Melodies").
A few years ago a friendgave me an MP3 of a live Greg Tate performance
backed with the sparest of beats from DJ Premier. From some time in the
1990s, "Whatis Hip Hop?"describedwhatwas andwas not hip hop-it offered
a kindof ontology of the game. I was struckby one line in particular:"HipHop
is James Brown's pelvis digitally grinded into techno morphine." This seems
such an apposite way of describing the inextricable link between Brown's
dancing and his music. It also capturesthe way hundredsof producershave
sampledhis screams, as well as variousotherutterancesand musical iterations
by the musiciansin his band, the JBs. These been distilled into sonic and fluid
essences with powerful effects.
I want to use that line by Tate as a "thoughtprobe" (to follow Eshun)or a
speculativeexperimenton the conceptualpower of "the sample." I hope that I
have alreadydemonstratedthata clear borderbetween old andnew mediadoes
294
not exist. Vinyl as a ghostlypresencein manydigital recordingsis still alive and

kicking, providinga source for theorizingthe materialityof audio culture(and
even the humblecassette has had somethingof a revival with mixtapenostalgia
and bloggers eagerly uploading their hissing tracks). Can we turn that
micrologicalattentionto the groove towardthe bits andbytes of digitizedsound
matter?I want finally to consider the writing on samplingto sketch out some
important emerging considerations for Afrofuturism, if we interpret
Afrofuturismloosely as a critical engagementwith technologyand the African
diaspora. What might the disseminationof the copy throughdigital networks
suggest aboutthe shifting contoursof diaspora?
LawrenceGrossbergarguedseveralyears ago thatthe currentpopularmusic
formationwas dominatedby a "neo-eclecticmainstream"thatoperatedwith the
"logic of samplingas a productiontechniqueand habit of listening" (48). His
view of samplingas bothtechnologicalenterpriseandeverydayconsumptionhas
even greater critical purchase today in the post-Napsterage of downloading,
ripping, and burning, althoughI would argue that the logic of samplingis also
accompanied by the logic of accumulation and the miniaturizeddatabase.
Samplingblurs the division between consumptionand production. Recording
artists dig through the archive on vinyl, CD, MP3, and even cassette for
sections of music with attractive timbres and/or cultural associations. A
producer can fracture this musical event into minute shards of noise or
reproduce it in "loops." Samples are processed and integrated into new
compositions. Embeddedin this new site, a sample is sometimes familiar to
listeners, but often reworkedbeyond recognition.
The digital work of art is potentiallyan open and fluid text. Listenerswith
access to rudimentarysound editing software can manipulatethese recordings
and in turndistributetheir own compositionson the Internet.So sampleshave
idiosyncratic half-lives as they take multiple routes and mutate during their
travels. For example, a few seconds of stringsfrom a recordedperformanceof
Igor Stravinsky'sFirebirdis sampledfor a synthesizersettingand then appears
in an influentialSouthBronx hip-hoprecord by Afrika Bambaataand a Detroit
techno classic by Derrick May (Fink), or the voice of Lata Mangeshkarfrom
a Hindi film song echoes ten years later in several Kingstondancehallhits and
a New York hip-hop track. Since a particular sample may materialize in
different pieces of music, its possible meaningsmultiply across various sites.
Samples thereforegeneratetheir own added commercial and/or culturalvalue
when severed from the fabric of the original and absorbed into a new host
composition. They may, if identified, increase the exchange value of their
source composition. Guitar riffs, drum patterns, horn blasts, and vocal
utterancesscatter in officially released, perfectly legal new singles and album
trackson CD, vinyl, and MP3. But they also appearin bootleg "mash-ups"on
vinyl or MP3s that combine elements of two or more tracks. In a soundscape
markedby potentiallyendless recombination,samples reproducein a plethora
of forms and media formats in both legally sanctionedand pirate economies.
James Brown's screams and yelps, for example, have multiplied across
thousandsof tracks. As Simon Reynoldsputs it, samplinginvolves the creation
DISCOURSE
295
of a zombie, takingthe once "embodiedenergy of drummers,horn players or

singers," looping and thus "transform[ing]these vivisected portionsof human
passion into treadmillsof posthumousproductivity"("Society of the Spectral"
31). He compares, for example, the "Amen"break-a five-second drum riff
playedby GregoryColemanandrecordedby The Winstonsin 1969-which has
been used, abused,chopped, andrearrangedin hundredsof hip hop, electronic,
jungle, and drum'n'bass tracks-to the "Sorcerer's Apprentice"segment of
Disney's Fantasia (1940), in which we see "thebroomstickchoppedinto 1000
pieces, proliferatingin ungodly swarms" ("Society of the Spectral"32).
A song or track is just a node (thougha powerful node) in the networkfor
a minor piece of audio-timethatmoves and occupies many spaces in a web of
sound. The Deleuzian critic Drew Hemmentterms these musical processes decomposition,"inwhich the museumor soundobjectbecomes notjust a question
of looping or repeatingindivisibleunits, but of reworkingthem in a nomadism
where the natureof the musical fragmentchanges along with the territoryit
traverses"(89). Digital technologies are not completely novel in this respect,
butdevelop andintensifythe schizophoniausheredin by recordingandplayback
technologies in the nineteenthcentury. EthnomusicologistSteven Feld argues
that the recent period of "schizophonicmimesis" has involved an acceleration
of "sonic copies, echoes, resonances, traces, memories, resemblances,
imitationsandduplications[that]all proliferatehistoriesandpossibilities" (263).
Digital technologieshave, therefore,understandablyheightenedanxietiesabout
musical authorship,intellectualproperty,and copyright.
Many academics, journalists, musicians, and fans have welcomed the
challenge of samplingto an oligarchyof music corporationsdeterminedto lock
down copyright and narrow the public domain through digital rights
managementtechnologies, legislative lobbying, and litigationagainstchildren
and senior citizens. Populardiscourse in journalismand amongstfans tends to
express a libertarian or anarchistic attitude to sampling. As an aspect of
musicianship, samplinghas also highlighted the inadequacyof individualistic
notions of creativity and authorshipinheritedfrom Romanticdiscoursesabout
art. Musiciansare always embeddedin histories of musical convention, so all
creativity occurs in dialogic encounters with previous practices and texts. As
JasonToynbeesuggests, soundmediahaveengendereda "phonographic
orality"
throughwhich musicianslearn to sing, play, andcompose new works. Though
they acknowledgethatlanguageand music have their differences as systems of
meaning, a number of scholars have broadly applied Bakhtin's concept of
dialogismto Africandiasporicculturalpractice. Samplingis often celebratedas
a digital manifestationof black music's "changingsame."
These largelypositive attitudestowardssamplinghave been accompaniedby
more ambivalentresponses. David Hesmondhalgh,for example, focuses on
electronic pop musicianMoby's highly successful 1999 album Play to discuss
the cultural inequalities in sampling. Several tracks on Play incorporatethe
voices of blues musicians recorded by ethnomusicologist and folk-music
archivist Alan Lomax. Hesmondhalghargues that Moby has failed to give
adequatecredit or compensationfor these contributionsto his record. The new
296
context for these ghostly voices replays many of the racial cliches with which
white Americanshave representedblackness. Hesmondhalgh'scritiquetapsinto
a long established discourse about white musicians "ripping off" African
Americansand/orprojectingtheirown fantasiesof racialdifferenceuponthem.
But he is also influencedby recentwork in ethnomusicologythatfocuses on the
power imbalancesin music's globalized traffic.
Ethnomusicologistshave been attunedto cultural anthropology'sbroader
reflectionon its own colonialhistoryas a social science designedto "capturethe
other"throughthe technologiesof the cameraandthephonograph(see Taussig).
Most significantlyfor the studyof sampling, Steven Feld has traced song lines
in a digital age and described the political economies of indigenousand nonwestern soundingsas they are reproducedin chains of successful recordingsin
the wealthiermarkets.Onepromptfor this researchhas been ethnomusicology's
own culpability in these economies. Ironically, field recordings by
ethnomusicologists-motivatedby the desire to protect, preserve, and maintain
threatened or marginalized cultural forms and practices, not to mention
peoples-have been the ones sampled by popular musicians in the wealthier
nations. Feld neatly summarizeswhat is at stake in contemporaryschizophonia:
Soundrecordings,split from their source throughthe chain of audioproduction,
circulation, and consumption, stimulateand license renegotiationsof identity.
The recordingsof course retaina certain indexical relationshipto the place and
people they both contain and circulate. At the same time, their material and
commodity conditions create new possibilities whereby a place and people can
be recontextualized,rematerializedand thus thoroughlyreinvented.(263)
Feld capturesthe migratorymomentumof samples and the mutabilityof their

identities. He also remindsus that these bits and bytes of soundmaterializein
particularforms andmediathatmake sense throughthe activitiesof participants
in specific places. The dislocationand relocationof digital music are intimately
bound.
Those traveling bits of sound do not move across cyberspacewithout any
anchors. They stick to particularbodies, even if only for a short time. The
argumentsandnegotiationsthatoccur when this music is listenedto anddanced
to, talked and written about, in and across particularsites reveal the stakes of
musicalterritoriesandmusical identities,theirbordersandtheirtransgressions.
The legal discourses of music are tested. Taken cumulatively, digital music
productions or "copyright violations" involve love and theft on a two-way
street, though in most cases they are lopsided articulationsthat favor some
musiciansand copyrightholders over others. As Steven Shaviropoints out, we
need to be attuned to specific cases, since digital dialogics are neither
necessarily exploitativenor inherentlyequitable(42-43, 66-69). For example,
some copyrightholders may not object to the free samplingof their work. Nate
Harrison's documentary about a few seconds of music-the Amen
break-describes how The Winstonstook no legal action againstthe multitude
of "copyrightviolators" of their work. But a company that manufacturedan
electronic keyboard copyrighted that instrument'ssamples of the very same
297
pieceof music.So a thirdpartycopyrightedan audiofragmentthatcirculated

andmutatedina kindof unregulated
publicdomain.Althoughcopyrightbattles,
technologicalpractices,and ethics will regulatethis trafficof sounds, "by
followingcirculationswe can get morethanby defmingentities,essence or
provinces"(Latour20).
Conclusion.The mobilityof soundmight give us criticalpurchaseon the
changingmodesof sonicblacknessin the digitalfuture.In the early 1990s,
Gilroywrotethat"callsandresponsesno longerconvergein the tidypatterns
of secret ethnically coded dialogue" (Black Atlantic 110). Over a decade later
withthe logicof samplingmorewidespread

andaccelerated,blacksoundscan
be decontextualizedand resituated.But global African-Americanmusic culture
itselfnowsamplesanarchiveof widerglobalsources.Gilroymaynothavefully
seized uponthe implicationsof his own statement.In fact, musichistorian
RonaldRadanosuggeststhatGilroy'sreformulation
of LeroiJones's"changing
same"as the BlackAtlanticretainsan ahistoricalkernelthatis "committed
to
a politicsof center,to a transcendent,
purelymusicalforcethat'getsbeyond'
of discursivecontest"(40). Radanocorrectlypointsoutthat"we
theinstabilities
simplycannotisolatea stablemusicalphenomenon
fromthehistoricalmatrix,
as one mightextractpreciousmetalsfromore or separatewheatfromchaff"
(41).
Thisdoesnotmeanthat"blackmusic"necessarilybecomesmorediffuse,
hegemonic,or imperialin thefutureof transnational
popularmusic.Blackness
will continueto operateas a matrixof competingdiscoursesand strategic
essentialisms.ButAfrofuturism
will have to engagein greaterdialoguewith
thoselookingat Atlanticor African-American
experiencefromAsia and the
South.Africaas a structuring
absencein muchof thisdiscourseis thebiggest
ghostin the house. But it will continueto contributeits own sounds.Black
Atlantic critics will need to speak and listen to an even broadernetwork of
voices, many of them digitally inscribed.
Earlyin thisarticleI mentioneda graffitoby the artistComponent

on the
wall of the Auckland studio of radio stationBase FM. By the time I finished
writingthisarticle,thegiantrobot-figure
madeof thespeakers,turntables,
and
amplifiersof a soundsystemhad lost its head.The new headof a reptilian
cyborgfigurewithtwotongueshadtakenitsplace.Abovethisimage,theMaori
artistandmusicianManaiaToahadpaintedthewords:"KaNuiTe ManaakiKi
Ngaa AtuaKatoa0 Te Ao Marama/Respect
to all the gods of the worldof
Thismulti-vocalpartialpalimpsestin the SouthPacific,made
understanding."
in the old medium of paint on a gib-boardwall, representsthe unpredictable
possibilities in local and transnationaltransformationsof Black music cultures.
The author would like to thank Mark Bould, the readers for SFS, Nick FitzHerbert,
ShuchiKothari,Sunil Narshai, and AlondraNelson for their help in writing this essay.
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ABSTRACT
As a dispersed assemblage of ideas and aesthetics, sonic Afrofuturismoperatesacross
the porous borders between and among music, sf, the academy, journalism, and the
blogosphere. In this article I am interested in the value of these rhetorics for media
studies. In particular,how can writing that focuses on the materialityof music inform
our understandingof the technologicalchangesassociatedwith digitization?I will argue
thatmusic forms, commodities, andpracticesprovideampleevidence of the continuities
as well as discontinuitiesin the mediascape. Today's popular music culture is marked
by the mediations of the past, even as recorded sounds take on more informational
characteristics.I also seek to ground the technological sublime of Afrofuturistpoetics
in the widespreadsocial practices associated with records, sound-systemdances, and
music networks. Underpinningthe sonic imagination in techno-centric writing and
music-makingare the quotidianpracticesof music cultures,the more "worldly"fictions
behind "sonic fictions," to borrowKodwo Eshun's suggestive adaptationof literaryand
visual sf for music recordings.This paperexaminesthe materialpossibilities of technodiscourse for transnationalmedia studies througha discussion of digital sampling, and
points to the limitationsof technologicalutopianismin relationto writing about music
and black bodies.

Zuberi - Is This The Future - Black Music and Technological Discourse

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SF-TH Inc

Is This the Future? Black Music and Technology Discourse

relativelyshortpiecesof music.Itencouragesa micrologicalattentionto sound

Whatseems to unite these diverse pieces of music is theirattemptto capture

describenot quite"agenre,a sceneor a network"-laterditchedthe termfor

"ifthereis a goalin sucha culture,it is alwaysdeferred;

archiveof vinyl maintainsa significantmarketpresencein both new and

releasing the "entelechy"of the record, liberatingand realizing its potentialas

As a discophile, Miller confesses that when he looks at his collection of

'theory-rush'thatmatchesthe buzzthey get fromcontemporary

withthe materialityof soundto beginto considerthe ways in whichgirls and

humanbody in musical and audiovisualmedia such as recordsand videos, they

SCIENCE FICTIONSTUDIES, VOLUME 34 (2007)

This indictmentof black popularculture seen from an imaginedfuture seems

BLACK MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGYDISCOURSE

Tate continuesto show a commitmentto the possibilities of digital exchange in

not exist. Vinyl as a ghostlypresencein manydigital recordingsis still alive and

of a zombie, takingthe once "embodiedenergy of drummers,horn players or

SCIENCE FICTIONSTUDIES, VOLUME 34 (2007)

Feld capturesthe migratorymomentumof samples and the mutabilityof their

BLACK MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGYDISCOURSE

pieceof music.So a thirdpartycopyrightedan audiofragmentthatcirculated

withthe logicof samplingmorewidespread

Earlyin thisarticleI mentioneda graffitoby the artistComponent

SCIENCE FICTIONSTUDIES, VOLUME 34 (2007)

Benjamin, Walter. "Theseson the Philosophyof History." Illuminations.Ed. Hannah

BLACK MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGYDISCOURSE

Hemment,Drew. "Affect and Individuationin PopularElectronicMusic." Deleuze and

SCIENCE FICTIONSTUDIES, VOLUME 34 (2007)

"Hip Hop Turns 30: WhatchaCelebratin'for?" Village Voice. 4 January2005.

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