Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend many guest lectures this semester, and those I did go to didn’t match up well with what I have been working on for my audio paper. Fortunately, I was able to look back at the previous guest lecturers and found Janine Francois’ lecture from 2021.
“Janine Francois is a rising black British feminist, critic and writer, and is known for her insightful critical but piercing perspectives on race and social justice. Janine practices deconstructs whiteness (and race) within cultural and academic institutions by way of writing, curating/ producing, research, teaching and consultancy”. (bio from lecture)
As the world progressed into the modern age, the global north heavily abused the global south, through years of slavery – Oppressing those they deemed inferior. Life was brutal, families were torn apart and people were stripped of their culture. They were however, able to reclaim, or more so reinvent what was ‘lost’ for example traditional drums being replaced by steel drums (which I now know I was incorrectly labelling as it is actually the steel pan). Essentially those who were oppressed found ways to express themselves with their previous cultures that were practically taken from them. Songs like ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ and ‘Guiltiness’ which I discuss in my works have strong messages about peoples rights and the wrongdoings of those who were/are in power.
Janine discusses how black American scholars root Double Dutch, often seen as a simple school yard activity, as a ‘key ingredient’ to the early stages of hip-hop. She says that Double Dutch is often played by young black girls and has links to the blues. Stomp is another example brought up. Using the body as percussion in place of instruments. Early hip-hop took place in the Bronx, New York at street parties.
Janine says “The most noted (people) was DJ Kool Herc, who was American born but of Jamaican parentage and we see a huge migration of Caribbean people, particularly those from Jamaica where sound system culture was already heavily developed, at least from the 1940s.” As I mentioned in my previous blog, the Jamaican sound system is a big deal with stone love being one of the most notable in the world. Perhaps there is a correlation between hip-hop and stone love? I couldn’t find anything on it, but there were a lot of mixes done by people so there should be some crossover.