Space to Be

Hip-hop culture and music in South Carolina (SC) are rarely discussed in the field of ethnomusicology. My thesis crosses the intersections of ethnomusicology and Black geography to investigate how Black hip-hop artists in Charleston, SC make space for themselves and other Black people in the locale. Through personal interviews with eleven artists, video analysis, lyrical analysis, music description, participant observation, and archival research, I come to understand that Black hip-hop artists in Charleston are Black place-makers that make space to define themselves, celebrate, “come to voice,” and push boundaries. This work is notable not only because of the paucity of literature related to ethnomusicological studies of Southern hip-hop, but because it connects to issues like gentrification, and racial disparities that are present throughout all the United States, not only Charleston. My interviewees present a fresh perspective, outside of the Northern urban plight narrative in hip-hop culture. As Southerners (some by way of locales outside of Charleston), these artists assert that they deserve a space in the city of Charleston regardless of how they may be displaced by those who have power.