%0 Journal Article
%T Hip
%A Serouj Aprahamian
%J Journal of Black Studies
%@ 1552-4566
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0021934719833396
%X It is commonly assumed that hip-hop was born when street gangs in the Bronx, New York, channeled their energy from violence and crime to music and artistic expression. I critically interrogate this dominant narrative through an examination of the influential book Yes Yes Y¡¯all: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop¡¯s First Decade (hereafter ¡°YYY¡±). Drawing from the original interview transcripts used for YYY, I compare the gang-origin narrative espoused in the book with the primary accounts of early hip-hop practitioners featured within it. Special attention is given to the divergences between the two sources, demonstrating how the claim that hip-hop came from gangs is unsubstantiated by relevant interviewee accounts. I discuss how the prevalence of this false narrative in studies of hip-hop history overall is part of a broader historic pattern of associating working class African American culture with criminality
%K hip-hop
%K street gangs
%K rap music
%K breaking
%K b-boy
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0021934719833396