Over the last four decades, Hip Hop has expanded its influence across various demographics, employing principles akin to those found in technical and professional communication, which can be likened to user-localization of digital and communicative technologies. In “Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America”, Tricia Rose(1994), primarily asserts the enriching an intriguing contributions of Hip Hop artists as a “Black sonic force”, originating from “Black cultural traditions, the post industrial transformation of urban life, and the contemporary technological landscape” (44). Rose’s strong assertion regarding Hip-Hop music is contextualized and rooted in local African-American musical practices. DJs and Rappers definitely have broadened the scope of technical communication via their rhetorical artistry and ushered it with effective and meaningful advancements in terms of diversity and inclusion. In simpler words, they have made Music industry a more diverse place.
DJ Kool Herc’s Turntables: Hip Hop Extraordinaire [Hip hop culture has infiltrated every aspect of American life but back in 1970’s New York, two topics defined the era: disco music and crime. Over in the Bronx, 16-year-old Jamaican immigrant Clive Campbell (aka. DJ Kool Herc) wasn’t a fan of either. This is the story of how DJ Kool Herc made New York the birthplace of hip hop].
The “musicality” of DJs is embedded in the fact that they try to do a “medley” kind of thing- which is very much about mix-mastering songs together to create a playlist, sometimes based on a common theme. Rappers “entertain” via their words, their improvisation and their wordplay. Rap music re-tells and re-shapes Black culture in a way that upholds Black Vernacular English, as articulated by Geneva Smitherman (1976) and Vershwan Ashanti Young (2010). Sometimes, rappers and Djs, even Hip-Hop music, are accused of nothing but just “meaningless noises”. But, they are more than that. I think it stems from the idea that since they are predominantly Black, henceforth alienated and not “as good as” White “mainstream” music.
Natasha Jones (2016) argues that technical communicators should integrate social justice perspectives by questioning how their texts reinforce certain ideologies and affect individuals. This view aligns with Adam Banks’ (2010) position that DJs actively curate stories and bind communities, not just passively play others’ content. Banks is probably one of the very firsts (and very few ones, so far) has compared DJs to rhetors. If we go back to the Aristotelian definition of rhetorics, it is a powerful means of persuasion. So, DJs (then again, not all of them) persuades their audience through their beats and conveys meaningful messages.
Like DJs, technical communicators navigate between consuming and producing texts within their organizations. They must be aware of how their rhetorical choices preserve or alter ideologies and histories. Drawing on Hip Hop’s legacy, DJs leverage their positionality and audience engagement to reflect community perspectives. Through call-and-response, they make real-time decisions about when to maintain or expand discourses. This reciprocal relationship provides a model for technical communicators balancing user needs with promoting social change.
ODYSSEY – A Short Film About the Art of DJing– That YT video talks about the artistry of Dj-ing!
DJs can be models of rhetorical excellence, canon makers, time binders who link past, present, and future in the groove and mix; and intellectuals continuously interpreting the history and current realities of their communities in real-time. Not all DJs can be all of that, which is obvious. Banks uses the eDJ’s practices of the mix, remix, and mixtape as tropes for reimagining writing instruction and the study of rhetoric. DJs, in many ways, mimic/represent Black rhetorical tradition in a way that honors storytelling and tends to welcome futuristic visions! This dual connection can serve as a unique and essential method to study African American Rhetoric.
Moreover, Hip Hop DJs emerge from a rich heritage of African American DJing practices focused on storytelling and tradition (Banks, 2010). As Jones (2016) asserts, technical communicators must be cognizant of their roles in communities. With this awareness, studying how Hip Hop DJs actively curate narratives and customs provides useful perspectives. Incorporating the DJ’s viewpoint can enlighten technical communication about its current participation in preserving and shaping ideologies and histories. Recognizing DJ work as technical communication supports social justice efforts that destabilize assumptions about our field’s identity, activities, contexts, and values (Jones, Moore, & Walton, 2016). Hip Hop DJs prioritize narration and heritage in their creative process, profoundly influencing their milieu. Similarly, technical communicators have opportunities to mirror community stories and customs while expanding boundaries. Studying the DJ’s rhetorical curation illuminates how technical communicators might exchange inclusive narratives to diversify discourse and uphold user needs. Overall, analyzing Hip Hop DJ practices demonstrates technical communication’s potential for social change through thoughtful mediation.
DJs occupy a unique position as both producers and consumers within Hip-Hop culture. Through their mastery and skill, DJs build connections with audiences. During live interactions, DJs receive feedback enabling them to craft performances that rhetorically reflect community histories and viewpoints. This call-and-response relationship is reciprocal; the audience shapes the DJ’s curation just as the DJ’s selections engage the crowd. Strategically, DJs balance preserving familiar elements with introducing new content. For example, a DJ may follow a local artist’s song with a thematically related piece by a non-local. This ongoing exchange provides technical communicators a model for meeting user needs while promoting social change. Like DJs, technical communicators have rhetorical power based on their intermediary position. By focusing on thoughtful curation, they can mirror community perspectives and expand boundaries. The DJ’s ability to selectively amplify voices makes them an important change agent. Technical communicators can enact similar roles by leveraging their platforms to share inclusive narratives and diversify discourse. Overall, studying DJs’ rhetorical practices illuminates how technical communicators might fulfill user goals while expanding representations.
Beyond Hip Hop’s rich history of advocating for social justice, the lineage of DJ practices offers models for determining the most effective rhetorical strategies when deciding whether to preserve or introduce changes. As we advocate for interventions in pursuit of social justice, having these models to guide us in inserting or reshaping discourses becomes incredibly valuable, hinting on our ability to engage with and connect to our audiences.Through their song selection and sequencing, DJs can tell a narrative or convey a mood. This storytelling aspect of their craft can be seen as a form of education, engaging the audience emotionally and intellectually.
I personally think DJs tell stories. Their stories are rhythmic. It depends on their beats. My favorite DJ (so far) is DJ Duke, he DJs for Etsi Bravo, one of my favorite bars in Pullman, Washington. As an African American, his DJ-ing includes a mixture of beats from Hip Hop, to Spanish songs to contemporary Hindi. Why Hindi? Because there were many (grad) students in the audience from the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) and the DJ played his role as an effective communicator, maybe unbeknownst to him. Moreover, Duke often became (I am sure he still does) a powerful rhetor by channeling his energy to his audience. Man, I still miss his storyteller/orator part when he used to boost his audience by singing aloud and how he used to energize us all on those Friday nights.
[Banks,2010]; [Jones, 2016]; [Jones, Moore,& Walton, 2016], [Rose, 2014]
References
Banks, Adam J. Digital Griots : African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age. Southern Illinois University Press, 2010.
Jones, Natasha N. “The Technical Communicator As Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach in Technical Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, vol. 46, no. 3, 2016, pp. 342–361.
Walton, Rebecca W, et al. Technical Communication After the Social Justice Turn : Building Coalitions for Action. Routledge, 2019.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise : Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. University Press of New England, 1994.
Shuvro, I found your blog post an engaging and informative way to understand how DJs offer models for transformative, inclusive technical communication. I especially admire your focus on the role of storytelling as an agent of change, a way to highlight submerged voices, and moreover, to push the boundaries of what and who can have narrative agency: “By focusing on thoughtful curation, they can mirror community perspectives and expand boundaries . . . Technical communicators can enact similar roles by leveraging their platforms to share inclusive narratives and diversify discourse.”
Similarly, I’m interested in how digitized landscapes might offer up new ways of mapping discourses that have been rendered silent and invisible–and what steps should be taken to ensure re-mapping doesn’t enable new modes of silencing, distortion, and colonization to take shape. In other words, how can the digital illuminate othered narratives to the gaze while also ensuring such narratives and rhetorical strategies remain necessarily elusive, unable to be retooled by empire?