CfP: The Legacy of DJ Kool Herc: Celebrating the Jamaican Roots of Hip Hop 

Call for Papers

Jamaica's musical influence is deep and wide. With the sound system as one of the earliest indigenous innovations, musical genres emerged at home and abroad. Alongside homegrown genres such as Mento, Ska, Dub, Reggae and Dancehall are international genres such as Reggaetón, Bhangra, and Dub Step that have been influenced by Jamaican music. There are still those that emerged because of Jamaican music makers who travelled with local engineering, vocal aesthetics and performance practices around the turntable as they migrated to other lands. With a direct umbilical link to Jamaica, Hip Hop is one such genre. More importantly, the large body of Hip Hop scholarship does not usually take into account the Jamaican roots of Hip Hop linked to pioneers such as DJ Kool Herc.


We invite papers of that foreground the far-reaching impact of Jamaican music on the emergence and evolution of Hip Hop. The anthology also welcomes papers that explore the complex African-American performance traditions that converged with old-school Jamaican deejaying to produce a distinctive African diasporic sound. This anthology will expose students, fans, academics and practitioners to an under-explored dimension of both African-American and Jamaican music: the role of migration from the Caribbean as a catalyst for cross-cultural innovation within the United States.


We invite papers that address, among others, the following sub-themes:

  • The Birth of Hip Hop

  • The Jamaican Legacy in Hip Hop

  • DJ Kool Herc – History, Style, Innovation

  • Hip Hip and Caribbean Representation

  • Hip Hop Musicians and Innovation Case Studies - Rap, Reggae, Hip Hop, Grime, Trap etc.

  • Spaces of Hip Hop; Hip Hop Hoods, Ghettoes, Streets

  • Rapping, Emceeing and the Construction of Hip Hop Performance

  • Contemporary Hip Hop Culture/(s)

  • Gender and Hip Hop

  • Theorizing Hip Hop and Hip Hop Epistemologies

  • The Globalization of Hip Hop / Hip Hop Nation / Hip Hop Diasporas

  • Hip Hop and the African Diaspora

  • Hip Hop as Imagined Community

  • Hip Hop, Autoethnography and Belonging

  • Hip Hop, Performance and the Self

  • The Gospel and Hip Hop / Hip Hop as Church

  • Hip Hop and Dance

  • Hip Hop as Poetry and Spoken Word

  • Hip Hop and Film

  • Hip Hop in Festivals

  • Hip Hop Design, Fashion, and Style cultures

  • Hip Hop Pedagogies

  • Hip Hop Arts

  • Hip Hop Futures

This anthology is slated for publication in the Sound Culture Series at The Press, UWI.  Contributions must be between 3000 and 6000 words and formatted in accordance with UWI Press style, found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NW6ashBtzIRYSp7FmV4ANwEspG_tGTyW8jabe_5QnbQ/edi

Please ensure that the formatting guidelines are carefully applied. 

The submission deadline for abstracts is December 31, 2020 and the deadline for full papers is January 31, 2021. Email all submissions to Dr. Sonjah Stanley Niaah at culture@kosmopole.page

Feel free to share widely within your networks.


Sonjah N. Stanley Niaah | Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer, Cultural Studies
& Head, Institute of Caribbean Studies & Reggae Studies Unit, UWI Mona Campus

Member, International Scientific Committee
UNESCO, Slave Route Project

Senior Research Associate
Department of Fine Art
Rhodes University, South Africa

Blog: http://www.dancehallgeographies.wordpress.com

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