Hip hop in practice: the cypher as communicative classroom

Abstract

The cypher, a circle of MCs improvising rhymes in a collaborative jam session, is a relatively unexplored topic in hip hop. Through its focus on community and reciprocity, the cypher represents a crucial nexus of sociability that enables researchers to examine the shifting positionalities and communicative practices of audience members and practitioners. Using a participant observation study and 30 semi-structured interviews of MCs at Legendary Cyphers in New York City, this paper examines how members of the hip hop community navigate their membership, how the cypher acts as a pedagogical space for learning hip hop sociability, and how white practitioners communicate their cultural commitment. The findings indicate the importance of adaptive identities between audience members and performers. Ultimately, membership in hip hop is learned in spaces like the cypher and offers a lens through which we can understand the process of doing and becoming hip hop.

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