Saturday, December 15, 2012

DIY Commodification

My emphasis within the Johnston Center is hip hop culture and the other day, my 2-D Design professor asked us to make a t-shirt with spray paint and stencils. We had to make eight signs using a repeated symbol, so I chose the Men's bathroom figure and made a "How 2 B A Rapper" t-shirt with eight depictions of the sign engaged in stereotypical rapper behavior.


At first, I was psyched about it because I thought it was funny. After showing some people, they asked if I could make them one and I was pleased that they like the shirt. My mind went entrepreneurial for a second and I thought about selling these t-shirts to help finance a summer study abroad. Suddenly, my mind teemed with insights about marketing hip hop that'd I'd learned in REST 235. What kind of message am I sending by outputting something like this? There are no women, there are no redeeming rapper qualities displayed. What would my rapper friends from Watts think if they saw me or some student from our school walking around wearing this t-shirt? It doesn't seem right to make money off of stereotyping rappers. Even though rappers make money off of stereotyping rappers, I've got to take the high road here, right?

What do you all think of this? Is this just a one-time thing to be laughed at and appreciated? Is this the 2 Chainz of t-shirts? Would selling these shirts have a negative effect on society regarding the way rappers are portrayed? I'm interested in hearing what you think. During my moments of uncertainty is when I believe I do my best writing. I wrote this rap song as a response to the t-shirt. Feel free to check it out: www.hannabratton.wordpress.com
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 15, 2012 at 5:52 PM

    I think it is a funny thing but it is something that can be bought and made into a mass produced thing as well as other shirts. I actually enjoyed this post because of the fact that we did kind of do the same thing at our event last weekend and there were some shirts made that I thought could have been made into shirts sold in stores.

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  2. DJ JusticeDecember 18, 2012 at 9:20 AM

    You know a professor loves to hear that the class is making you think and question everything you do. Thinking about the images we promote and the commodification of hip hop is vital -- as is asking the question you do about what it would mean to different audiences -- but you still have to act. I wonder how you could revise the T-shirt, maybe add something on the back, to engage people in a more complete questioning of their stereotypes.

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  3. DJ JusticeDecember 18, 2012 at 9:20 AM

    And really nice lyrics on the piece you linked to.

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