Detroit, MIchigan, has long been recognized as a center of musical innovation and social change. Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie D. Hay draw on seven years of fieldwork to illuminate the important role that women have played in mobilizing a grassroots response to political and social pressures at the heart of Detroit’s ongoing renewal and development project. Focusing on the Foundation, a women-centered hip hop collective, Women Rapping Revolution argues that the hip hop underground is a crucial site where Black women shape subjectivity and claim self-care as a principle of community organizing. Through interviews and sustained critical engagement with artists and activists, this study also articulates the substantial role of cultural production in social, racial, and economic justice efforts.

About the Author

Rebekah Farrugia is Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations at Oakland University. She is the author of Beyond the Dance Floor: Female DJs, Technology, and Electronic Dance Music Culture.

Kellie D. Hay is Professor of Cultural Studies in the Department of Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations at Oakland University. She has authored many articles about music, politics, and cultural identity, and specializes in critical qualitative methodologies.

Foreword
By Piper Carter

Foreword
By Mahogany Jones

Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Intersections of Detroit, Women, and Hip Hop
1 Detroit Hip Hop and the Rise of the Foundation
2 Hip Hop Sounds and Sensibilities in Post-Bankruptcy Detroit
3 Negotiating Genderqueer Identity Formation
4 Vulnerable Mavericks Wreck Rap’s Conventions
5 “Legendary,” Environmental Justice, and Collaborative Cultural Production
6 Hip Hop Activism in Action
Conclusion: Women, Hip Hop, and Cultural Organizing

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"Women Rapping Revolution covers a lot of ground in a relatively condensed space, but it doesn’t lack for information or thoughtful analysis. On top of all this, they also manage to make it a very accessible book. Farrugia and Hay do an excellent job of not only getting you to understand all of the different factors in play within the hip hop scene in Detroit, but they’ll get the wheels spinning in your head as you consider all of the factors in play in your own city."
— Scratched Vinyl

“A rigorous and much-needed explication of black women’s subjectivity in underground hip hop and a model for studying how women navigate and alter terrains of cultural production.”—Stephen M. Ward, author of In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James and Grace Lee Boggs

“Women Rapping Revolution centers the collaborative work of women hip hop artists as culture producers, political actors, and community revitalizers. This book charts new territory and makes a significant contribution to hip hop scholarship.”—Anthony Kwame Harrison, author of Hip Hop Underground: The Integrity and Ethics of Racial Identification

“This book is a vibrant portrait of an evolving, emergent collective of women responsible for a crucial thread of contemporary Detroit hip hop. Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie Hay show us that there is no movement toward racial, environmental, or any kind of justice today that is not led by women and powered by hip hop.”—Emery Petchauer, author of Hip Hop Culture in College Students'’ Lives

“Women Rapping Revolution is a thorough dissection of how the streets of Detroit were calling for a hip hop revolution and women rose to the occasion. Farrugia and Hay craft a lively history of just how the socioeconomics of this Midwestern hub inspired a movement of sound and places women at the forefront in this much-needed lesson in Detroit hip hop.”––Kathy Iandoli, author of God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews