FEATURE:
Notes on a Theme
PHOTO CREDIT: Susan Yin
The Concept of a Peer-Reviewed Album
___________
I am interested in studying the album…
and ways in which it can be promoted and expanded. I think artists are finding new ways of marketing albums; others are recording their albums differently or they are using new techniques and production styles. There has been debate through the years as to whether reviewers are useful in terms of how an album is perceived and viewed. With so many people offering their opinions through social media, the idea of the critic has, perhaps, lost significance and singularity since the 1960s and 1970s, say. I do feel that reviews are useful, as they provide a take on an album and it can be a useful guide for people when they are thinking of buying said album. An article came out last week in The Conversation, where a Hip-Hop professor, A.D. Carson, is looking to open doors with world’s first peer-reviewed Rap album. It is an interesting notion taking your album to a press or academic source in order to get feedback and notes. I am going to quote from the article before offering my thoughts going forward:
“As a rap artist who is also a professor of hip-hop, I always make it a point to have my songs reviewed by other artists I admire.
So when I released “i used to love to dream” – my latest album – in 2020, I turned to Phonte Coleman, one half of the trailblazing rap group Little Brother.
“Just listened to the album. S— is dope!” Phonte texted me after he checked it out. “Salute!”
I responded with sincere appreciation for his encouraging words. I told him they meant a lot to me, especially coming from him.
“Nah, bro. The bars are on point,” he replied. “Much love and respect.”
IN THIS PHOTO: A.D. Carson want to open doors and conversation with the world’s first peer-reviewed Rap album
This informal conversation with a highly esteemed rapper – one whose work I’ve studied and hold in high regard – is perhaps the most resounding affirmation I can ask for as an artist.
The situation is similar in academia. That is, in order to establish oneself as a serious scholar, an academic must get their work – typically some sort of written product – published in a peer-reviewed journal, which is a journal in which works are evaluated by others in a given field to ensure their relevance and quality.
As a rap artist and academic, I wondered if I could do the same thing with my new album. Could I get my album “published” through an academic press?
Thankfully, I have discovered that the answer was “yes.” In August 2020, my album became what Michigan Publishing described as the “first ever peer-reviewed rap album published by a university press.” This is a development that I believe could open doors for scholars from all kinds of different backgrounds – including but not limited to hip-hop scholars – to contribute new forms of knowledge.
But in order to get a peer-reviewed rap album, it’s not like I just went into the studio, rapped over some beats and hoped for the best. I presented liner notes and created a documentary about how I made the album, which I refer to as a “mixtap/e/ssay” – an amalgamation of the words “mixtape,” which is a sampling of an array of select songs, and “essay.” I also submitted articles that help explain how the music relates to certain academic conversations, events in society and my own life.
I published my album with University of Michigan Press because I believe it’s important that hip-hop – and hip-hop scholarship – occupies a space that’s not an “exotic other” and, instead, functions as a way of knowing, similar to, but distinct from, other resources such as a peer-reviewed paper or book.
I appreciate that hip-hop is sometimes celebrated in the academic world, but it seems to me that a lot of the excitement focuses on hip-hop as a particular kind of content rather than what it teaches people about other things in the world, many of which aren’t hip-hop.
For me, hip-hop is like a telescope, and the topics I discuss are like celestial bodies and galaxies. Taking that astronomical analogy a step farther, I would ask: Does it make sense to spend more time talking about the telescope that brought those faraway objects into focus and a sharper view? Or should more time be devoted to discussing the actual phenomena that the telescope enables people to see?
I can fully understand and appreciate how hip-hop – being not just a telescope but a powerful telescope – would generate a fair amount of discussion as a magnifier. At the same time, at some point society should be able to both focus on the potency of the lens of hip-hop and also concentrate on what hip-hop brings into view”.
I think it has been the case where Hip-Hop and Rap has been marginalised to an extent. Some see the genres as less important than Pop and Rock. In terms of its importance and depth, Hip-Hop offers history, social commentary and a language that has inspired and changed the music world. Maybe Hip-Hop has become less potent and popular since the 1980s and 1990s, but I was amazed by the idea of sending an album to a university press. I think that other artists might take the same approach. Rather than A.D. Carson coming up with a gimmick or a clever way to promote his work, his words and approach will definitely intrigue others and could, possibly, have an impact in regards artists having their music appraised. Perhaps Hip-Hop has not been entirely ignored, though music magazines and radio stations do not give it the same attention as other genres. Feedback from friends and producers is useful, but having a peer-reviewed album published in such an interesting and new way almost raises the words to academic levels. I do feel we will find others following Carson. It is a great idea that I had not thought about before. Maybe we won’t see Pop artists and certain musicians create a peer-reviewed albums; I think more Rap and Hip-Hop artists will follow suit. I was compelled to feature A.D. Carson’s incredible story, as the article in The Conversation…
PHOTO CREDIT: A.D. Carson
REALLY caught my eye.