Rap Battling

    In this first entry, I will introduce the practice of rap battling and its presence within hip hop culture internationally.  I will then discuss the performance of rap battles specific to the UK hip hop scene and show how they relate to and illustrate the flow of cultural capital, and I will further discuss how that cultural capital is actively and consciously turned into economic capital, which in turn results in sub-cultural prominence.  This cultural capital is also in effect among the fans of such performance events.  I will use John Fiske's ideas around fandom to discuss the fan participation within the rap battle culture as a means of gaining cultural capital for themselves.  I will then use Henry Jenkin's points on the construction of community to illustrate the resulting dynamics within the rap battle fan culture.
    The practice of rap battling is not unique to the underground hip hop scene in the UK.  There is a history of rap battles in the urban neighborhoods of many American cities.  A rap battle traditionally involves two rappers going head-to-head in a contest of rapping skills.  There are freestyle rap battles in which rappers improvise rhymes in the moment, and there are also rap battles for which the competitors might prepare a few verses.  Often rappers might modify these prepared verses with improvised lines according to the situation, all in order to demonstrate their mastery of words and their lyrical ability.  The participation in rap battles deals with the accumulation and exchange of Pierre Bourdieu's notion of cultural capital.





   In this video clip, we witness the legendary Christopher Wallace, also known as the Notorious B.I.G. improvising a verse in a rap battle against a neighborhood challenger.  The audience can be heard laughing, applauding, and howling in support of Biggie Smalls' improvisational lyrical prowess.  In this video we are witnessing the Notorious B.I.G. accumulating cultural capital.  While in Biggie's day, the art of rap battling was a very directly personal interaction between performers and witnesses, in the rap battle culture in the UK, the production company Don't Flop widens the scope of participation.
    Don't Flop is a company run by a small group of hip hop enthusiasts.  Their primary function is to organize and publicize rap battle events throughout England.  Through their YouTube channel, they document and disseminate skillfully edited videos of each and every rap battle performance which they produce.  They began putting on events just over five years ago and have gained notoriety quickly.  They host events in cities all over England from London to York and Manchester to Brighton.



    At 2 minutes into this video we witness the typical introduction of rappers to the rap battle.  This particular battle feature Lunar C and Micky Worthless, two of the most popular battlers in the culture.  John Fiske discusses official culture being reinforced institutionally, inherently excluding popular culture (2).  I would argue that Don't Flop serves as institutional reinforcement of an "official" sub-culture.  The support present in Don't Flop events legitimizes the gained cultural capital earned by rap battlers within the hip hop scene.  As seen in the video clip above, the rappers then use that cultural capital to promote brands and products, transforming the cultural capital into economic capital.  The importance of rappers like Lunar C and Micky Worthless within the hip hop scene prove John Fiske's claim that "cultural capital... work hand in hand with economic capital to produce social privilege and distinction" (2).  At 8 minutes into the above video, Micky Worthless recites a few lines which challenge the legitimacy of his YouTube views.  This further illustrates the value of such cultural capital and how the nature of rap battling encourages the competition for that cultural capital.
    John Fiske also discusses how fans can achieve social distinction through capital accumulation.  At the end of the above video (18:00) the judges of the battle give their opinions and declare a champion.  They tend to be fans and supporters who attend Don't Flop events on a regular basis.  These "experts - those who have accumulated the most knowledge - gain prestige within the group and act as opinion leaders" further influencing the distribution of cultural capital within the scene.  The community dynamics of Don't Flop fans illustrate the generational shift which Jenkins touches upon in his discussion on new forms of community.
    "Young people [expect] greater opportunities to reshape media content" which is evident not only in the judging that happens at the end of each battle, but also simply in the importance of crowd participation (Jenkins).  In countless Don't Flop battles, the detrimental effect on rappers is clear when the crowd is not supporting them.  When they don't have the support, they don't perform well, and when the don't perform well, they don't win the prize.  In the cultural sense, the prize is not only money or products, but cultural and economic capital.  Again this is evidence of "each rung of the ladder performing tasks which are needed to support those below and sometimes above them" (Jenkins).  While the events themselves are crucial in developing community and serve as a space for cultural capital to be earned and distributed, the video production aspect of such cultural texts within the UK hip hop scene magnify the social impact.

Works Cited

Fiske, John. (1992) "The Cultural Economy of Fandom," in The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media ed. Lisa. A. Lewis. New York: Routledge, 1992.  30-49

Jenkins, Henry, Xiaochnag Li, Ana Domb Drauskopf, and Joshua Green. (2009). "If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead." (part 1-8).