Global hip‐hop identities: Black youth, psychoanalytic action research, and the Moving to the Beat project

The paper presents a psychoanalytically informed analysis of the concept of hip-hop identity through the lens of a four-year social action research and documentary film project, titled Moving to the Beat (M2B). The M2B project sought to document and unpack key psychological and social dynamics behind the struggle for a global identity among Black hip-hop activists in Africa and America. Two groups were formed, one in Portland, Oregon and a second in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with the aim of enlisting hip-hop as a mode of cross-cultural dialogue and as a forum for activism. Three key themes are discussed as they emerged as sites of creative conflict through the M2B project: the struggle to establish a progressive identity over against politically and psychologically regressive currents in hip-hop culture, the search for authenticity in the context of globally manufactured identities, and differing conceptions of rebellion and intergenerational conflict. The paper describes how psychoanalytic theory informed the process of producing the Moving to the Beat documentary film and working through these sites of conflict in negotiating the borders of hip-hop global identities. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.