Provincial Headz: British Hip Hop and Critical Regionalism draws upon
spatial practice, material culture, human geography, ethnomusicology and
cultural theory in order to present an interdisciplinary
counter-narrative to that of hip hop as a strictly urban phenomenon;
providing an insight into the relocation of hip hop culture from its
inception in New York ghettos to its practices in provincial and rural
Britain. Hip hop culture truly arrived in Britain in 1983, a decade
after its origin in New York City, and although many important events,
artists and recordings that evidence hip hop's existence in 1980s
Britain are well documented, these are almost exclusively urban.
Additionally, the narratives embedded in these representations remain
too convenient and unchallenged. This book reveals parallel and
dialectical experiences of British hip hop pioneers and practitioners
dwelling outside the metropolis, discussed under the recurring themes of
relocation, territory, consumption, production and identity. These
narratives are framed within a rich contextual discourse drawing upon
Bhabha, Bourdieu, Foucault, DeLanda and contemporary hip hop
scholarship. Shifting hip hop research from urbanism to rurality, the
book serves as an introduction to the complexities of its historical
narratives in Britain and reveals another hip hop history and how we
understand it.