The Feminist and Gender Studies Department at Colorado College is delighted to congratulate Professor Heidi R. Lewis on the recent publication of her book Make Rappers Rap Again: Interrogating the Mumble Rap "Crisis" (Oxford University Press). The book is the first to be published in the Oxford University Press series Theorizing African American Music (Philip Ewell, Series Editor), which focuses on “the theory and analysis of African American music in a broad sense. The series includes explorations that might typically fall under the purview of music theory, but also composition, ethnomusicology, jazz, musicology, performance, or other relevant fields that could reasonably include the theory and analysis of music.”
Make Rappers Rap Again interrogates the ways Mumble Rap has been subjugated within real Hip Hop. While many critics claim mumble rappers are ignorant about Hip Hop history, disrespectful toward their Hip Hop elders, prone to rapping about nonsense, and too similar, unskilled, and feminine, Lewis argues Mumble Rap is real Hip Hop. To do so, she examines Mumble Rap's congruence with oft-forgotten or subjugated Hip Hop cornerstones like illegibility, melody, the DJ, and the subgenre, as well as the ways most mumble rappers practice citational and collaborative politics congruent with real Hip Hop. Following an analysis of the Mumble Rap sound, Lewis explains the subgenre's subjugation by situating it as Southern and examining the ways it challenges real Hip Hop masculinity norms. Importantly, she also invites scholars of Hip Hop to “attend more precisely to the ways we understand and name ourselves in relation the field” (22) and thus to cultivate a more unthreatened and capacious relationship to difference that is grounded in an ethic of care and deep listening. As Lewis argues,
Attending to and naming our areas of specialization more precisely might mitigate the risk of being dismissive toward aspects of Hip Hop we don’t know or understand. It might also encourage us to think more pointedly about the connections between the Hip Hop we know and other forms outside our myriad areas of expertise. In addition to calling for us to think more carefully about what real Hip Hop is, Make Rappers Rap Again encourages us to ask more critical questions about who we are, a particularly opportune conversation as we approach the next thirty years of Hip Hop Studies and the next fifty years of Hip Hop as a whole. (22)
The book has been praised by important Black feminist and Hip Hop scholars and practitioners. Harvard University Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies Imani Perry describes Make Rappers Rap Again as “a brilliant, beautifully researched and written, and intriguing study of Mumble Rap,” while Syracuse University Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies Gwendolyn D. Pough describes it as a “groundbreaking book” and a “provocative framework for understanding the ebbs and flows of Hip-Hop” that “will surely ignite sparks of change across Hip-Hop Studies.” Finally, the writer, playwright, rapper, poet, Old Head, and former professor of Theater at Colorado College Idris Goodwin praises “Lewis’ authentic connection to [Hip Hop] culture as she thoroughly charts the evolution of rap lyricism in the era of algorithm.”
Members of the campus community are invited to join the Feminist and Gender Studies Department in proudly and joyfully celebrating this momentous occasion at a reception and book reading on Wednesday, October 29th from 3:30 to 5 PM at Cossitt Hall. Congratulations Dr. Lewis! We are so proud of and honored to know you!