Volume 5, Issue 1 examines how identity is expressed, contested, and embodied within hip-hop culture. Through essays, poetry, interviews, photography, and visual art, contributors explore how hip-hop shapes conversations about race, gender, spirituality, and public space. The issue highlights hip-hop as a cultural practice that lives not only in music, but in bodies, images, language, and creative communities.

Inside the Issue:

Scholarly Essays & Interviews

• “In the City of Ink” — Nick Schonberger

• “Can I Get a Window Seat?”: Erykah Badu as a Site of Expression, Resistance and Erotic Power — Mia K. Reddy, PhD

• “Political Public Art: Street Art, Turf Battles, and the Political Landscape of Burma” — Susie Taylor

• “Rasquachismo: A Theory, Methodology, and Pedagogy for Hip-Hop Intersections” — Sarah Hentges, PhD

• “The Ellis Report: The Disjointed Artist” — Chee Malabar

• Interview with Hank Willis Thomas — Jef Tate

• “Bum Rush the Boards: A Pawn’s Potential” — DJ 2-Tone Jones

Poetry

• “Slang” — Kyle Dargan

• “O.P.P.” — Kyle Dargan

Book Reviews

• Book Review: Rap and Religion: Understanding the Gangsta’s God — Ebony A. Utley, PhD
  Reviewed by Bomani Armah

• Book Review: I Mix What I Like!: A Mixtape Manifesto — Jared Ball
  Reviewed by P. Khalil Saucier, PhD

• Book Review: Hip-Hop Culture in Students’ Lives — Emery Petchauer, PhD
  Reviewed by Rob Jackson (Blue Black of The Unspoken Heard)

Visual Art & Photography

• Featured Visual Artist — Che Kothari

• “She Got Game” — Visual Art by Holly Bass
  Commentary by Hank Willis Thomas, Toni Blackman, Charles Jean-Pierre, and Deb Willis

• MuralsDC Photography — Corey Thompson

Editorial Staff

• Founder / Executive Director — Mazi Mutafa

• Editor-in-Chief — Jason Nichols, PhD

• Managing Editor — Shonda Goward, MA

• Art Director / Graphic Designer — Mia D. DuVall

• Art & Culture Director — Nick Schonberger

• Book Review Editors — Rob Jackson and Bomani Armah

• Literary Editor — Fred L. Joiner

• Copy Editor — Felicia A. Ramos

Publisher: Words Beats & Life, Inc.

Publishing Date: 2013

Why This Issue Matters

Volume 5, Issue 1 expands conversations in hip-hop studies by examining identity through multiple forms of cultural expression. Essays, poetry, interviews, and visual art explore how hip-hop operates across bodies, communities, and creative practices—from tattoo culture and feminist critique to street art and spirituality.

Together, these works demonstrate that hip-hop is not only a musical genre but a broader cultural framework through which identity, resistance, and artistic expression are negotiated and documented.