Abstract
This essay uses the emcee (M.C.) as a focal point for discussing authenticity in Hip-Hop. Its central claim is that Hip-Hop authenticity cannot be understood within a reductive social or cultural framework. Specifically, although Black and Latino, inner city experiences and aesthetics have been central to Hip-Hop since its birth, the perspectives of numerous artists who comprise Hip-Hop culture today suggest that an emcee’s authenticity is not a function of particular social or cultural characteristics.  Rather, it is a function of several non-cultural dimensions of the art form: (a) lyrical skills, originality and versatility, (b) the ability to interact with a crowd and ‘connect to a collective rhythm,’ and (c) the ability to express effectively one’s own experience and perspective. Additionally, I argue that the need to discuss Hip-Hop in terms of only one dimension of authenticity, the decision to allow mass media outlets to determine the central characteristics of Hip-Hop authenticity, and a failure to incorporate the ideological currents of Universal Zulu Nation in discussions of Hip-Hop reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the culture by many academics. I propose that the depth of my primary research (in the form of artist interviews), combined with my peculiar position in Hip-Hop as both insider and outsider, allows me to avoid a number of analytical pitfalls and thus make a unique contribution to the field.

Key Concepts: Hip-Hop (culture), Hiphop (ideology), rap / hip-hop (music), emceein’, authenticity, street cred, mass media outlets, Commercial Hip-Pop Empire, commodification, dope(ness), collective rhythm

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