From Cornel West To Kanye West: Exploring Black Nihilism and Hip-Hop

Abstract

This thesis builds upon the work of Kubrin’s (2005) content analysis of hip-hop. Exploring Cornel West’s theory of black nihilism, Kubrin coded platinum rap albums released between 1992-2000 in order to quantitatively examine the genre’s prevalence of nihilism, along with the additional themes of violence, materialism, and misogyny. Interested in whether the past decade has experienced both a shift within the thematic landscape of hip-hop and the social landscape of black America, I replicate Kubrin’s coding scheme and analyze platinum rap albums released between 2002-2012. My results show a statistically significant shift in both the decreased references to nihilism and the increased references to materialism. I therefore dedicate a significant portion of my thesis interpreting the sociological implications within my findings.