Hip Hop and Inequality: Searching for the "Real" Slim Shady By S ...

“color-blind” society. Another aim of the text is to explore how a subcultural art form which was developed as an outlet to deal with the negative consequences of policies pursued by the dominant group in society can be co-opted to perpetuate that domination. We explore the link between structural and cultural variables in order to understand important social stratification issues.

Why do we ask the “real Slim Shady” to please stand up? For, as much as we are indebted to the work of Marshall Mathers and his call for the “real Slim Shady” to “please stand up,” it is more than an engaging anthem. The term “Slim Shady” is used metaphorically to analyze the underlying dimensions of hip hop culture and its intended and unintended consequences in capitalist society. Searching for the “real Slim Shady” is aimed at uncovering the latent meaning and function of contemporary hip hop culture in a color-blind, capitalist society. In order to do this, however, we must explore some of the reasons an art form that essentially emerged as a counterhegemonic voice in the society can be incorporated into the service of the dominant culture. This task demands critical assessment, asking the questions that both proponents and opponents of hip hop culture may be unwilling to ask. What about the search for the “real Slim Shady” is important? It is important to have a more critical understanding of how social stratification works in a society where “color-blind” ideology is becoming more prominent.

In posing these questions, we need to develop specific techniques and methodologies for the enterprise. To paraphrase Peter McLaren (who was referring to a conceptual recasting of schools as more than instructional sites for youth), we must examine the workings of hip hop within the critical tradition that gives “primacy to the categories of the social, cultural, political, and