What does Dr. Dre's Beat kit, The Sesame Street/Whip my hair music video mash up, The Short Bus Shorty music video and those creepy/funny animated voice over videos have in common? The are all symptoms of the increasing participatory culture in new media by African Americans.
When you think of STEM fields, (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics), we often conjure up stereotypical images of White or Asian men however what goes under counted are the efforts of African American men doing technical work within hip hop. Most African American's probably know someone within their community who makes 'beats' or hip hop instrumentals. Making these beats, of course is a learned skill that requires technological mastery. When we study tech work in the academy however we focus on medicine, engineering etc. Within media when we think about Blogs, web pages etc. as sites of new media cultural production. While these sites are valid what goes unaddressed often is music creation and sampling within hip hop.
Equally under focused on as a part of 'participatory media culture' is the African American presence within the video gaming area. While African Americans statistically do not make the video games they play they take up a considerable part of the marketplace.
At the intersection of video gaming and hip hop is a genre of hip hop called nerdcore where rappers rap about 'nerd topics'. Then there are traditional hip hop artists who sample from video games. Here is one such example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJeJtJET-qY Random made an entire albulm based on Mega Man beats and ytCracker made an albulm based off of Nintendo NES Songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN12Tg5ttpk. Here's an example of a final fantasy beat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdUf2QSpa9w
The Examiner compiled a list of hip hop songs that sampled video game beats here: http://www.examiner.com/video-game-in-national/top-10-hip-hop-songs-that-sampled-a-video-game
Even when Video Games are not being sampled, samples from other media are notoriously embedded (legally or otherwise) in instrumentals. I think its interesting because while 'beat kits' are often found and utilized in lower income black communities we don't think of them when we think of working within participatory media, being media creators, tech workers, etc.. Should this area be considered as a part of STEM? Thus opening up more pathways for African American participation? Additionally, this area is often not thought of when we think about media literacy. The Pew Internet and American Life project for example doesn't consider this area but thinks of things like blogs, webpages, etc. Hip hop music sampling, as Henry Jenkins points out should be considered--Even as it bucks copyright laws. There are additionally those in the African American community that modify games (illegally) which could also be considered.
Perhaps they are not considered because both are 'illegal' in many cases or because of race? Henry Jenkins considers Appropriation "the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content" a new media literacy skill that should be taught and I thought these examples were interesting and open up new areas of resistance, expression and thus liberation. They need to be considered seriously in the academy and not ghettoized and degraded as 'black technology'.
African Americans are also using new media to crtique the current state of hip hop. Be Your Own Boss is a group that is similar to the Boondocks on the web: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiPANvxfDg
Media products like xtranormal.com open up new sites of participation online as the motto is "if you can type, you can make movies" http://www.xtranormal.com. One video for example is this 4 part video about natural hair: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK74NbwWMUk&feature=related. And of course mash ups like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2JlgYq9X2s celebrate natural hair in the context of an oppressed afrocentric beauty aesthetic.
As African Americans continue to have increased access to broadband and learn new media literacy skills these types of expression and resistance are only going to increase.
Here is a link to Henry Jenkin's White Paper on New Media Literacies: http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF
