Ethnography as Ambagan, in Our Own Words: Meaning-Making by and for Pinoy Hip-hop Heads (Practitioners, Fans, Learners)

Abstract

In the Philippines, the study of popular music is interrogated in literature, criticism, and media studies (e.g., in senior high and freshman college curriculums). Drawing heavily on my ethnography of Pinoy hip-hop, I posit that Pinoy hip-hop culture empowers its practitioners and insiders in exercising their agency with hip-hop’s creative and expressive elements to not only resist mainstream (usually neoliberal, capitalist) forces and crushing socio-economic realities but to also use that agency to propagate and promote (mag-ambag sa eksena at kultura) the ethos of the culture itself. This is bolstered by the autoethnographies of urban ethnomusicologists (such as yours truly) which exemplify the dialogical interplay among researchers, artists, and fans in the Pinoy hip-hop scene. The national experience of hip-hop as it is explicitly grounded in FlipTop embodies literary elements and critical discourse in its performativity, providing a rich tapestry for the decoding of hidden and sub-texts. This article fortifies the argument that autoethnographies of subcultural, DIY Pinoy hip-hop music cultures contribute to the shaping of meaningful, relevant, critical discourse by scholars, learners, and culture bearers of the Pinoy hip-hop scene.