{"title":"“His Life is Like a Folklore Legend”","authors":"Dario Pizzuto","doi":"10.1558/ijsnr.28331","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article utilizes Christopher Partridge’s concept of “occulture” from his work The Re-Enchantment of the West to analyse the phenomenon of hip-hop, focusing specifically on the late rapper known as MF DOOM (b. Daniel Dumile). Partridge posits that while “disenchantment” is concurrent with a “secular” modernity, it often gives way to a process of “reenchantment” (Partridge 2004, 64). Hip-hop, inasmuch as it often draws from reenchanting, new religious movements, and is in itself a fundamentally eclectic, syncretic genre, presents ample opportunity for reenchantment narratives. I argue that MF DOOM is an exemplar of occultural reenchantment in hip-hop, being both a producer of it as well as a consumer. Acting as the genre’s “supervillain,” MF DOOM’s revolt against the “routinized” rap scene of the mid to late nineties sees him drawing on a variety of cultural materials, including his experiences in new religious movements, to create a bricolage that is reenchanting. MF DOOM’s reenchanting capacity is revealed in an analysis of three of his albums, Operation: Doomsday, Madvillainy and Born Like This. Similarly, an exploration of MF DOOM’s use of personae, and his dedication to embodying them in a kind of “performance artistry,” will be examined to understand their contribution to the occultural mystique associated with the rapper.","PeriodicalId":53821,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal for the Study of New Religions","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.28331","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article utilizes Christopher Partridge’s concept of “occulture” from his work The Re-Enchantment of the West to analyse the phenomenon of hip-hop, focusing specifically on the late rapper known as MF DOOM (b. Daniel Dumile). Partridge posits that while “disenchantment” is concurrent with a “secular” modernity, it often gives way to a process of “reenchantment” (Partridge 2004, 64). Hip-hop, inasmuch as it often draws from reenchanting, new religious movements, and is in itself a fundamentally eclectic, syncretic genre, presents ample opportunity for reenchantment narratives. I argue that MF DOOM is an exemplar of occultural reenchantment in hip-hop, being both a producer of it as well as a consumer. Acting as the genre’s “supervillain,” MF DOOM’s revolt against the “routinized” rap scene of the mid to late nineties sees him drawing on a variety of cultural materials, including his experiences in new religious movements, to create a bricolage that is reenchanting. MF DOOM’s reenchanting capacity is revealed in an analysis of three of his albums, Operation: Doomsday, Madvillainy and Born Like This. Similarly, an exploration of MF DOOM’s use of personae, and his dedication to embodying them in a kind of “performance artistry,” will be examined to understand their contribution to the occultural mystique associated with the rapper.
期刊介绍:
The International Journal for the Study of New Religions considers submissions from both established scholars and research students from all over the world. Articles should be written for a general scholarly audience. All articles accepted by the editors are then peer-reviewed. International Journal for the Study of New Religions is published biannually in May and November. Each issue includes articles and a number of book reviews. The journal is published simultaneously in print and onlineThe language of publication is English, and submissions should be English.