This paper investigates the possibilities of pleasure, sound, and the disruption of the iterations of identity in progressive time. How does sound reformulate how we see whiteness, heterosexuality, and female-bodied people? Beatboxing as a citational and intertextual form—phatic, rhythmic, sonorous, and lyrically side-steps some of the traps of rap music or other hip hop forms through its embodiment of sounds rather the logics of lyrics and traditional musical structure. In that way it remakes—queers—our alliances, allegiances, and sonic sensibilities.
Articles by Shanté Paradigm Smalls
\Shanté Paradigm Smalls is an Assistant Professor of African American Literature & Culture in the English Department at St. John’s University in Queens, NY, starting September 2014. Smalls received her PhD in Performance Studies at New York University in 2011. She is a former Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (2011-2013) at Davidson College and former Assistant Professor of American Studies at University of New Mexico. Her current manuscript in progress is Hip Hop Heresies: Queer Aesthetics in New York City. Follow her at shanteparadigm.tumblr.com.\