Sanon, Clarence, authorMarks, Nick, advisorChung, Hye Seung, committee memberPippen, John, committee member2022-05-302022-05-302022https://hdl.handle.net/10217/235161Hip-hop culture has been commodified and sold internationally, but it has always been intertwined, intentionally or otherwise, with social change. This thesis seeks to complicate and reimagine the contemporary hip-hop moment. In contrast to scholarship that interrogates and investigates the 1990 and 2000 hip-hop landscape, this thesis moves to the contemporary; particularly, examining the possibility that Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar used their stardom to advocate messages of, what I call, productive self-advocacy. This new term seeks to articulate a shift in advocacy in artists and activists from singular individual civil rights leaders to many individual activists who collectively work together to solve their community's challenges. Productive self-advocacy moves from asking for a seat at the proverbial table to demanding that the Black community create its own. These artists deploy rhetorical strategies to encode messages that advocate for self-dependency and a departure from traditional appeals to the law as well as government agencies. Through this thesis, I hope to expand research on hip-hop and social movements to explore the new era of advocacy from artists and the public.born digitalmasters thesesengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.communicationKanye Westproductive self-advocacyhip-hopAfrocentricityKendrick LamarText