The Sound Of Light: Reflection On Art History In The Visual Culture Of Hip Hop

In the article the Sound of Light: Reflections on Art History in the Visual Culture of Hip Hop Thomson establishes a link between the vernacular forms of visual culture within contemporary hip hop and western art. Thompson argues that art scholars and critics strictly “theoretical approach to hip hop music in relation to contemporary art” (Thompson 3) has abstructed “a more radical interrogation” (Thompson 3) of the various features of hip hop culture and their complex relationship with contemporary art and its history. Thompson’s argument is primarily based on the analysis of various works of contemporary art created by Kehinde Wiley and Luis Gispert . Artists whom’s works were formative in the establishment of narrative within hip hop and contemporary art during the 21st century (Thompson 2). In my opinion, Thompson’s re-examination of the link between various features of visual culture within the hip hop and contemporary art is successful, not only illustrating a clear link between the two but also examining the effect art has on the hip hop. Thompsons central argument seeks to illustrate that features established within hip hop

In particular a link is drawn between the concept of Bling and an “urban baroque aesthetic” (497) Gispert discusses how jewelry, clothing,and fingernails (497) depicted with the baroque style of the seventeenth century were “all fundamentally about excess” (497) similarly to the concept of bling within hip hop culture. This concept is then broken down further and examined using this photo series on cheerleaders to further illustrate the relationship between features of hip hop and contemporary art is not just about the representation of young black men, but also takes into account “ the contemporary moment in which black youth culture circulates across cultures, ethnicities, and nations as a fungible commodity”