HEADZ-zINe: Vol. 1, ‘REGIONS-UK’, Issue 2

Book excerpt: HEADZ-zINe is a periodical output of the HEADZ Project. Taking the approach of a fanzine with a critical edge, it challenges the convention of academic knowledge production and dissemination. HEADZ-zINe seeks to capture the personal, local, and communal histories of hip hop. HEADZ-zINe is foremost interested in the stories of its co-authors and through a series of in-depth discussions and complimentary analysis of the artefacts and archives of hip hop, HEADZ-zINe reveals a set of previously untold stories. When we talk about hip hop culture and hip hop history, we rarely talk about 50-year-olds from the far-flung corners of the UK – predominantly corners constructed of white majority space – where hip hop culture would never have been thought to have existed in the 1980s. However, as hip hop culture exploded across the globe it infiltrated the remotest inhabited parts of the world. This second issue in Volume 1 of HEADz-zINe focuses on pioneering hip hop practitioners and adopters from Devon and Cornwall. Much like the personal histories shared in issue 1 by those that grew up in the North-West of England, there are stories here of limited access to hip hop, and a shared sense of desire for fully absorbing the culture – or as much as could be absorbed – considering communication and societal practices of the era and the region’s cultural context. The hunger for knowing about hip hop and knowing hip hop became paramount in the lives of some young Westcountry people, and in this issue, the personal histories of twelve hip hop practitioners and adopters growing up in the provincial cities of Exeter and Plymouth, the local towns of Bradninch, Camborne, and Sidmouth, and the villages of Newton Poppleford and Buckland Monachorum are presented. This issue focuses on the formative and arguably most important decade for the evolution of provincial hip hop in Devon and Cornwall, 1983-1992. However, not all co-authors discuss this period, but rather have focused on specific periods of time within this developmental decade. Almost 40 years on from its arrival in Britain, this issue presents twelve conversations with its co-authors to demonstrate hip hop’s girth, reach and power. Furthermore, the narratives here also attest to hip hop’s influence on how it has shaped the lives of this issue’s co-authors, by equipping them with a creative and technological skillset, how to approach everyday life, or understanding their own personal histories and cultural identities – from The Westcountry to London to Tanzania to India to Pakistan – questioning forms of Englishness and Britishness.