Race in the age of tribeless youth culture: Rick Famuyiwa’s Dope (2015) and recent shifts in African-American pop culture

Abstract

This article posits Rick Famuyiwa’s 2015 film Dope as a site of convergence for broader shifts in recent African-American pop culture against the backdrop of post-racial ideology. Firstly, the film demonstrates how, while youth culture is now largely “tribeless,” the sonic boundaries between subcultures having collapsed, the corresponding racial boundaries nevertheless persist. Having established this, it is then argued that the film’s social media infused narrative, as well as its production and marketing, resonates with the broader new media strategies taken by African-American artists to create a space of power within still white-dominated media industries. Particular attention will be given to the way in which the artist-owned streaming site Tidal has subverted the politics of neoliberal colorblindness through the creative use of the internet.