Egresses: Countering stereotypes of blackness and disability through horrorcore and krip hop

Abstract

This chapter explores ways to resist ableist and racist representations of mental disability by focusing on two aspects of hip hop culture: horrorcore and Krip Hop. The juxtaposition of both approaches helps to delineate two ways of using art to provide egresses. ‘Egress’ refers to the strategies that help to resist the confining stereotypes and representations of mental disability that circulate in cultural imageries and discourses. Egress, as embodied in, or constituted by, an artwork, piece of music or other cultural text, may occur even though this may not be the original intention of the author. The analysis focuses on the rapper Bushwick Bill, who represents the horrorcore genre, and on the punk-hop duo Kounterclockwise, from the artist collective Krip Hop Nation.