cont..

..always directs us towards an analysis located in the historical aspects of the elements in questions—the history of rap and hip hop or history of tattoo in relation to Diaspora communities and how migration is a fundamental condition and so on. Rather, what I am appealing for as more significant is the very surface of these elements—but it is not an appeal to an ahistorical analysis or atemporal approach. Most young P.Is are attracted to certain music forms or songs for reasons beyond historical connections with such elements, rather, some may identify with a certain song merely because its musical structure, the artist, or the video clip is ‘cool’—however, this is an appeal to aspects negated from popular analysis as there are certainly grounds upon which we may analyse and understand these connections beyond the surface level—such as the social connections between rap artists, hip hop and the conditions from which such phenomena emerged and P.I conditions within migrant contexts such as the urban area of South Auckland or elsewhere in New Zealand. I think what is more significance in trying to understand these affiliations lie more within the relationship between image, sound and the individual rather than the histories implicit in these phenomena….