Gosa points out the tendency for conspiracists to traffic paranoiac homophobia and argues that “the discursive strategy” of the conspiracy theory righteously sounds an alarm before ultimately failing its adherents. While the prevalent conspiracy theories are “empirically inaccurate,” Gosa writes, they are nonetheless valuable because they are “rooted in an attempt to articulate inequality” and to hold “government responsible for the well-being of all its citizens.” Gosa published a paper - “Counterknowledge, Racial Paranoia, and the Cultic Milieu: Decoding Hip-Hop Conspiracy Theory” - arguing that hip-hop embraces an “eccentric fusion of stigmatized knowledge,” which includes conspiracy theories alongside “apocalyptic prophecy” and “numerology” and “helps preserve hip-hop’s deviant status.” In 2011, a Cornell University professor named Travis L.
The myriad fan-generated theories intertwine with long-standing suspicions about the rich and powerful, making for a reality that always seems stranger than fiction. By now, it’s an unavoidable element of pop culture at large. In recent weeks, Kanye has used Instagram as a sounding board for a number of vague posts about Pete Davidson (who is reportedly now dating Kim Kardashian), Billie Eilish, and even Hillary Clinton. The language of conspiracy theories has become so common, artists themselves have started to tap in. Before details of what unfolded were clear, musings about satanic rituals, and “needle pricks” abounded. Couple that with TikTok, and you get lost quickly.įor example, it only took hours for fans to come up with wild theories surrounding the tragedy at last year’s Astroworld Festival. You don’t have to be a conspiracist to believe that the world isn’t quite what it seems. But the past few years have seen heretofore unimaginable events, from the pandemic to the Capitol riot, in quick succession. Of course, hip-hop has been intertwined with conspiracy culture since the late Nineties, when fans were first saying that Tupac was alive.