It's Him and I, Aquemini: Reimagining OutKast in Kiese Laymon's Long Division.
This article explores how Kiese Laymon's Long Division reimagines the legacy of Southern hip-hop, particularly the disruptiveness of OutKast, through the characters of City and LaVander. Framing the novel's "Can You Use That Word in a Sentence" contest as a metaphorical Source Awards, the essay argu...
| Publicado en: | Southern Cultures Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 62 - 78 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of North Carolina Press
Summer2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=186998148&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 186998148 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10688218 NWZ jtl: Southern Cultures issn: 10688218 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Summer2025 vid: 31 iid: 2 pid: 2027 pub: University of North Carolina Press artinfo: ui: 186998148 10.1353/scu.2025.a962461 ppf: 62 ppct: 16 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 3MB tig: atl: It's Him and I, Aquemini: Reimagining OutKast in Kiese Laymon's Long Division. aug: au: Johnson II, Kenneth L. Hawkins, Alison su: Black children Rhetorical theory African Americans Hip-hop culture Masculinity African American literature sug: subj: Black children Rhetorical theory African Americans Hip-hop culture Masculinity African American literature keyword: African American rhetoric Black southern literature Black southern masculinities hip-hop aesthetics OutKast ab: This article explores how Kiese Laymon's Long Division reimagines the legacy of Southern hip-hop, particularly the disruptiveness of OutKast, through the characters of City and LaVander. Framing the novel's "Can You Use That Word in a Sentence" contest as a metaphorical Source Awards, the essay argues that Laymon uses OutKast's radical duality in Aquemini to construct divergent Black masculinities and rhetorical strategies of resistance. Through parrhesia, code-meshing, and cultural symbolism—waves, Rocawear, southern vernacular—the novel critiques racialized educational spaces and respectability politics. Drawing from hip-hop scholarship and Black rhetorical theory, the article contends that Laymon positions Southern Black boys not just as victims of structural inequality, but as authors of their own defiant narratives. Ultimately, Long Division is read as a hip-hop-inflected call to reimagine Black southern genius outside the bounds of legibility and deference, echoing André 3000's defiant assertion: "The South got something to say." pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Southern Cultures is the property of University of North Carolina Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Southern Cultures holder: University of North Carolina Press dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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