A legacy of microphones: the political economy of hip hop podcasting

Abstract Hip hop podcasting has emerged as a significant sector of the creator economy, yet little scholarship has examined it as a cultural industry with its own political-economic organization. This article argues that hip hop podcasting constitutes a field of cultural production whose economic, affective, spatial, and discursive practices are inherited from the legacy rap music industry and reconfigured through platform capitalism. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, forms of capital, and social reproduction, I employ a qualitative media industry analysis of six prominent hip hop podcasts produced between 2015 and 2025. Analyzing podcast episodes, backstage content, and para-industrial commentary, I demonstrate how Black cultural politics surrounding entrepreneurship, ownership, visibility, and authenticity organize the industry’s contemporary political economy. A Legacy of Microphones: The Political Economy of Hip Hop Podcasting. keywords: hip hop, podcasting, social reproduction, political economy, Black male creator studies