Abstract
Fabricating Authenticity expands on revised posts that originally appeared on the blog for Culture on the Edge — an international research collaborative that analyzes strategies of identification. The newly envisioned main chapters in this volume draw on a variety of sites, topics, and case studies to explore what is at stake in claims of authenticity. Here, authenticity is examined as a socially contested and constructed label that is used to manage and codify a variety of choices in relation to understandings of identity formation. Building on the main chapters, Fabricating Authenticity is a collaborative enterprise that engages fourteen early career scholars to respond, critique, and press further the approaches and arguments put forth by members of Culture on the Edge.
In this particular chapter, Newton deconstructs hip hop artist Drake’s philanthropy in the music video for his song “God’s Plan,” exploring the social and political dimensions of the seemingly altruistic act of giving. Newton argues the “authentic” nature of a gift is not what should be of interest, but instead that we need to focus on why certain public acts of philanthropy prompt scrutiny and questions about motivations, while others receive less attention.
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Bibliography
Richard Newton, “A Man, A Tan, ‘God’s Plan’.” Fabricating Authenticity, Edited by Jason W.M. Ellsworth and Andie Alexander (Equinox, 2024), 59-62.
