Hip Hop America

Author: Nelson George
ISBN: 9780670871537

Since it sprang off the walls and streets of New York in the early eighties, the baggy-panted, break-dancing, in-your-face world of hip-hop has dominated popular music, fashion, advertising, and even politics for two decades. Constantly reinventing itself, today it's big business. But what--and whose--is it really?Nelson George's acclaimed book, The Death of Rhythm and Blues, established him as one of the most reliable observers of African American (and therefore, all American) popular music. This book is the long-awaited sequel to that classic. It offers a tour through the waves of a multimedia explosion of which rap music is only the most audible manifestation--from Kool Herc and the Sugar Hill Gang through Public Enemy to Puff Daddy. George looks at the roles of entrepreneurship, technology, and language; considers the themes (and controversies) of violence and misogyny, crossover, and blaxploitation; and argues, powerfully, why hip-hop has held its steady grip on American popular c

Publisher: Viking
Publish Date: 1998

Subjects: Music / Genres & Styles / Rap & Hip Hop

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Cross-Cultural Center (Location: Music (MUSC))