The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters

Description

How hip hop shapes our conversations about race -- and how race influences our consideration of hip hop Hip hop is a distinctive form of black art in America-from Tupac to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kendrick Lamar, hip hop has long given voice to the African American experience. As scholar and cultural critic Tricia Rose argues, hip hop, in fact, has become one of the primary ways we talk about race in the United States. But hip hop is in crisis. For years, the most commercially successful hip hop has become increasingly saturated with caricatures of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and hos. This both represents and feeds a problem in black American culture. Or does it? In The Hip-Hop Wars , Rose explores the most crucial issues underlying the polarized claims on each side of the debate: Does hip hop cause violence, or merely reflect a violent ghetto culture? Is hip hop sexist, or are its detractors simply anti-sex? Does the portrayal of black culture in hip hop undermine black advancement? A potent exploration of a divisive and important subject, The Hip Hop Wars concludes with a call for the regalvanization of the progressive and creative heart of hip hop. What Rose calls for is not a sanitized vision of the form, but one that more accurately reflects a much richer space of culture, politics, anger, and yes, sex, than the current ubiquitous images in sound and video currently provide. Review: Fantastic Textbook! - Dr. Rose's book is a testament to the power of intelligent, nuanced examinations of our complex world. She looks at 10 arguments about Hip Hop (5 in support and 5 against), peers back at the historical basis of these points, and washes off all the fluff. This results in a book whose complexity extends as deep as you are willing to go. Some of my 13-year-olds understand the surface arguments separate from one another. Others understand how the two function simultaneously. The majority of my students comprehend that each argument usually results in a superficial understanding of a complex issue- issues requiring a great deal of reflection on one's own perceptions and how those perceptions are influenced by the communities in which we live. It's a heavy lift for kids this age. Someone who knows their community in and out and yet is willing to admit the fact they still don't know enough to really "KNOW" that community is going to love working with the Hip Hop generation on this book. Good luck to Dr. Rose and all who engage this very worthwhile book. Pedagogy of the Oppressed Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage (Critical Perspectives) Literacy: Reading the Word and the World Review: Tricia Rose is phenomenal! - There are very few people I know who look at hip hop not just with a critical eye, but with such a far reaching all encompassing perspective. Tricia Rose will flip how you have ever viewed (and listened to) hip hop, leaving you wondering how you could have missed it all along, while at the same time wondering what you can do about it: as a reader and/or an artist. As a brilliant author and professor, allow her to teach you about hip hop...4 real. Its nice to have such an astounding critically thinking woman in the game!