Know What I Mean?
Reflections on Hip Hop
by Michael Eric Dyson

Description:

Intro by Jay Z, Outro by Nas

For decades music fans have been familiar with the "concept album." With Know What I Mean? critically-acclaimed author Michael Eric Dyson introduces readers and music fans alike to the book with the "album concept." Complete with tracks rather than chapters, guest appearances by such legendary artists as Jay Z and Nas, and shout-outs ranging from Foucault to the film Hustle & Flow -- Dyson brings his rhetorical flair and incisive commentary to bear on the music providing the soundtrack for America in the twenty-first century.

Whether along race, class, or generational lines, hip hop music has been a source of controversy ever since the beats got too big and the voices too loud for the block parties that spawned them. America has both condemneed and commended this music and the culture that inspires it. Dubbed "the Hip Hop Intellectual" by critics and fans for his pioneering explorations of rap music in the academy and beyond, Michael Eric Dyson is the cultural critic best qualified to probe the most compelling and controversial dimensions of hip hop culture.

Know What I Mean? addresses salient issues within hip hop:  the creative expression of degraded youth that has garnered them global exposure; the vexed gender relations that have made rap music a lightning rod for pundits (and a scapegouat during the Don Imus - Rutgers scandal); the commercial explosion that has made the art form a victim of its own success; the political elements that have been submerged in the most popular form of hip hop; and the need for increased intellectual engagement with some of hip hop's most influential figures.

In spite of the changing trends, both in the music industry and among intellectuals, Dyson has always supported and interpreted this art  that bloomed unwatered, and in many cases, unwanted from our inner cities. For those who wondered what all the fuss is about in hip hop, Dyson's bracing and brilliant book breaks it down.

Know What I Mean?
Reflections on Hip Hop
by Michael Eric Dyson

ISBN: 9780465017164
ISBN-10: 0465017169
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books (Perseus)
Publication Date: 2007
Format: Hardcover, 172 pages
Book Type: New