Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop

Imani Perry

Published by Duke University Press 2004

Prophets of the Hood

Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop

Imani Perry

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822386155

Overview
Contents

About this book

Focuses on the socially relevant aspects of Hip Hop music: its treatment of the identity of the black subject in a white society, new definitions of blackness and its commercialization.

Author / Editor information

Imani Perry is a Professor in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University.

Reviews

“Prophets of the Hood is the most comprehensive and intellectually original study to date of hip hop as a complex and innovative literary narrative form. Written with a refreshing blend of savvy critical rigor and brave and imaginative narrative verve, Imani Perry’s study is an impressive analysis of late-twentieth-century American popular culture.”—Daphne A. Brooks, Princeton University

“Imani Perry has written the most subtle and nuanced treatment of hip hop that I know. Her complex view of hip hop as black democratic space subject to prophetic utterance and mainstream cooptation is powerful. Her call for the local engagement and global vision of the underground to revitalize hip hop is compelling. Her seminal work should silence all naive or ignorant trashers of this vital cultural form!”—Cornel West, Princeton University

“Imani Perry’s Prophets of the Hood is an extraordinary and brilliant book. Eschewing a rigid division between the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ in hip hop, she takes the discussion of rap to new depths and greater heights with a probing analysis of the poetic and political dimensions of the art form. With lucid explanations, crisp writing, and sharp analysis, Perry has managed to actually say some very important things in a strikingly fresh manner. With the storytelling skills of Nas, the passion of Tupac, the lyrical dexterity of Lauryn Hill, the verbal mastery of Talib Kweli, and the conceptual acuity of krs-One, Perry has produced a stunning, magnificent work of art.”—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Hip Hop’s Mama: Originalism and Identity in the Music Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2 My Mic Sound Nice: Art, Community, and Consciousness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
3 Stinging Like Tabasco: Structure and Format in Hip Hop Compositions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
4 The Glorious Outlaw: Hip Hop Narratives, American Law, and the Court of Public Opinion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
5 B-Boys, Players, and Preachers: Reading Masculinity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
6 The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
7 Bling Bling . . . and Going Pop: Consumerism and Co-optation in Hip Hop Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 248

eBook

Published: November 30, 2004
ISBN: 9780822386155