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Books > Music > Contemporary popular music > Rock & pop > Rap & hip-hop
Theorizing the experiences of black and brown bodies in hip hop dance Baring Unbearable Sensualities brings together a bold methodology, an interdisciplinary perspective and a rich array of primary sources to deepen and complicate mainstream understandings of Hip Hop Dance, an Afro-diasporic dance form, which have generally reduced the style to a set of techniques divorced from social contexts. Drawing on close observation and interviews with Hip Hop pioneers and their students, Rosemarie A. Roberts proposes that Hip Hop Dance is a collective and sentient process of resisting oppressive manifestations of race and power. Roberts argues that the experiences of marginalized black and brown bodies materialize in and through Hip Hop Dance from the streets of urban centers to contemporary worldwide expressions. A companion web site contains over 30 video clips referenced in the text.
This expansive collection sets the stage for the next generation of Hip Hop scholarship as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the movement's origins. Celebrating 50 years of Hip Hop cultural history, Freedom Moves travels across generations and beyond borders to understand Hip Hop's transformative power as one of the most important arts movements of our time. This book gathers critically acclaimed scholars, artists, activists, and youth organizers in a wide-ranging exploration of Hip Hop as a musical movement, a powerful catalyst for activism, and a culture that offers us new ways of thinking and doing freedom. Rooting Hip Hop in Black freedom culture, this state-of-the-art collection presents a globally diverse group of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Arab, European, North African, and South Asian artists, activists, and thinkers. The "knowledges" cultivated by Hip Hop and spoken word communities represent emerging ways of being in the world. Freedom Moves examines how educators, artists, and activists use these knowledges to inform and expand how we understand our communities, our histories, and our futures.
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Kanye West produced what is arguably the most compelling body of work made by a popular American musician during the period. Rising from obscurity as a precocious producer through the ranks of Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella records, by the time he released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in late 2010, West had evolved into a master collagist, an alchemist capable of transfiguring semi-obscure soul samples and indelible beats into a brash and vulnerable art form. A long look at the arc of his career - from the early days as an apprentice producer gaining mastery of the sample, to his creation of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy during a hypomanic self-imposed Hawaiian exile - tells us about the march of pop music into the twenty first century and, by extension, the redrawn lines of American life. In our cloud-based and on-demand world, amid a cultural consensus with practically no regard for the pop album as an aesthetic product, West straddles this critical moment as what David Samuels of The Atlantic calls the first true genius of the iPhone era, the Mozart of contemporary American music.He boasts an intrusive online presence-- tweeting to the unpredictable tune of his mercurial moods--and understands as few artists do the viral value of so-called rich content, of digital video (some of which he directs) and the well-placed high resolution image. Yet, for all that, his body of work has demonstrated a cohesive drive toward perfecting that nearly forgotten form - the album. Weaving original soundscapes comprising old, familiar voices (Ray Charles, King Crimson, Otis Redding, and a host of others), no other artist has so deftly curated conversations between pop music's past and future--very much a story of our culture's narcissistic wish for unfettered digital ubiquity--and no album tells this story with more decadent artistry and surrealist gusto than My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The music that would come to be known as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. Now, fifty years later, it's the most popular music genre in America. Just as jazz did in the first half of the twentieth century, hip-hop and its groundbreaking DJs and artists-nearly all of them people of colour from some of America's most overlooked communities-pushed the boundaries of music to new frontiers, while transfixing the country's youth and reshaping fashion, art, and even language. And yet, the stories of many hip-hop pioneers and their individual contributions in the pre-Internet days of mixtapes and word of mouth are rarely heard-and some are at risk of being lost forever. Now, in The Come Up, the New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Abrams offers the most comprehensive account so far of hip-hop's rise, a multi-decade chronicle told in the voices of the people who made it happen. In more than three hundred interviews conducted over three years, Abrams has captured the stories of the DJs, executives, producers, and artists who both witnessed and themselves forged the history of hip-hop. Masterfully combining these voices into a seamless symphonic narrative, Abrams traces how the genre grew out of the resourcefulness of a neglected population in the South Bronx, and from there how it flowed into New York City's other boroughs, and beyond-from electrifying live gatherings, then on to radio and vinyl, below to the Mason-Dixon Line, west to Los Angeles through gangster rap and G-funk, and then across generations. Abrams has on record Grandmaster Caz detailing hip-hop's infancy, Edward "Duke Bootee" Fletcher describing the origins of "The Message," DMC narrating his role in introducing hip-hop to the mainstream, Ice Cube recounting N.W.A's breakthrough and breakup, Kool Moe Dee recalling his Grammys boycott, and countless more key players. Throughout, Abrams conveys with singular vividness the drive, the stakes, and the relentless creativity that ignited one of the greatest revolutions in modern music. The Come Up is an exhilarating behind-the-scenes account of how hip-hop came to rule the world-and an essential contribution to music history.
Welcome to The Periodic Table of Hip Hop. Instead of hydrogen to helium, here you'll find James Brown to Kanye West - 94 artists that have defined Hip Hop arranged following the logic of The Periodic Table of Elements. MCs, DJs, rappers and producers are the elements here, and this expert guide orders them to reveal their contrasts and connections, along with key movements and moments in the history of this music genre. Includes: James Brown, P-Funk, Kool Herc, Melle Mel, Sugarhill Records, Fab Five Freddy, Whodini, Run DMC, Rick Rubin, LL Cool J, Kanye West and Jay Z and many, many more...
Breaking is the first and most widely practiced hip-hop dance in the world today, with an estimated one million participants taking part in this dynamic, multifaceted artform. Yet, despite its global reach and over 40 years of existence, historical treatments of the dance have largely neglected the African Americans who founded it. Dancer and scholar Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian offers, for the first time, a detailed look into the African American beginnings of breaking in the Bronx, New York, during the 1970s. Given the pivotal impact the dance had on hip-hop's formation, this book also challenges numerous myths and misconceptions that have permeated studies of hip-hop culture's emergence. Aprahamian draws on untapped archival material, primary interviews, and detailed descriptions of early breaking to bring this buried history to life, with a particular focus on the early aesthetic development of the dance, the institutional settings in which hip-hop was conceived, and the movement's impact on sociocultural conditions in New York throughout the 1970s. By featuring the overlooked first-hand accounts of over 50 founding b-boys and b-girls, this book also shows how indebted breaking is to African American culture and interrogates the disturbing factors behind its historical erasure.
From the first rap battles in Seattle's Central District to the Grammy stage, hip hop has shaped urban life and the music scene of the Pacific Northwest for more than four decades. In the early 1980s, Seattle's hip-hop artists developed a community-based culture of stylistic experimentation and multiethnic collaboration. Emerging at a distance from the hip-hop centers of New York City and Los Angeles, Seattle's most famous hip-hop figures, Sir Mix-A-Lot and Macklemore, found mainstream success twenty years apart by going directly against the grain of their respective eras. In addition, Seattle has produced a two-time world-champion breaking crew, globally renowned urban clothing designers, an international hip-hop magazine, and influential record producers. In Emerald Street, Daudi Abe chronicles the development of Seattle hip hop from its earliest days, drawing on interviews with artists and journalists to trace how the elements of hip hop-rapping, DJing, breaking, and graffiti-flourished in the Seattle scene. He shows how Seattle hip-hop culture goes beyond art and music, influencing politics, the relationships between communities of color and law enforcement, the changing media scene, and youth outreach and educational programs. The result is a rich narrative of a dynamic and influential force in Seattle music history and beyond. Emerald Street was made possible in part by a grant from 4Culture's Heritage Program.
In Revolutionary Poetics, Sarah RudeWalker details the specific ways that the Black Arts Movement (BAM) achieved its revolutionary goals through rhetorical poetics-in what forms, to what audiences, and to what effect. BAM has had far-reaching influence, particularly in developments in positive conceptions of Blackness, in the valorization of Black language practices and its subsequent effects on educational policy, in establishing a legacy of populist dissemination of African American vernacular culture, and in setting the groundwork for important considerations of the aesthetic intersections of race with gender and sexuality. These legacies stand as the movement's primary-and largely unacknowledged-successes, and they provide significant lessons for navigating our current political moment. RudeWalker presents rhetorical readings of the work of BAM poets (including, among others, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Burroughs, Sarah Webster Fabio, Nikki Giovanni, Etheridge Knight, Audre Lorde, Haki Madhubuti, Carolyn Rodgers, Sonia Sanchez, and the Last Poets) in order to demonstrate the various strands of rhetorical influence that contributed to the Black Arts project and the significant legacies these writers left behind. Her investigation of the rhetorical impact of Black Arts poetry allows her to deal realistically with the movement's problematic aspects, while still devoting thoughtful scholarly attention to the successful legacy of BAM writers and the ways their work can continue to shape contemporary rhetorical activism.
Eminem is currently the world's biggest and most controversial music star. He has been blasted for what many of his critics regard as overtly homophobic and misogynistic lyrics, and resented both for his record-breaking commercial success and being a white man in a black genre. But Eminem's sheer talent has transcended such condemnation and established him as the most important figure to come out of popular music since Kurt Cobain. Whatever You Say I Am - based on exclusive interviews with members of Eminem's family, key figures in the music business, sociologists and reviewers and featuring previously unpublished photographs - is the first book to reveal the man behind the controversy. Most crucially, Anthony Bozza's unprecedented access to Eminem himself makes him uniquely qualified to answer the big question - why does Eminem matter? The answer is found in Eminem's unlikely life story, in his extraordinary ascent to super-stardom and in an analysis of his music and lyrics. Whatever You Say I Am will keep Eminem's legions of fans riveted, and will enlighten his critics.
In Revolutionary Poetics, Sarah RudeWalker details the specific ways that the Black Arts Movement (BAM) achieved its revolutionary goals through rhetorical poetics-in what forms, to what audiences, and to what effect. BAM has had far-reaching influence, particularly in developments in positive conceptions of Blackness, in the valorization of Black language practices and its subsequent effects on educational policy, in establishing a legacy of populist dissemination of African American vernacular culture, and in setting the groundwork for important considerations of the aesthetic intersections of race with gender and sexuality. These legacies stand as the movement's primary-and largely unacknowledged-successes, and they provide significant lessons for navigating our current political moment. RudeWalker presents rhetorical readings of the work of BAM poets (including, among others, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Burroughs, Sarah Webster Fabio, Nikki Giovanni, Etheridge Knight, Audre Lorde, Haki Madhubuti, Carolyn Rodgers, Sonia Sanchez, and the Last Poets) in order to demonstrate the various strands of rhetorical influence that contributed to the Black Arts project and the significant legacies these writers left behind. Her investigation of the rhetorical impact of Black Arts poetry allows her to deal realistically with the movement's problematic aspects, while still devoting thoughtful scholarly attention to the successful legacy of BAM writers and the ways their work can continue to shape contemporary rhetorical activism.
Based on police wiretaps and exclusive interviews with drug
kingpins and hip-hop insiders, this is the untold story of how the
streets and housing projects of southeast Queens took over the rap
industry.
View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction. aTo the Break of Dawn marks a crucial turning point in hip-hop
writing. . . . By opening the discourse on hip-hopas aesthetic,
Cobb spearheads a new sub-genre, and perhaps a return or revolution
in hip-hop aesthetics.a a[P]eels back the many digitized layers of hip-hop to explore
the evolution of the MC, from African folkloric traditions to the
global (and often hypercommercial) phenomenon it is today. SEE ALSO: "Pimps Up, Hoas Down: Hip Hopas Hold on Young Black Women" by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting. aTo the Break of Dawn is smart, funny, conversational -- a book
to touch off serious study of the modern MC.a aUpon finishing To The Break of Dawn any objective fan will
acknowledge that Cobb has done a commendable job in chronicling
rapas evolution and explaining its multiple influences and
impact.a aTo the Break of Dawn dissects the evolution of hip hop lyricism
from its most primitive beginnings to its current manifestation as
a global phenomenon. Author Jelani Cobb examines issues of race,
geography, genre and bravado in this overview of hip hopas lyrical
art. Covering words from B.I.G., Cube, Obie Trice and Pimp C, Cobb
offers an intellectual and up-to-date report on hip hopas most
powerful elementa aWhat makes William Jelani Cobb's To the Break of Dawn so
refreshing is that it centers on what hip-hop is, rather than on
what it does. Eschewing the common practice of treating rap lyrics
as just another way to talk about race, politics or the self, Cobb
treats them as art. His aim is ambitious: toarticulate hip-hop's
aesthetic principles while tracing its roots back to the aancestral
poetic and musical traditionsa of black oral culture, from Sunday
sermons to gut-bucket blues. To the Break of Dawn celebrates
lyrical invention, the artists and even the particular rhymes that
make hip-hop great. For the uninitiated, it is Hip-Hop 101,
offering a rich overview of rap's verbal artistry. For the
aficionado, it alternately affirms and challenges deeply held
beliefs of what is valuable in hip-hop.a aThis book makes an important contribution to hip-hop history. .
. . Cobbas writing style is engaging, and the book benefits from
the legitimacy provided by the authoras background: he is a former
MC who grew up with the culture.a aOn literally every page [Cobb] displays a tremendous command of
language and history as he aexamines the aesthetic, stylistic, and
thematic evolution of hip hop from its inception in the South Bronx
to the present era.a But make no mistake: this groundbreaking work
is an artfully constructed and vividly written look at athe
artistic evolution of rap music and its relationship to earlier
forms of black expression.a Much of the book's pleasure also comes
from Cobb's ability to afreestylea serious and humorous
insights-from how artists such as Tupac and Nas sometimes astepped
outside the conventions of hip-hop to pen sympathetic narratives
about the sexual exploitation of young women, a to how LL Cool J's
pioneering aI Need a Beata sounded alike he'd raided every entry in
an SAT book.a aa aVital stuff for hip hop fans eager to know more about their
favorite culturalidiomas development and underpinnings.a aAt a time when academics are just beginning to recognize hip
hop as a legitimate form, William Jelani Cobb, a child of rap
himself, brings an unparalleled level of understanding to the
music. His historically informed yet hip-to-the-tip viewpoint roots
readers in the art form rather than the hype.a aWith poetic passion and surgical precision, William Jelani
Cobb's engaging exploration of the hip hop aesthetic lovingly
demonstrates that, when it comes to beats and rhymes, the beauty of
the (bass) god resides in the details.a aFinally, a hip hop study that captures the verve and swagger
that marked the work of our critical forebears Albert Murray and
Amiri Baraka. In his brilliant new tome, William Jelani Cobb
bridges the gap between the majesty of the blues and the gully
regality of hip hop.a "Wow! "To the Break of Dawn" is a crucial contribution to hip
hop history. I'm thrilled that William Jelani Cobb has documented
hip hop's relationship to the blues. If you want to truly
understand how hip hop was born, read this booka "aTo the Break of Dawn" tells the serious story of hip hop's
artistic roots, and in the process revels in the great MCs who
stand at the crossroads of music and literature. In a crowded field
of hip hop scholars, pundits, and journalists, "To the Break of
Dawn" puts William Jelani Cobb way out in front.a aUpon finishing To the Break of Dawn, any objective fan will
acknowledge that Cobb has done a commendable job in chronicling
rapasevolution and explaining its multiple influences and impact.
Hereas a fresh look at a music that continues to electrify,
confound, alienate, and fascinate.a "He'll idle with some prelim scratches to let the crowd know what's coming next. And if his boy got skills enough, if the verbal game is tight enough, that right there will be the kinetic moment, that blessed split-second when beat meets rhyme." With roots that stretch from West Africa through the black pulpit, hip-hop emerged in the streets of the South Bronx in the 1970s and has spread to the farthest corners of the earth. To the Break of Dawn uniquely examines this freestyle verbal artistry on its own terms. A kid from Queens who spent his youth at the epicenter of this new art form, music critic William Jelani Cobb takes readers inside the beats, the lyrics, and the flow of hip-hop, separating mere corporate rappers from the creative MCs that forged the art in the crucible of the street jam. The four pillars of hip hop--break dancing, graffiti art, deejaying, and rapping--find their origins in traditions as diverse as the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira and Caribbean immigrants' turnstile artistry. Tracing hip-hop's relationship to ancestral forms of expression, Cobb explores the cultural and literary elements that are at its core. From KRS-One and Notorious B.I.G. to Tupac Shakur and Lauryn Hill, he profiles MCs who were pivotal to the rise of the genre, verbal artists whose lineage runs back to the black preacher and the bluesman. Unlike books that focus on hip-hop as a social movement or a commercial phenomenon, To the Break of Dawn tracks the music's aesthetic, stylistic, and thematic evolution from its inception to today's distinctly regional sub-divisions and styles. Written with an insider's ear, the book illuminates hip-hop's innovations in a freestyle form that speaks to both aficionados and newcomers to the art.
'Bookended by tragedy, shot through with violence, ultimately uplifting' Guardian 'An insight into a singular artist' New Statesman 'Fierce, funny and indomitable' Observer 'My tears were relentlessly pricked by Tricky's memoir' Daily Telegraph Tricky is one of the most original music artists to emerge from the UK in the past 30 years. His signature sound, coupled with deep, questioning lyrics, took the UK by storm in the early 1990s and was part of the soundtrack that defined the post-rave generation. This unique, no-holds barred autobiography is not only a portrait of an incredible artist - it is also a gripping slice of social history packed with extraordinary anecdotes and voices from the margins of society. Tricky examines how his creativity has helped him find a different path to that of his relatives, some of whom were bare-knuckle fighters and gangsters, and how his mother's suicide has had a lifelong effect on him, both creatively and psychologically. With his unique heritage and experience, his story will be one of the most talked-about music autobiographies of the decade.
In 1997 the rap group Racionais MCs (the 'Rational' MCs) recorded the album Sobrevivendo no Inferno (Surviving in Hell), subsequently changing the hip-hop scene in Sao Paulo and firmly establishing itself as the point of reference for youth across Brazil. In an era when rappers needed to defend the very idea that their work was indeed music and a time when neighborhoods such as Capao Redondo, from where Racionais frontman Mano Brown hailed, often topped homicide statistics, Sobrevivendo empowered as it provoked. As one journalist noted, "the underworld of Sao Paulo's working-class suburbs is dominated by cheap thrills and provides little space for representation." Sobrevivendo changed all of that; a brutal but invigorating imagination was born. The lure of Sobrevivendo is the particular combination of word and sound that powerfully involves listeners, especially those millions of young Brazilians who live in the neighborhoods on the periphery of Brazil's megacities. This book celebrates the 25-year anniversary of Sobrevivendo by representing the album's power not only within the hip-hop community but also in other cultural domains such as cinema and literature. The author also provides his own narrative spins on the sentiment of Sobrevivendo, thus making the book a creative mix of cultural analysis and inspired testimony.
This book explores an important aspect of hip-hop that is rarely considered: its deep entanglement with spiritual life. The world of hip-hop is saturated with religion, but rarely is that element given serious consideration. In Street Scriptures, Alejandro Nava focuses our attention on this aspect of the music and culture in a fresh way, combining his profound love of hip-hop, his passion for racial and social justice, and his deep theological knowledge. Street Scriptures offers a refreshingly earnest and beautifully written journey through hip-hop's deep entanglement with the sacred. Nava analyzes the religious heartbeat in hip-hop, looking at crosscurrents of the sacred and profane in rap, reggaeton, and Latinx hip-hop today. Ranging from Nas, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, Lauryn Hill, and Cardi B to St. Augustine and William James, Nava examines the ethical-political, mystical-prophetic, and theological qualities in hip-hop, probing the pure sonic and aesthetic signatures of music, while also diving deep into the voices that invoke the spirit of protest. The result is nothing short of a new liberation theology for our time, what Nava calls a "street theology."
'One of the most rewarding pieces of hip-hop criticism ever written' Jeff Chang 'Brilliant' Giles Peterson 'Will Ashon's dazzling study gets to the heart of hip hop, pop culture and the history of contemporary America. Essential' Matt Thorne 'Each of these chambers contains wonders of history, destiny and mythology' Margo Jefferson Will Ashon tells, in 36 interlinked 'chambers', the story of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and how it changed the world. As unexpected and complex as the album itself, Chamber Music ranges from provocative essays to semi-comic skits, from deep scholarly analysis to satirical celebration, seeking to contextualise, reveal and honour this singularly composite work of art. From the FBI's war on drugs to the porn theatres of 42nd street, from the history of jazz to the future of politics, Chamber Music is an explosive and revelatory new way of writing about music and culture.
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