From its beginnings in hip hop culture, the dense rhythms and
aggressive lyrics of rap music have made it a provocative fixture
on the American cultural landscape. In Black Noise: Rap Music and
Black Culture in Contemporary America, Tricia Rose, described by
the New York Times as a "hip hop theorist," takes a comprehensive
look at the lyrics, music, cultures, themes, and styles of this
highly rhythmic, rhymed storytelling and grapples with the most
salient issues and debates that surround it.
Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and History at New York
University, Tricia Rose sorts through rap's multiple voices by
exploring its underlying urban cultural politics, particularly the
influential New York City rap scene, and discusses rap as a unique
musical form in which traditional African-based oral traditions
fuse with cutting-edge music technologies. Next she takes up rap's
racial politics, its sharp criticisms of the police and the
government, and the responses of those institutions. Finally, she
explores the complex sexual politics of rap, including questions of
misogyny, sexual domination, and female rappers' critiques of men.
But these debates do not overshadow rappers' own words and
thoughts. Rose also closely examines the lyrics and videos for
songs by artists such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, Salt N' Pepa, MC
Lyte, and L. L. Cool J. and draws on candid interviews with Queen
Latifah, music producer Eric "Vietnam" Sadler, dancer Crazy Legs,
and others to paint the full range of rap's political and aesthetic
spectrum. In the end, Rose observes, rap music remains a vibrant
force with its own aesthetic, "a noisy and powerful element of
contemporary American popular culture which continues to draw a
great deal of attention to itself."
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