Hip Hop America

Michiko Kakutani

[A] knowledgeable, opinionated and often fascinating book. . . .animated by a passion for the music and frustration with its often insular point of view. — The New York Times

Laura Jamison

All in all...an invaluable, entertaining and well-written account from one who. . .has had a hand in shaping it...
— The New York Times Book Review

Emerge Magazine

Hip Hop America will likely become the most authoriative text on a genre which has for so long been seen as Black America's musical stepchild. If you are interested in rap, if you're interested in Black business or just about anything concerning black culture in the past two decades, read this book. Thoroughly.

Michael Villano

Hip Hop America is a thoughtful, opinionated meditation on the genre...Those familiar with hip-hop's colorful history will revel in pieces about stars from back in the day...Readers with little or no knowledge of hip-hop's past or present will find informative thumbnail sketches of many of the music's most important players.... Hip Hop America offers a fascinating look into what may be the sound of young America circa 1999. -- Billboard Magazine

From The Critics

The origins and political relevance of hip hop are discussed here by veteran music journalist George, who explores civil rights, soul music and the old Southern battle royal. George goes on here to tackle not only music, dance, graffiti, movies, comedy and fashion but also the social, political and economic dimensions of hip hop history.
George grounds the book with recollections of his own experience, recalling the first generation of DJs setting up in neighborhood parks and discussing his own personal experiences in the hip hop business. While George's telling holds no revelation and suffers at times from too much cheerleading, it manages to stay interesting as he brings both love and circumspection to his subject.
— Dan Koenig

Publishers Weekly

George (The Death of Rhythm and Blues) calls this wide-ranging history of hip-hop a "book of memory" and compares his relationship with the music to a love affair. A portrait not just of the music but of the whole culture coalescing around beats and rhymes, from graffiti to break dancing and basketball, George's narrative sometimes jumps from topic to topic like the fragmentary soundscapes of his subject. Nonetheless, he does follow a loose, anecdotal trajectory from the "post-soul" era of the early 1980s through the Old School to the New School, through gangsta rap to the latest innovators. Often, detours seem to be taken solely because George couldn't bear to drop material, and the writing can seem hasty. One may disagree with certain assessments (he says of trendy vocalist and hip-hop impresario Puff Daddy, "Never in the history of postwar black pop has a single man done so much so well"), but quibbling aside, the author's knowledge and passion run deep. George conveys a continuing excitement and personal investment rather than pretending critical distance, still rethinking his own past positions. Most refreshingly, while an advocate, he is blunt and perceptive in areas where traditional hip-hop advocates can be blindly protective. The book is at its best when George is more commentator than chronicler; one wishes more space had been devoted to exploration of many provocative issues raised in passing: Is democracy good for art? Why no great women rappers? One such thought George offers is that art can be suffocated when "loved too well by the people [it was] intended to make uncomfortable"; the best audience for these memories may turn out to be those outsiders rather than hip-hop purists.

VOYA

Using his vast experience as a journalist, music reviewer, and rap music fan, George effectively chronicles the development of rap music from its beginnings, when DJs would bring their equipment to the schoolyards in the South Bronx, to the present Puff Daddy phenomenon. The political, cultural, social, and economic issues that both affect and are affected by rap music are constantly interwoven through George's recollection of specific events. Among the specific topics discussed are the crack epidemic, gang violence, AIDS, women's issues, and censorship. Especially effective are the quotes from rap artists at the beginning of each chapter that set the tone for that chapter's subject. Although an interesting and lively work, a general background of rap music is required to gain a full understanding of hip hop America. George also uses many facts and quotes throughout the book that are not cited but goes on to explain in the sources/further reading section that he used many clippings, articles, books, and his memory to write this work. The lingo used throughout the text can also be difficult to understand without a rap music background. hip hop America will prove to be a flavorful book for young adults already interested in rap music. Index. Source Notes. Further Reading. VOYA Codes: 3Q 2P J S A/YA (Readable without serious defects; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult).

Library Journal

A long way from two turntables and a microphone, this latest sojourn into rap culture by novelist and music critic George (Seduced) is no less than a non-linear documentary of an industry and its players, pawns, artists, and affected media. Using behind-the-scenes diatribe and backroom dish, George interprets a seemingly amorphous cultural-commercial conglomerate, shaping the last 20 years into a jagged R&B musical time line that begins in the Bronx, slides through the disco age, and ends halfway around the world. Such is the style of his delivery that one minute he is discussing "tags [graffiti art], mixing, MCing and breakdancing" as principle foundations within hip hop's roots while the next he is blaming crack as the progenitor of Uzi-riddled "Gangsta rap." Much like the art form itself, this work meanders as it informs. A welcome addition to most pop culture collections. -- Library Journal

Library Journal

If there's anyone qualified to write a solid and entertaining tome on the culture, politics, and business of hip-hop, it's George, who started covering rap in the early 1970s. He not only chronicles the scene's nascent years but also the story of rap as an art form and a cultural and economic force through today. (LJ 9/15/98) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Booknews

The author of eight nonfiction books on African-American culture takes up where his The Death of Rhythm & Blues left off, and traces the origins of hip hop culture from the playgrounds of Harlem through major trends in rap music, movies, fashion, advertising, and sports. He reflects on issues of technology, drugs, incarceration, and language, and looks at how Hollywood and Madison Avenue embraced hip hop to reach young consumers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Michiko Kakutani

[A] knowledgeable, opinionated and often fascinating book. . . .animated by a passion for the music and frustration with its often insular point of view. -- The New York Times

Laura Jamison

All in all...an invaluable, entertaining and well-written account from one who. . .has had a hand in shaping it... -- The New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review

An invaluable, entertaining and well-written account

Kirkus Reviews

An informative, though often frustrating, survey of the history of one of today's most popular musical forms. Veteran journalist George expands this view of hip-hop far beyond artists and discs; he looks also at such related phenomena as graffiti, cinema, and commercial culture. The author eyes the business behind music, especially the shift from traditionally white management of record companies to increasing black leadership. An irony: the occasional anti-Semitism found in hip-hop music. Using the ouster of Public Enemy's Professor Griff for anti-Jewish statements as an example, George points out that despite Griff's views, Public Enemy had a large Jewish backing that stayed put behind the band in the face of fallout from the Jewish establishment. George's examination of racism in regard to both the Public Enemy case and also the outcry over Luther Campbell's obscenity trials in Florida is right on the money. Unfortunately, he relies too heavily on the first person in his writingþitþs invasive. One can't help but wonder if George's ego is also his Achilles heel. Equally troubling is his general acceptance of the Nation of Islam as a positive force; he even labels NAACP head Benjamin Chavis's defection to Farrakhan as "progressive." Some of his omissions are curious, such as his failure to mention Keith Haring in his discussion of graffiti (even though Haring went on to illustrate an album cover for De La Soul) and his decision not to cite Arrested Development's near-masterpiece video for "Tennessee." There's much history here that makes for good reading. Too bad George couldn't keep a better professional distance and include an even wider view of the subject at hand