Table of Contents

Introduction: Representin' the Real Pg. 1
Chapter 1: Real Niggaz Don't Die: Generational Shifts in Contemporary Popular Culture. Pg. 16
Chapter 2: Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self: The Death of Politics in Rap Music and Popular
Culture. Pg. 50
Chapter 3: A Small Introduction to the 'G' Funk Era: Gangsta Rap and Black Masculinity in Contemporary
Los Angeles. Pg. 80
Chapter 4: Young, Black, and Don't Give a Fuck: Experiencing the Cinema of Nihilism. Pg. 109
Chapter 5: True to the Game: Basketball as the Embodiment of Blackness in Contemporary Popular
Culture. Pg. 141
Epilogue: Some New Improved Shit. Pg. 173

Promotional Information

Explores race and class in mainstream representation of African American popular culture.

About the Author

Todd Boyd, Assistant Professor of Critical Studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television, has published in Wide Angle, Cineaste, Filmforum, and Public Culture, and is the co-editor of Out of Bounds: Sports, Media, and the Politics of Identity (in this catalog). He has also written on popular culture for the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

Reviews

"With this book, Boyd has exponentially increased understanding of the cultural genesis and evolution of the "new" black aesthetics... The language has an "in-your-face" tone, yet it exemplifies the best in scholarly discourse. From start to finish readers will be mesmerized by the "new jack" style." - Choice "From how rap music relates to politics and black masculinity to differences between folk and popular culture in the black community, this provides much food for thought." - Midwest Book Review "Boyd ... fuses academic analysis with hipness in his compassionate and insightful dissection of how the media, especially Hollywood, define African American culture ... Boyd, compelling and thought-provoking, reveals how paradoxical life is for African Americans, even those at the top of their game." - Booklist