Examines the ongoing dialogue in the hip hop world surrounding issues of culture versus commercialism, and rhyme skills versus record sales.
Mickey Hess is Assistant Professor of English at Rider University, and the editor of Greenwood Press's Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture.
Hess believes that the foundations of the lyrics of the music,
which initially told stories about the artists as well as about
their culture and environments, are disappearing. He offers a
social and historical timeline of the music genre….The author
reviews artists' biographies, marketing- and media- driven
personas, and the scenarios that glorify violence and misogyny via
offensive lyrics and videos. Capitalism and commercialism have
affected the fabric of the music, but it is not dead yet. Notes and
a historical biography supplement the text. Recommended for college
collections and anyone studying the history of rap music.
*MultiCultural Review*
Any college-level library strong in contemporary music culture
needs Is Hip Hop Dead?, sure to be a popular library lead.
*Midwest Book Review*
When rapper Nas released his 2006 album Hip Hop is Dead, he became
yet one more voice warning that excessive commercialism had killed
off the vitality of the music. Hess (English, Rider U.) explores
the relative validity of these fears through analysis of issues of
authenticity as expressed in the lyrics of rap artists. Over the
course of the discussion, he discusses how the artists represent
their career paths and their roles in the music industry,
complications of hip hop's basis in autobiography in the lyrical
personas of such artists as Digital Underground and MF DOOM, the
ways white artists such as an Eminem frame their autobiographies
within the model of hip hop authenticity, and the role of parody in
confronting racial stereotypes related to social privilege.
*Reference & Research Book News*
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