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Buy--from them--thru our site and it'll help us out. Thanks!
If you want books about subjects other than Hip Hop/Rap/Graffiti,
DIG THE SEARCH ENGINE:
Books about Rap/Hip Hop in General
Who's Who in Christian Hip-Hop Resource Directory
Author: Lady J
No review available; but should be a handy resource.
Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture
Author: William Eric Perkins (Editor)
This critical collection serves as a
historical guide to rap and hip hop from its beginnings to the evolution of its many forms and frequent
controversies, including violence and misogyny. These wide-ranging essays discuss white crossover;
women in rap; gangsta rap; message rap; raunch rap; Latin rap; black nationalism; and other
elements of rap and hip hop culture, such as dance and fashion. Pictorial profiles enhance this collection,
which brings together the foremost experts on the pop culture
explosion of rap and hip hop.
Gangsta: Merchandizing the Rhymes of Violence
Author: Ro Ronin
In Gangsta, Ronin Ro looks at the perversion of the music called hip-hop - the syncopated verse
with a political edge and an emphasis on hope - into a medium of rage and hyper-violence. Gangsta
is about selling evil in a marketplace already glutted with faulty, combustible goods. This is packaged,
sanctioned violence. Are we giving society what it wants or are we telling it what it wants? What is
clear is that society is getting what it does not need. What is most disturbing is that the music that
carries the message was conceived to promote pride and hope... Now it
has morphed into cruelty, selfishness and the fracturing of communities. This book is saying: Repent for your sins.
Hip-Hop VS. MAAT: A Psycho/Social Analysis of Values
Author: Jawanza Kunjufu
No review available; but I'd read it.--shekone
U.S. vs. Hip Hop Music: the Historical and Political
Significance of Rap Music
Author: Julian L. D. Shabazz
No review available; but sounds interesting.--shekone
Hip Hop America
Author: Nelson George
Hip-hop is the culture of black Generation X. It is a culture of graffiti and gangsta rap, violence and
misogyny -- a baggy-panted, inner city in-your-face world that has found its way into suburbia and
is now America's leading category in prerecorded music sales. It has changed the English language,
reinvented fashion, and has opened the doors to African Americans in advertising. Nelson George
explores the rise of this musical and societal movement in insightful and often humorous ways. He
discusses how hip-hop has crossed over to white suburban audiences -- including accusations that
hip-hop has become a new form of blaxploitation.
VIBE: History of Hip Hop
Author: Vibe Magazine Staff
No review available; but well, it's Hip Hop History, and it's from VIBE, so it's probably worth your while.--shekone
Fight the Power: Rap, Race & Reality
Chuck D with Spike Lee and Yusuf Jah
As a poet and philosopher, Chuck D has been the hard rhymer, rolling anthems off his tongue in an
era of apathy, tapping into the youth culture of the world for more than a decade. Fight the Power,
his first book, part memoir, part treatise, part State of the Union Address, is a testament to his nearly
twenty years in the music business and his experiences around the world. Here is a history of one of
the most important and controversial musical movements of our century, its impact on our culture,
and the heroes and victims it has created in its wake.
Books about Graffiti
Subway Art
Author: Martha Cooper,Henry Chalfant,Designed by Lawrence Edwards
Two gifted photographers, working closely with the writers themselves, have documented every
aspect of this extraordinary urban subculture: its origins and history, styles and techniques,
vocabulary and conventions, the philosphy of the talented and innovative young artists, and the
hostility of unappreciative authority. This is the definitive record of a unique cultural phenomenon that is equally fascinating in its social
significance and in its artistic importance.
Spraycan Art
Author: Henry Chalfant,James Prigoff
This Book and Subway Art are the Graffiti Bibles. Period. Lots of phat old school color photos from NY. Buy them both if you are a writer. --shekone
Crimes of Style: Urban Graffiti & the Politics of Criminality
Author: Jeff Ferrell,Eugene Stewart-Huidobro (Photographer)
No review available; but looks promising. I want to buy it, for real. --shekone
Graffito
Author: Michael Walsh
For two years, beginning in the fall of 1994, Michael Walsh immersed himself in the graffiti world of
the San Francisco Bay Area. He took thousands of photographs, frequented train yards, went on
all-night "bombing runs" with graffiti writers, prowled the Muni train tunnels at 3 am, rode with graffiti
abatement crews, spoke with small business owners who are frequent targets of graffiti, and tracked
down key city officials and personnel directly involved with graffiti removal. This powerful book
delivers a raw, in-your-face account of this complex and controversial subject. It contains nearly
200 photographs, and quotes from over fifty interviews regarding both sides of the issue, and dispels
many of the media-generated myths concerning graffiti.
Chicano Graffiti & Murals: The Neighborhood Art of Peter Quezada
Author: Sojin Kim
For almost a decade Peter Quezada, a prolific self-taught artist, has painted murals and lettering on
buildings and retaining walls in neighborhoods northeast of downtown Los Angeles. He refers to his
work as a "graffiti deterrent" or a "substitute for graffiti," and he targets sites that are favorites of
taggers and gang graffiti writers. Often he enlists their assistance and designs his murals to appeal to
these youths as well as to discourage them from participating in antisocial behavior. Drawing upon an
eclectic visual repertoire of images and graphics, his murals reflect his affinity for the neighborhoods
in which he has lived. Much of his work is taken from images he encounters in his daily life.
New American Street Art: Beyond Graffiti
Author: Bob Edelson
No review available, but I'd get it if I had the cash flow.--shekone
