Important for Scholars of Hip Hop Culture

books:

	• Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement S. Craig Watkins Beacon Press, 2006 - 295 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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The voice behind hip hop

While this is a writer from the world of academia, the book does a good job at presenting hip hop as a socio-political movement that has been overshadowed by hype and controversy that did not generate from the core values of the movement. Sort of like judging Christianity by looking at Jim Jones and saying he represented Christian values.....

Important for Scholars of Hip Hop Culture

An important discussion of the history and meaning of hip hop music and culture. Inspires academics to "get it right". Read this, watch documentaries "Style Wars" and "RIZE" and I promise you'll be throwing dance parties in your living room and writing operational definitions for "Bling".

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Hip-Hop Lovers Must Read!

This book is a cerebral discussion pertaining to a variety of issues within the world of hip-hop. The author gives the reader thorough insight into the history of hip-hop as well as pertinent information on things that are extremely important to the world of hip-hop and beyond.

Avoiding the easy definitions and caricatures that tend to celebrate or condemn the "hip hop generation," Hip Hop Matters focuses on fierce and far-reaching battles being waged in politics, pop culture, and academe to assert control over the movement. At stake, Watkins argues, is the impact hip hop has on the lives of the young people who live and breathe the culture. He presents incisive analysis of the corporate takeover of hip hop and the rampant misogyny that undermines the movement's progressive claims. Ultimately, we see how hip hop struggles reverberate in the larger world: global media consolidation; racial and demographic flux; generational cleavages; the reinvention of the pop music industry; and the ongoing struggle to enrich the lives of ordinary youth.

"Watkins wisely chooses to focus on what has not been said . . . [and] tells his version of hip-hop's history in lyrical prose, often mirroring the rhythms and wordplay of the music he's discussing. This is undoubtedly a book for fans, but it is also an intriguing look at how hip-hop has become part of a universal cultural conversation." ?Publishers Weekly

"Offering a fast-moving and well-researched book, Watkins successfully unearths some of the disturbing and encouraging implications of hip-hop culture." ?Library Journal

"Quite an exposition of all things hip-hop." ?Mike Tribby, Booklist

S. Craig Watkins is associate professor of radio-TV-film, sociology, and African American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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