The guardian quotes
‘’Forget the nonsense about 'male' and 'female' instruments: the real reason women are under-represented on stage is that too many men judge them by their cleavage’’
"There are male and female instruments," he explained. "The violin and the flute, for example, are female. The bass, the guitar and the drums are male."
‘’why are female artists considered "over the hill" when they pass 30, while pensioners strut around the stage, the anthropologist replied: "That's because music and sex are closely linked – and men are considered sexy for much longer than women."
‘’The female body is rarely a site of empowerment except when it is being objectified to define female strength through heterosexist sexiness, which, displayed for male satisfaction, creates little real power for women’’
‘’Female rappers' value lies in their ability to perform masculinity as well as be sexually objectified, when a femcee is not performing the role of the sexually available coquette nor the female thug, her power and agency are nonexistent."
Book reviews
Chang spent years researching his subject and it shows. From the very beginnings in Kingstown and the Bronx, Chang interviews the major players and also gives an overview of the political landscape of the time and how it shaped the lives of everyone involved. A large portion of the book is dedicated to the first 10 years of hip-hop up into the 80's and quite right as this is the most interesting. He writes of not only the music but of the other components of the movement such as breaking and graffiti artists. The way he covers Public Enemy is fascinating and we uncover a lot of truths about the band, good and bad. I'm not a big fan of rap music but this book deserves your attention. It is comparable of Simon Reynolds 'Rip It up and Start Again' in that both books are thorough documents of important musical movements and are the last word on both.
This is the best hip-hop book I've had the pleasure of reading, mainly because it focuses purely on the musical side and not on the more academic stuff, as another reviewer pointed out. It's almost all in the words of the MCs and it is edited in a way so that there is no filler, just tons and tons of inside techniques and stories from the actual artists. There is a huge range of MCs interviewed and it's all organized so that you get the most useful and most interesting quotes from the MCs in the right places. I was particularly pleased to see so many of the legends present, like Big Daddy Kane and A Tribe Called Quest, and it's put me onto a lot of the dope underground groups like Jedi Mind Tricks and Aesop Rock.
Dirty South: Outkast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop
A great book, covering different eras of hip-hop in South that brought a great sense of nostalgia for me. It was very informative and entertaining. I recommend this book for the new generation who is oblivious to the foundation of rap and hip-hop, even though it only covers the South, it's better than the nothing that they know now. I would like to add this to my collection one day and perhaps find other books similar to it that cover other areas of the genre.
If KRS1 dropped all his dogma about being a messiah his wisdom would rally stand out. However to enjoy and really learn something from the book you have to skip the dogma and read between the lines to get to the wisdom that is contained in the book. I really like the way he promotes hip hop as a culture as a positive force for good. I really get that and support it but there are lots of ways to see the light. My message is Hip hop is a light for me and suits me but it’s not the only way to see the light.
What is hip hop? Is it just music? Is hip hop beneficial to our church? This book has all the answers to those questions. The book is more of a testimony or a documented experience of the life of G. Craige Lewis, much like the Origen of Species is to Darwin. But he does inform his readers well on the dangers and influences of not just hip hop, but music in general. That isn't to say that all music is bad, but he carefully documents the scientific proof behind the impact music has on its listeners. Lewis also adds quotes from the Scriptures and he never backs down from telling the truth. I believe that every Christian continuation should read this book as it does bring insight to the subculture we now know as hip hop and "holy" hip hop. I give it 4 stars only because Craige asks his readers to pray a prayer written by him at the end of certain chapters which doesn't help anyone
The independent quotes
‘’singer Erykah Badu walks through the busy streets of her native Dallas taking off her clothes item by item until she’s naked. When she reaches the grassy knoll near to where John F Kennedy was assassinated, a “shot” rings out and she collapses’’
‘’music videos in the Urban and R&B genres in particular are well known for including mild sexual content and innuendo, and there will be a certain level of audience expectation for this type of content’’
‘’women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised".
‘’What is deemed inappropriately racy clothing is dependent on place and time: a flash of ankle used to scandalise the Victorians’’
‘’Today, if you wear a bikini to the beach, you're unremarkable; wear one to the pub, and you're the talk of the town.’’‘’A "slut" looks like whatever a misogynist wants her to look like’’
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