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Other People's Property
Jason Tanz
A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America
Bloomsbury Publishing
February 2007
On Sale: February 6, 2007
272 pages
ISBN: 1596912731
EAN: 9781596912731
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Over the last quarter-century hip-hop has grown from an
esoteric form of African-American expression to become the
dominant form of American popular culture. Today, Snoop Dogg
shills for Chrysler and white kids wear Fubu, the
black-owned label whose name stands for “For Us, By Us.”
This is not the first time that black music has been
appreciated, adopted, and adapted by white audiences—think
jazz, blues, and rock—but Jason Tanz, a white boy who grew
up in the suburban Northwest, says that hip-hop’s journey
through white America provides a unique window to examine
the racial dissonance that has become a fact of our national
life. In such culture-sharing Tanz sees white Americans
struggling with their identity, and wrestling (often
unsuccessfully) with the legacy of race.
To support his anecdotally driven history of hip-hop’s
cross-over to white America, Tanz conducts dozens of
interviews with fans, artists, producers, and promoters,
including some of hip-hop’s most legendary figures—such as
Public Enemy’s Chuck D; white rapper MC Serch; and former
Yo! MTV Raps host Fab 5 Freddy. He travels across the
country, visiting “nerdcore” rappers in Seattle, who rhyme
about Star Wars conventions; a group of would-be gangstas in
a suburb so insulated it’s called “the bubble”; a
break-dancing class at the upper-crusty New Canaan Tap
Academy; and many more. Drawing on the author’s personal
experience as a white fan as well as his in-depth knowledge
of hip-hop’s history, Other People’s Property provides a
hard-edged, thought-provoking, and humorous snapshot of the
particularly American intersection of race, commerce,
culture, and identity.
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