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Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America
Wesleyan University Press
May 1994
On Sale: May 15, 1994
257 pages
ISBN: 0819562750
EAN: 9780819562753
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
From its beginnings in hip hop culture, the dense rhythms
and aggressive lyrics of rap music have made it a
provocative fixture on the American cultural landscape. In
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary
America, Tricia Rose, described by the New York Times as a
"hip hop theorist," takes a comprehensive look at the
lyrics, music, cultures, themes, and styles of this highly
rhythmic, rhymed storytelling and grapples with the most
salient issues and debates that surround it. Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and History at New
York University, Tricia Rose sorts through rap's multiple
voices by exploring its underlying urban cultural politics,
particularly the influential New York City rap scene, and
discusses rap as a unique musical form in which traditional
African-based oral traditions fuse with cutting-edge music
technologies. Next she takes up rap's racial politics, its
sharp criticisms of the police and the government, and the
responses of those institutions. Finally, she explores the
complex sexual politics of rap, including questions of
misogyny, sexual domination, and female rappers' critiques
of men. But these debates do not overshadow rappers' own words and
thoughts. Rose also closely examines the lyrics and videos
for songs by artists such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, Salt N'
Pepa, MC Lyte, and L. L. Cool J. and draws on candid
interviews with Queen Latifah, music producer Eric "Vietnam"
Sadler, dancer Crazy Legs, and others to paint the full
range of rap's political and aesthetic spectrum. In the end,
Rose observes, rap music remains a vibrant force with its
own aesthetic, "a noisy and powerful element of contemporary
American popular culture which continues to draw a great
deal of attention to itself."
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