ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HIP HOP LITERATURE

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HIP HOP LITERATURE

Edited by
TARSHIA L. STANLEY

GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Encyclopedia of hip hop literature / edited by Tarshia L. Stanley.

p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–313–34389–6 (alk. paper)
1. American literature—African American authors—Encyclopedias. 2. African Americans in lit-
erature—Encyclopedias. 3. African Americans—Intellectual life—Encyclopedias. 4. Inner cities
in literature. 5. Literature—Black authors—Encyclopedias. I. Stanley, Tarshia L.
PS153.N5E53 2009
810.9'896073003—dc22 2008033532

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright © 2009 by Tarshia L. Stanley

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be

reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008033532

ISBN: 978–0–313–34389–6

First published in 2009

Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881

An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the

Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 CONTENTS

List of Entries vii

Guide to Related Topics xiii
Preface xvii

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA 1
Selected Bibliography 269
About the Editor and Contributors 271
Index 285
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 LIST OF
LIST OF
ENTRIES
ENTRIES

Addicted: The Novel (2001) Black Poetry

RaShell R. Smith-Spears Sharan Strange
Adolescent Literature or Hip Hop Black Popular Culture
Primers Lauren Chambers
Carey Applegate Black Sexual Politics: African
Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Americans, Gender, and the New
Revolutionary (2005) Racism (2005)
Bridget A. Arnwine Courtney Young
And It Don’t Stop!: The Best American Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy
Hip Hop Journalism of the Last 25 (1995)
Years (2004) Tarshia L. Stanley
Wandra C. Hunley Blackgirl Magazine
Angry Blonde: The Official Book (2000) Tikenya S. Foster-Singletary
Georgia M. Roberts Blaxploitation Films
Baby Boy (Columbia Pictures, USA, Mikel Koven
2001) Blogs
Tarshia L. Stanley Paul Farber
Baisden, Michael (1963–) Boyz N The Hood (Columbia Pictures,
Timothy Askew USA, 1991)
Banks, L. A. (1960–) Aaron Winter
Marlene D. Allen Braxton, Charlie (1961–)
Beat Street (Orion Pictures, USA, 1984) Rochelle Spencer
Trudy Mercadal-Sabbaugh Breakin’ (Canon Pictures, USA,
Beatty, Paul (1962–) 1984)
Alexander Hartwiger Laura H. Marks
Belly (Big Dog Films, USA, 1998) Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual
Tarshia L. Stanley Politics in the Golden Age of Rap
Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Nationalism (2005)
Witness to Black Culture (1996) Karley K. Adney
W.C. Baxter III Brown, Claude (1937–2002)
Black Book Clubs Mary Loving Blanchard
Sandra L. West Brown, Cupcake (1964?–)
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Michelle S. Hite
Culture in Contemporary America Brown, Parry “Ebony Satin” A.
(1994) (1952–)
Trudy Mercadal-Sabbaugh Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
viii LIST OF ENTRIES

Brown Sugar (20th Century Fox, USA, Confessions of a Video Vixen (2005)
2002) Yolanda Williams Page
Thomas Haliburton Crystelle Mourning: A Novel (2006)
Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, RaShell R. Smith-Spears
and Hair (1997) Daughter: A Novel (2003)
Terry Bozeman Tarshia L. Stanley
Burn: A Novel (2006) Davis, Anthony C.
Marcella Runell Hall Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
Business of Hip Hop Publishing Deconstructing Tyrone: A New
Ava Williams Look at Black Masculinity in the
Bynoe, Yvonne (196?–) Hip-Hop Generation (2006)
Kimberly R. Oden Terry Bozeman
Calderón, Jennifer “JLove” (1971–) Detective/Mystery Fiction
Sofía Quintero David Morris
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of Dickey, Eric Jerome (1961–)
the Hip-Hop Generation (2005) Anita K. McDaniel
Timothy S. Jones Diggs, Anita Doreen (1960–)
Chang, Jeff (1967–) Ava Williams
Timothy S. Jones Dopefiend: Story of a Black Junkie
Check It While I Wreck It: Black (1971)
Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and Mary Loving Blanchard
the Public Sphere (2004) The Dying Ground: A Hip-Hop Noir
Tashia L. Stanley Novel (2001)
Cheekes, Shonda (1970–) Christin M. Taylor
Piper G. Huguley-Riggins Dyson, Michael Eric (1958–)
The Cheetah Girls (1999) Antonio Maurice Daniels
Brenna Clarke Gray E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX
Chideya, Farai (1969–) (2002)
RaShell R. Smith-Spears Delicia Daniels
8 Mile (Universal Pictures, USA, 2002)
Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour)
Aaron Winter
(1960–)
Delicia Dena Daniels Explicit Content (2004)
Marcella Runell Hall
Cinema
Shane Gilley Fabulosity: What It Is & How To
Get It (2006)
Cobb, William Jelani (1969–) Tyeese Gaines Reid
Rochelle Spencer
Fanzines
The Coldest Winter Ever (1999) Jennifer Ashley
Chaunda A. McDavis
Flake, Sharon G. (1955–)
College Courses in Hip Hop Literature Carey Applegate
(1998–2007)
Flyy Girl
Ellesia A. Blaque
Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
Collins, Patricia Hill (1948–) From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural
Zandra L. Jordan Anthology of Poetry across the
Comics Americas, 1900–2002 (2003)
Anita K. McDaniel Yi-Hsuan Tso
 LIST OF ENTRIES ix

George, Nelson (1957–) The Hood Comes First: Race, Space,

Akil Houston and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop (2002)
Giovanni, Nikki (1943–) Brian Su-Jen Chung
Candy A. Henry hooks, bell (Gloria Watkins) (1952–)
Girls From Da Hood Angelle Scott
Eve Dunbar Hunt, La Jill (1972–)
Goines, Donald (1937–1974) Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
Kinohi Nishikawa Hustle and Flow (Paramount Classics,
Graphic Novels USA, 2005)
David B. Olsen Nicholas Gaffney

Harris, E. Lynn (1957–) I Make My Own Rules (1998)

T. J. Geiger Chaunda A. McDavis

The Haunting of Hip Hop (2002) Iceberg Slim (1918–1992)

Nicole Staub Timothy Askew

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes Iceberg Slim: The Life as Art (2003)
(Independent Lens, USA, 2006) Kinohi Nishikawa
Tarshia L. Stanley Invisibility Blues: From Pop to
Hip Hop America (1998) Theory (1990)
Gil Cook Christin M. Taylor

Hip Hop; Hiphop; Hip-hop; hip hop; Jackson, Curtis James (50 Cent)
hip-hop Culture (1975–)
Akil Houston Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

The Hip-Hop Education Guidebook: Jones, Lisa (1961–)

Volume I E. Angelica Whitmal
Carey Applegate Jones, Sarah (1973–)
The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks Vanessa Floyd
and the Crisis in African American Juice (Paramount Pictures, USA, 1992)
Culture (2002) Tarshia L. Stanley
Peter Caster Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
Hip-Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of (Miramax, USA, 1993)
the Rap Moguls (2006) Peter Caster
Paul Falzone Kelley, Robin D. G. (1962–)
Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Christina L. Davis
Culture, and the Struggle for the Kennedy, Erica (1970–)
Soul of a Movement (2006) Kimberly R. Oden
Tarshia L. Stanley Kensington Publishing Corporation
Hoch, Danny (1970–) Tarshia L. Stanley
Robert Torre Know What I Mean?: Reflections
Holmes, Shannon on Hip Hop (2007)
Piper G. Huguley-Riggins David B. Olsen
Krush Groove (Warner Bros,
Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip
USA, 1985)
Hop Feminism Anthology (2007)
Tarshia L. Stanley
Tarshia L. Stanley
Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong
Honey Magazine Woman (1999)
Nneka Nnolim Tarshia L. Stanley
x LIST OF ENTRIES

The Last Poets Morgan, Joan (1965–)

Samuel Frederick Tomika DePriest
Let That Be the Reason (2001) Myers, Walter Dean (1937–)
Ava Williams Ladrica Menson-Furr
Letters to a Young Brother: The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim:
MANifest Your Destiny (2006) Robert Beck’s Real Story (1975)
Chaunda A. McDavis Rachel Robinson
Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and Neal, Mark Anthony (1965–)
God (2002) Gregory Donald Brophy
Beatrice Nibigira Kelley New Jack City (Jacmac Films,
Life Is Not a Fairy Tale (2005) USA, 1991)
Tolu O. Idowu Tarshia L. Stanley
Literary Fiction No Disrespect (1994)
Tyechia L. Thompson Sheri McCord
Love Don’t Live Here No More (2006) Old School Books Publishing
Beatrice Nibigira Kelley Kinohi Nishikawa
Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Other Men’s Wives (2005)
Donald Goines (2004) Beatrice Nibigira Kelley
Kinohi Nishikawa Perry, Imani (1972–)
Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Judy L. Isaksen
Black Man in America (1994) Picture Me Rollin’ (2005)
Gil Cook Marcella Runell Hall
Manchild in the Promised Land (1965) Pimp: The Story of My Life (1969)
Timothy Askew Carol Davis
Mayo, Kierna (1970–) Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold
Rochelle Spencer on Young Black Women (2007)
McDonald, Janet (1953–2007) Tarshia L. Stanley
Catherine Ross-Stroud Poetic Justice (Columbia Pictures,
Medina, Tony (1966–) USA, 1993)
Adrienne Carthon Tarshia L. Stanley
Menace II Society (New Line Cinema, Postmodernism
USA, 1993) Antonio Maurice Daniels
Peter Caster Powell, Kevin (1966–)
Miranda, Elisha (1969–) Seretha D. Williams
Sofía Quintero The Prisoner’s Wife (1999)
The Moments, the Minutes, the Courtney D. Marshall
Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott Push: A Novel (1996)
(2005) Laura H. Marks
Wandra C. Hunley
Queen of the Scene (2006)
Moore, Jessica Care (1971–) Rosa Soto
Adrienne Carthon
Queen Pen
Moore, Natalie Y. Almaz Tsz-ying Leung
Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
Quintero, Sofía (1969–)
Moore, Stephanie Perry (1969–) Marcella Runell Hall
Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
 LIST OF ENTRIES xi

Raimist, Rachel (197?–) Spoken Word Movement

Tarshia L. Stanley Beth Lagarou
Reed, Ishmael (1938–) Steffans, Karrine (1978–)
Sathyaraj Venkatesan Yolanda Williams Page
Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Strebor Books
Production of Black Cinema (1999) Danielle R. Tyler
Tarshia L. Stanley Style Wars (PBS, USA, 1983)
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” Travis Vogan
James Arthur Gentry Taylor, Carol
Richardson, Elaine B. (1960–) Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
Terry Bozeman Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems
Rivera, Raquel Z. (197?–) and Lyrics (2004)
Nneka Nnolim Rebecca Housel
Rize (Lions Gate, USA, 2005) Teen Fiction
Travis Vogan Catherine Ross-Stroud
Roby, Kimberla Lawson (1965–) That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies
Piper G. Huguley-Riggins Reader (2004)
Rose, Tricia (1963–) Tarshia L. Stanley
Christin M. Taylor Thomas, Brenda L. (1957–)
Sanchez, Sonia (1934–) Nneka Nnolim
Carol Davis Triple Crown Publications
Sapphire (1950–) Sandra L. West
Martin Kich Turner, Nikki (1973–)
Scott-Heron, Gil (1949–) Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
James Arthur Gentry Tyree, Omar (1969–)
Shakur, Tupac “2Pac” (1971–1996) Piper G. Huguley Riggins
Georgia M. Roberts Ulen, Eisa Nefertari (1968–)
Simmons, Russell (1957–) RaShell R. Smith-Spears
Piper G. Huguley-Riggins Urban Fiction
Slam (Offline Entertainment Group, Danielle R. Tyler
USA, 1998) Vernacular Tradition
Tarshia L. Stanley Zandra L. Jordan
Solomon, Akiba (1974–) Vibe Magazine
Rochelle Spencer Tarshia L. Stanley
Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture Vibe Vixen Magazine
and the Post-Soul Aesthetic Nneka Nnolim
Rosa Soto Wallace, Michele Faith (1952–)
Souljah, Sister (1964–) Angela M. Nelson
Chaunda A. McDavis Weber, Carl (1967–)
The Source Magazine Piper G. Huguley Riggins
Tarshia L. Stanley What the Music Said: Black Popular
Spirituality and Religion in Hip Hop Music and Black Public Culture
Literature and Culture (1998)
Shanesha R. F. Brooks Tatum Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
xii LIST OF ENTRIES

When Chickenheads Come Home to Williams, Saul (1972–)

Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It David Rando
Down (2002) Williams, Wendy (1964–)
Caryn Murphy Nneka Nnolim
Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Woods, Teri
Pimp (1972) Mary Loving Blanchard
Karley K. Adney
X, Malcolm (Malcolm Little;
Who’s Gonna Take the Weight: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)
Manhood, Race, and Power in (1925–1965)
America (2003) Angelle Scott
Jennie Lightweis-Goff
XXL Magazine
Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Apryl C. Price
Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes,
and the New Reality of Race in Zane (Kristina LaFerne Roberts)
America (2005) (1967–)
Patricia Ventura Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

Williams, KaShamba
Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
 GUIDEOF
LIST TO
ENTRIES TOPICS
RELATED

Activists Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the

Production of Black Cinema
Braxton, Charlie Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture
Bynoe, Yvonne and the Post-Soul Aesthetic
Chang, Jeff That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies
Chideya, Farai Reader
Chuck D (Carlton Douglass When Chickenheads Come Home to
Ridenhour) Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It
Medina, Tony Down
Powell, Kevin Who’s Gonna Take the Weight:
Souljah, Sister Manhood, Race, and Power in
Wallace, Michele Faith America
Why White Kids Love Hip Hop:
Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and
Black Popular Culture
the New Reality of Race in America
Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy
Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex,
and Hair Concepts
Business of Hip Hop Publishing Black Book Clubs
Check It While I Wreck It: Black Cinema
Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and College Courses in Hip Hop
the Public Sphere Literature (1998–2007)
Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Comics
Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Detective/Mystery Fiction
Generation Fanzines
Hip Hop America Graphic Novels
Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and Literary Fiction
the Crisis in African American Postmodernism
Culture, The Spirituality and Religion in Hip
Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Literature and Culture
Hop Feminism Anthology Spoken Word Movement
Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Teen Fiction
Place in Rap and Hip-Hop, The Urban Fiction
Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory Vernacular Tradition
Know What I Mean?: Reflections on
Hip Hop
Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Cultural Critics
Black Man in America
Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold Chideya, Farai
on Young Black Women Cobb, William Jelani
xiv GUIDE TO RELATED TOPICS

Collins, Patricia Hill Slam

Dyson, Michael Eric Style Wars
George, Nelson
hooks, bell
Jones, Lisa Genres
Jones, Sarah Adolescent
Kelley, Robin D. G. Blogs
Morgan, Joan Cinema
Neal, Mark Anthony Spoken Word
Perry, Imani Teen Fiction
Pough, Gwendolyn D. (See Home Girls Urban Fiction
Make Some Noise)
Raimist, Rachel
Reed, Ishmael Journalists
Richardson, Elaine B.
Rose, Tricia Braxton, Charlie
Chang, Jeff
Mayo, Kierna
Cultural Criticism Morgan, Joan
Powell, Kevin
Between God and Gangsta Rap: Rivera, Raquel Z.
Bearing Witness to Black Culture Solomon, Akiba
Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual
Politics in the Golden Age of Rap
Nationalism Magazines
Blackgirl Magazine
Fanzines Honey Magazine

Mayo, Kierna
The Source Magazine Memoirs
Vibe Magazine
Vibe Vixen Magazine Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a
XXL Magazine Revolutionary
Angry Blonde: The Official Book
Brown, Claude
Films Confessions of a Video Vixen
E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX
Baby Boy Fabulosity: What It Is & How To Get It
Beat Street I Make My Own Rules
Belly Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong
Boyz N The Hood Woman
Breakin’ Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest
Brown Sugar Your Destiny
8 Mile Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes God
Hustle and Flow Manchild in the Promised Land
Juice No Disrespect
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. Pimp: The Story of My Life
Krush Groove The Prisoner’s Wife
Menace II Society Steffans, Karrine
New Jack City Williams, Wendy
Poetic Justice X, Malcolm
Rize
 GUIDE TO RELATED TOPICS xv

Music Tyree, Omar

Ulen, Eisa Nefertari
Between God and Gangsta Rap: Williams, KaShamba
Bearing Witness to Black Culture Woods, Teri
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Zane
Culture in Contemporary America
Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual
Politics in the Golden Age of Rap Novels
Nationalism
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of A Piece of Cake (See Brown, Cupcake)
the Hip-Hop Generation Addicted: The Novel
Hip-Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of Burn: A Novel
the Rap Moguls The Cheetah Girls
The Hood Comes First: Race, Space The Coldest Winter Ever
and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop Crystelle Mourning: A Novel
Simmons, Russell Daughter: A Novel
What the Music Said: Black Popular Dopefiend: Story of a Black Junkie
Music and Black Public Culture The Dying Ground: A Hip-Hop Noir
Novel
Explicit Content
Novelists/Playwrights Flyy Girl
Girls From Da Hood
Baisden, Michael The Haunting of Hip Hop
Banks, L.A. Let That Be the Reason
Beatty, Paul Love Don’t Live Here No More
Brown, Cupcake Manchild in the Promised Land
Brown, Parry “Ebony Satin” A. Other Men’s Wives
Calderón, Jennifer “JLove” Picture Me Rollin’
Cheekes, Shonda Push: A Novel
Davis, Anthony C. Queen of the Scene
Dickey, Eric Jerome Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto
Diggs, Anita Doreen Pimp
Flake, Sharon G.
Goines, Donald
Harris, E. Lynn Performers
Hoch, Danny
Holmes, Shannon Beatty, Paul
Hunt, La Jill Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour)
Iceberg Slim Jackson, Curtis James (50 Cent)
Kennedy, Erica Jones, Lisa
McDonald, Janet Moore, Jessica Care
Miranda, Elisha Queen Pen
Moore, Natalie Shakur, Tupac “2Pac”
Moore, Stephanie Perry Williams, Saul
Myers, Walter Dean
Queen Pen
Quintero, Sofia
Pioneers
Sanchez, Sonia Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour)
Sapphire Goines, Donald
Souljah, Sister Iceberg Slim
Taylor, Carol Iceberg Slim: The Life as Art
Thomas, Brenda L. Low Road: The Life and Legacy of
Turner, Nikki Donald Goines
xvi GUIDE TO RELATED TOPICS

Pimp: The Story of My Life Scott-Heron, Gil

Simmons, Russell Spoken Word
Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems
and Lyrics
Poets/Poetry Williams, Saul
Beatty, Paul
Black Poetry
Publishers/Self-Publishers
From Totems to Hip-Hop: A
Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Baisden, Michael
across the Americas, 1900–2002 Kensington Publishing Corporation
Giovanni, Nikki Old School Books
The Last Poets Strebor Books
Medina, Tony Triple Crown Publications
Moore, Jessica Care Turner, Nikki
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” Zane
Sanchez, Sonia
 LIST OF
ENTRIES
PREFACE

Bakari Kitwana writes in his book The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the
Crisis in African American Culture (2002) that the first Hip Hop Generation was born
circa 1965 and the second in 1984. Thus late in the first decade of the twenty-first cen-
tury we are witnessing the creative force of two generations of people reared on or in
the age of hip hop. Written for students and general readers, the Encyclopedia of Hip
Hop Literature defines some of the literature important to these generations. In defin-
ing hip hop literature the encyclopedia also expands the understanding of the term “hip
hop literature” beyond the confines of “urban” or “street” literature categories.
This encyclopedia provides more than 180 alphabetically arranged entries on fiction
written by and for members of the Hip Hop Generation. Included are entries on indi-
vidual writers, major works, publishing houses and magazines, genres, and a wide
range of special topics. This burgeoning genre of fiction is extremely important because
it typifies several of the mantras of the Hip Hop Generation, especially entrepreneur-
ship and self-actualization. The entrepreneurial spirit of hip hop novelists infuses many
of the works being self-published. From the very beginning hip hop music, fashion, and
culture has been marked by the willingness and ability of its practitioners to create a
market and a marketing strategy for themselves.
In addition to fiction, the memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies of hip hop
artists, activists, entertainers, and entrepreneurs are covered, as well as the prolific
body of critical texts aimed at analyzing the generation and the issues important to
them. I did not think the encyclopedia would be complete without a discussion of sem-
inal films and documentaries because they are important visual texts that help to
define and extend an understanding of the written texts produced by and for the Hip
Hop Generations.
Each entry is written by an expert contributor and begins with a brief identification
of the topic and a summary of its significance. Entries close with cross-references and
cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia ends with a selected, general bib-
liography of print and electronic resources suitable for student research. An alphabeti-
cal list of entries conveniently surveys the scope of the encyclopedia, and a guide to
related topics groups related entries in topical categories for ease of identification.
This encyclopedia is by no means complete—the literature of hip hop is expanding
exponentially due in part to the interest in the subject and the numerous independent
publishing houses and imprints that have arisen to satisfy the demand. It is important
to note that this encyclopedia does not contain numerous entries pertaining to the music
of the Hip Hop Generation. Yvonne Bynoe has done that in the Encyclopedia of Rap
and Hip Hop Culture (2006) by Greenwood Press.
xviii PREFACE

The contributors to the Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Literature come to the volume
from a diversity of backgrounds and understandings of hip hop literature. There are
numerous spellings of Hip Hop: hip hop, Hip-Hop, Hip-hop, and so on. I have
not changed the rendering of Hip Hop to a monolithic spelling as the variation is fur-
ther evidence of the fluidity and continual evolution of the culture and therefore the
literature.
 A
ADDICTED: THE NOVEL (2001). This novel is often identified in the genre of
urban fiction and reinvigorates the tradition of African American pulp fiction because of
its subject matter, audience, and self-published status.
Although Addicted is now a part of a cadre of best-selling erotica novels and antholo-
gies by writer Zane, when it was first debuted in 2001 it gained popularity mostly through
word of mouth. Addicted is the story of Zoe Reynard, an African American woman who
seems to have the perfect life. She is successful as an African American arts dealer; she is
married to Jason, her childhood sweetheart, who is completely devoted to her; she has
three beautiful children; and she has a large, custom-built home. She seems to be living the
American dream; however, Zoe’s life is threatened by her secret sexual addiction, which
causes her to have three extramarital affairs. After consulting a therapist, Zoe learns of sev-
eral childhood secrets that are ultimately responsible for her addiction.
The novel is largely structured around Zoe’s therapy sessions. This structure emphasizes
one of the novel’s major themes, self-reflection. As Zoe recounts her life story, she, along
with readers and her therapist, is able to draw connections between the events in her life.
Through reflection and telling her story, Zoe is able to have a cathartic experience. It is
when she is forced to reflect on events that she has kept buried in her memory that she is
finally able to heal.
Zoe’s need to heal points to yet another theme of the novel, sexual health. As a part of the
erotica genre, the focus on sexuality is an obvious one. However, Zane does not merely titillate
the reader’s sexual appetite; she attempts to show the connection between one’s psychological
health and sexual behavior. Although Zoe is truly in love with her husband, she cannot have a
satisfying sexual relationship with him until she resolves her own psychological trauma.
Ironically, it is her love for Jason that helps her face her trauma. Thus, love is the third
prominent theme of the novel. Addicted is among other things a celebration of the power
of love and its ability to endure many challenges—even those brought on by the lovers
themselves. As Jason tells Zoe in a constant refrain, “I love you and this is forever! Always
has been! Always will be!” These words serve as a reminder to the couple that their rela-
tionship is destined, and that their love is sustainable.
Zane’s use of colloquial language and intriguing storylines not only appeals to a wide
range of readers, but it also ensures that audiences will consider other less prominent yet
still important themes such as the consequences of secrets, female empowerment, family
relationships, and domestic abuse.
As a testament to the popularity and impact of Addicted, Lionsgate has acquired the film
rights to the novel. With Zane as the screenwriter, the movie version will surely entertain
the many fans of Zoe and Jason’s story.
2 ADOLESCENT LITERATURE OR HIP HOP PRIMERS

FURTHER READING
Campbell, Dwayne. “Already a Hot Name in Erotica, Zane Blooms into Fuller Flower.” Philadelphia
Inquirer, 5 Nov. 2006, M01.
Johnson, Kalyn. “Zane, Inc.” Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 6, Issue 5 (2004): 17–20.
Jones, Vanessa. “Zane uncovered.” The Boston Globe, 19 Aug. 2008.

RaShell R. Smith-Spears

ADOLESCENT LITERATURE OR HIP HOP PRIMERS. Children’s books

with hip hop themes, characters, and language or rhythms.
Generally, hip hop primers are categorized as such by the author’s role within the hip
hop community, the subject matter of fictional books as related to hip hop culture, or a non-
fiction profile of a hip hop artist or an element of hip hop culture.
Picture books that fall into this category and are written by hip hop artists often include
a CD with the story as read by the author. These CDs work with the pictures and the text
to celebrate the rhythm and flow of the language used by the author. Common themes gen-
erally include individual empowerment, family and community connections, thinking out-
side the box, and success through hard work and confidence.

FURTHER READING
Allen, Debbie. Brothers of the Knight. New York: Puffin, 2001.
Bellar, Jasmine. Hip-Hop Kidz. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 2006.
Fresh, Doug E. Think Again. New York: Scholastic, 2002.
Gregory, Deborah. The Cheetah Girls. New York: Jump at the Sun, 1999.
Grimes, Nikki. Bronx Masquerade. New York: Penguin, 2002.
Harrison, Blake and Alexander Rappaport. Flocabulary: The Hip-Hop Approach to U.S. History.
Kennebunkport, ME: Cider Mill Press, 2006.
LL Cool J. And the Winner Is . . . New York: Cartwheel, 2002.
Queen Latifah. Queen of the Scene. New York: Laura Geringer, 2006.
Smith, Will. Just the Two of Us. New York: Scholastic Paperbacks, 2005.

Carey Applegate

AFENI SHAKUR: EVOLUTION OF A REVOLUTIONARY (2005).

Written by actress Jasmine Guy (A Different World, School Daze, Dead Like Me), Afeni
Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary is a biography about the life of Afeni Shakur, activist
and mother to slain hip hop legend Tupac Shakur.
Guy, who befriended Tupac during her tenure on A Different World, first came to know
Afeni Shakur in 1994 during Tupac’s infamous sexual abuse trial. The two women forged
a bond that led to their partnership on Shakur’s life story. Part personal account and part
conversation between friends, Shakur was candid in sharing intimate details about her life
with Guy. From meager beginnings in rural North Carolina to political activism and Black
Nationalism, from motherhood to crack addiction, grief, recovery, and self-actualization,
Shakur’s life has been anything but easy.
Born Alice Faye Williams in Lumberton, North Carolina, Shakur and her family also
lived in Norfolk, Virginia, before her mother relocated to the Bronx, New York, with young
 AND IT DON'T STOP! 3

Alice and her sister Gloria. She admits that for much of her youth she was angry with her
father for the emotional and physical abuse he inflicted upon her mother and angry with
her mother for being “weak” and enduring the abuse. As a result, young Alice was hard to
control. That all changed when Alice became Afeni (which means “lover of people” in
Arabic) and found a new outlet for her anger as a member of the Black Panther Party, New
York chapter (also known as the Panther 21).
The theme of comradery that Shakur described as part of her Panther experience is a
common theme that appears in hip hop literature, and Shakur was a faithful disciple. How-
ever, the fate of the Panther 21 changed when they became targets of the police, and even-
tually the group imploded. Shakur struggled to fit into society without the protection and
stability the unit afforded.
After the Panthers, Shakur moved to Baltimore, Maryland and tried to provide a life for
her children Tupac and Sekyiwa. She withdrew from her children during a pivotal time in
their development, choosing instead to hide from her failures through an addiction to crack
cocaine. The drug addiction rekindled feelings of anger, this time in her children, as they
grappled with their mother’s weakness.
Five-and-a-half years after getting sober and restoring her family, Shakur’s beloved son
Tupac was murdered during the peak of his career; she relied on the love of family and
friends such as Guy as a source of strength for moving forward.
Shakur’s resilience, as exposed in the pages of her story, reflects the evolution referenced
in the book’s title. More than a story of survival, Evolution illustrates that in real life there
are consequences to the abuse and gangsterism that is sometimes valued in hip hop litera-
ture. It is also a testament to the possibilities that can be found in choosing a different path.

FURTHER READING
Kempton, Murray. The Briar Patch: The Trial of the Panther 21. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997.

Bridget A. Arnwine

AND IT DON’T STOP!: THE BEST AMERICAN HIP HOP JOUR-

NALISM OF THE LAST 25 YEARS (2004). And It Don’t Stop!: The Best
American Hip Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years is an anthology edited by journalist
Raquel Cepeda, with a foreword written by Nelson George.
Representing twenty-five years of journalism, the collection traces the emergence of
mainstream critical attention toward the genre. The articles in the collection are culled
from magazines such as The Source and XXL, which cater to a reading constituency well
versed in the world of hip hop, as well as mainstream publications such as The New York
Times and GQ. The collection not only sheds light on the development of hip hop as a sub-
ject for journalistic attention, but it also documents the voices considered credible
reporters of it. Included in the collection are some of the most noted writers on hip hop
music and culture such as Bill Adler, Nelson George, Joan Morgan, and Bakari Kitwana.
In her introduction, Cepeda calls the articles in the collection “a matter of passion versus, if
you will, access” (xix). Before hip hop was considered more than just a passing fad or subcul-
ture, writers who were intimately connected to the form sought to capture its spirit and signif-
icance. The writers looked to describe and define a cultural movement that had begun to spread
beyond its humble New York beginnings. The writers followed the rappers and the other devo-
tees of hip hop culture or B-boys where they went, whether it was a Paris stage or a boardroom
4 ANGRY BLONDE: THE OFFICIAL BOOK

in Manhattan. Nelson George, in a 1985 article titled The Village Voice, expressed the frustra-
tion of many who were participants as well as chroniclers of the bourgeoning form. While
detailing the daily struggle of a pre-Phat Farm, mogul-in-the-making Russell Simmons,
George also exposes how most major labels mishandled hip hop records. He characterizes the
lack of attention that most hip hop releases received as “corporate malnutrition” (48).
This connection to and appreciation of the art form and culture runs throughout And It
Don’t Stop! As the mainstream and commercial popularity of hip hop grew, writers began
to take a more critical view of those in front of the microphone. Not only were artists and
the music being held accountable, but also the culture that engendered the rise in materi-
alism, misogyny, gender relations, and other sociopolitical issues was being held account-
able. As the anthology closes, it becomes clear that “hip hop journalism” remains a loaded
term and a challenging endeavor. The collection of articles ends at the beginning of the
new millennium and points toward the continued relevance of hip hop as it posits the way
the form will be covered in the future.

FURTHER READING
Bynoe, Yvonne. Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip-Hop Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.
Perkins, William Eric. “The Rap Attack: An Introduction.” In Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on
Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1996, 1–45.
Small, Michael. Break It Down: The Inside Story from the New Leaders of Rap. New York: Carol
Publishing Group, 1992.

Wandra C. Hunley

ANGRY BLONDE: THE OFFICIAL BOOK (2000). A book explaining the

lyrics of Eminem’s early albums.
By the time Eminem released Angry Blonde (2000), the official book of lyrics from his
first two studio albums, he had already established himself as one of the most controver-
sial rappers to emerge in recent cultural memory. Both critically acclaimed and widely crit-
icized, Eminem’s 1999 debut album, The Slim Shady LP, launched him into stratospheric
success. Not since Tupac Shakur has an emcee elicited such simultaneous disdain and ado-
ration. His lyrics chronicled everything from the pain of his childhood to elaborate fan-
tasies of killing his wife, and in the year following the release of the rapper’s sophomore
effort, The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), he had managed to alienate just about everyone
from gay rights advocates to conservative politicians. Vice President Dick Cheney’s wife,
Lynne Cheney, was quoted as saying that Eminem’s music was “the most extreme exam-
ple of rock lyrics used to demean women, advocate violence against women, violence
against gay people.” The year culminated with a penultimate performance at the 2001
Grammy Awards with longtime gay rights activist and pop musician Elton John, who
joined the rapper onstage for a duet of his hit song “Stan.”
It is not surprising that Eminem felt the need to explain these first two albums. Framed
as a rare glimpse into his writing process and aimed specifically at “those people who read
too much” into his lyrics, Angry Blonde clearly serves as Eminem’s response to public per-
ception. As he quips in the introduction, “The book is made by Slim Shady, from the mind
of Marshall Mathers as seen from Eminem’s point of view. Got it? This is for those people
who read too much into what I say, when at the end of the day . . . it’s all a joke” (3).
 ANGRY BLONDE: THE OFFICIAL BOOK 5

Aside from a few interesting tidbits about studio production and his collaborative rela-
tionship with Dr. Dre, the real gem of the book is that by providing lyrics (including sev-
eral freestyles) the reader comes away with a tangible sense of Eminem’s artistic approach
to writing.
One of the more controversial songs in Eminem’s oeuvre, “97 Bonnie and Clyde,”
depicts a macabre outing to the beach with his young daughter. In the long paragraph intro-
ducing the lyrics, Eminem says when he penned the song he felt as though his ex-wife was
using their daughter as a “weapon” against him. The song samples Bill Withers’s “Just the
Two of Us,” and, in classic Slim Shady style, riffs on the themes of several other songs,
including Will Smith’s 1998 hit about his relationship with his son and Makaveli’s (aka
Tupac’s) 1996 track “Me and My Girlfriend,” a loving homage to a gun. Somewhere
between loving father and cold-blooded killer, we find Slim Shady, the unreliable narrator,
and Marshall Mathers, the imaginative storyteller. Indeed all of Eminem’s various personas
emerge in the pages of Angry Blonde as much more than the headlines that follow him.

FURTHER READING
Mathers, Marshall. Angry Blonde: The Official Book. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.

Georgia M. Roberts
 B
BABY BOY (COLUMBIA PICTURES, USA, 2001). Directed by John
Singleton, Baby Boy is the story of a young black man in South Central Los Angeles strug-
gling to define himself.
John Singleton has forged a placed for himself in the canon of black urban film with the
release of his 1990 film Boyz N The Hood. Set amid the backdrop of drug infested, gang-
banging South Central Los Angeles Boyz brought some much needed attention to the
implosion of many young black people trapped in jobless, hopeless, violent inner cities in
the aftermath of trickle down economics and globalization. Singleton returns to this theme
in yet another bildungsroman, Baby Boy.
Jody (Tyrese Gibson) lives with a mother (A. J. Johnson) barely 15 years his senior and
is the father of two children by two different women. Even though his son’s mother, Yvette
(Taraji P. Henson), implores Jody to grow up and take responsibility for his family, he
resists and prefers to remain at home with his mother, hustling stolen clothes, eating candy,
and when Yvette refuses him the keys to her car, riding his bicycle. On the surface the plot
is rife with lessons about manhood, familial responsibility, and gainful employment.
Underneath there are messages about depression, violence, and codependency.
Known for his heavy-handed inner-city fables, Singleton’s film is one of a few that actu-
ally deal with the obstacles facing young black men in America. Jody has been handi-
capped by a mother whose loneliness prevents her giving her “baby” the tools necessary
to become a functioning adult. She does not require her sons to move out on their own and
assume responsibility for their lives until her love interests enter the scene. Jody is terri-
fied of living on his own because his older brother was killed after being forced to leave
the nest by his mother’s boyfriend. Jody is increasingly anxious as his mother’s new beau,
Mel (Ving Rhames), assumes the position of man-of-the-house, leaving Jody to wonder
where his destiny lies.
The film fully integrates rap and hip hop culture with a soundtrack featuring music by
Tha Eastsidaz, Snoop Dogg, and Three 6 Mafia. Snoop Dogg himself has a prominent role
as Rodney, Yvette’s ex-boyfriend. Rodney takes up residence at Yvette’s home without an
invitation. When she is unable to persuade him to leave, Jody and his friend Sweetpea
(Omar Gooding) come to her rescue. One of the problematic ideas of the film is that Jody
and Sweetpea must kill Rodney in order to prove that they are men. Like Jody, Sweetpea
lives with and is supported by women. Also like Jody, Sweetpea tries to assume control of
this female-supported household with violence.
As the director and writer, Singleton fails to answer important questions about the tra-
ditional definitions of manhood and whether these conventional ideas are possible or even
preferable for young black men in America. In the end, black boys prove they are men with
 BAISDEN, MICHAEL 7

brutality and aggression, and Jody finally bonds with his new “father,” Mel, as Mel
removes the gun from his hand and assures him all will be well.
Although the film begins with Jody waiting outside of an abortion clinic for Yvette, it
ends with a very pregnant Yvette and Jody picnicking in the park. It is intimated that Jody
has accepted his role of father and husband and is no longer a “baby.” Although the film
attempts to wrestle with the phantom of black manhood in America, it does not challenge
the very obstacles that make the role so daunting.

FURTHER READING
Gleiberman, Owen. “Man Child.” Entertainment Weekly 604 (13 July 2001): 56.
Pryce, Vinette K. “‘Baby Boy’ Teaches Mamas a Few Lessons.” New York Amsterdam News, Vol. 92
no. 26 (28 June 2001): 23.
Sterritt, David. “‘Boyz’ Director Revisits the ’hood in ‘Baby Boy.’” Christian Science Monitor,
Vol. 93 no. 151 (29 June 2001): 17.

Tarshia L. Stanley

BAISDEN, MICHAEL (1963–). African American author and radio talk show
host commenting on many of the issues that affect the Hip Hop Generation.
Formerly a route driver for the Chicago Transit Authority, Michael Baisden or “Bad
Boy” as he is also known, has electrified readers and listeners since the mid-1990s. His
first book, which was initially self-published, is titled Never Satisfied: How and Why Men
Cheat (1995). It is a collection of short stories about men who are unfaithful to women and
the women who support these men. This collection of short stories and interviews was
inspired by stories and accounts from friends who spoke about the difficulties of their own
romantic relationships. Despite rejection from several publishing companies, he borrowed
money from friends and family and sold his car to publish his book. Because of the initial
difficulty in publishing his book, Baisden founded Legacy Publishing.
Never Satisfied explores the common perception that many men have problems with
commitment in relationships with women. In this book, Baisden discusses the issue of men
creating a world of lies that eventually leads to infidelity. Baisden states in the book’s intro-
duction, “What I am attempting to do . . . is to expose the games that are quite seriously
destroying our relationships with our women . . . [and] affecting our ability to maintain
healthy relationships which could be beneficial to both ourselves and the children that are
unsuspecting players in too many of those very games.” Within eight months of the book’s
publication, he sold more than 50,000 copies and was on the best-seller lists of both
Essence and Emerge magazines. He toured with black expos and sold books in night clubs,
at book fairs, and even in hair salons. As his popularity grew, so did the demand for his
writing.
After using the profits from the sales of Never Satisfied to pay back all that he had bor-
rowed, he wrote his first novel, Men Cry in the Dark, which was released in July 1997.
Men Cry in the Dark, which was his second book, sold more than 30,000 copies in hard-
cover editions alone and later became a national stage play. In this novel, Baisden created
characters whose social and economic circumstances resonated particularly well with
urban, affluent African Americans in the 1990s. According to Publishers Weekly writer
Carol Taylor, Baisden’s success as a writer is attributed to the fact that “black readers, like
all readers, want recognizable and realistic images of themselves and their lives, not
8 BANKS, L. A.

stereotypes.” Baisden is often compared to other notable contemporary African American

male fiction writers, such as Eric Jerome Dickey and Omar Tyree.
In 2000 Michael Baisden again achieved literary and commercial success when he pub-
lished Maintenance Man, the story of a gigolo who falls in love with one of his sexual con-
quests. In 2003 Baisden wrote God’s Gift to Women, which, like Maintenance Man, was
optioned for a movie deal. Much like the movie Fatal Attraction, God’s Gift to Women
explores the perilous consequences of a one-night stand.
Michael Baisden has not only found success as a writer but also as a radio show host.
In 2003 Baisden’s radio career began when KISS FM 98.7 in New York City offered
him a job as the afternoon host of its radio program. Although he was not initially paid
for his work, the ratings of his show climbed within six months from number 9 to number l.
After several months of consistently high ratings, Baisden wanted to take his show to
the national level, but he was met with reluctance by management. Threatening to leave
the station, he reached a deal with the radio station management and has had a very
successful run.
One of Baisden’s greatest achievements was organizing the Jena 6 March, which
occurred on September 20, 2007, and was a national response to racist treatment of six
African American high school students at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana. Because
of Baisden’s leadership, thousands of American citizens poured into the town to support
the students. Also in 2007 Baisden realized another dream of hosting a late night televi-
sion talk show. He partnered with FarCor Productions and TVONE to host “Baisden after
Dark,” which has become a success.

FURTHER READING
Baisden, Michael. God’s Gift to Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
———. The Maintenance Man. Chicago, IL: Legacy, l997.
———. Men Cry in the Dark. Chicago, IL: Legacy, l997.
———. Never Satisfied: How and Why Men Cheat. Chicago, IL: Legacy, l995.
Hayden, Lorraine. “Michael Baisden Provides National Support for the Jena 6.” 4 Sept. 2007.
<www.associatedcontent.com/article/ Internet.>
Taylor, Carol. “Michael Baisden.” Publishers Weekly (13 Dec. 1997): 37.

Timothy Askew

BANKS, L. A. (1960–). L. A. Banks is the author of the popular Vampire

Huntress series featuring the character Damali Richards, a hip hop/spoken word artist
who is also a vampire slayer. Banks also publishes books under the names Leslie Esdaile,
Leslie Esdaile Banks, and Leslie E. Banks.
The Vampire Huntress series follows the story of Damali Richards, who, in addition to
being a spoken word artist, is also a Neteru, or vampire hunter. Neterus, who only appear
once in a millennium, are humans endowed with special powers, such as superstrength and
superhearing, that aid them in fighting vampires and other supernatural creatures. In Minion
(2004), the first novel in the series, Damali is at the cusp of “awakening” to her powers as a
Neteru as she approaches her twenty-first birthday. As part of this process, her physical and
spiritual connection with Carlos Rivera, her childhood protector (later her lover and hus-
band), becomes stronger. However, at the end of Minion, Carlos, a Hollywood club owner
and drug dealer, is turned into a “master vampire” by Damali’s nemesis, Fallon Nuit.
 BEAT STREET 9

A major subplot of the novels, then, is the fight to save Carlos’s soul from the dark side.
Because he died with a prayer on his lips at the moment of his turning, Carlos’s soul does
not go to hell but instead is in a state of purgatory, which allows him the opportunity to
redeem himself by joining in the fight against evil with Damali and her seven musician
guardians: Marlene, José, Rider, J. L., Big Mike, Shabazz, and Dan. United with them in
their fight against evil is the Covenant, which is a group of holy men representing the
world’s major religions.
Several major themes and metaphors emerge in the Vampire Huntress series. The over-
arching theme is the epic struggle between good and evil. For example, the battle between
the Covenant and the Vampire Council, who rule the underworld, for possession of both
Damali and Carlos is a metaphor for the conflicts between good and evil in their lives.
Raised in a loving, religious family, Carlos is a good person who does evil deeds. Damali
continually struggles between her love for him and her despair at how evil has taken control
of his soul.
Another important theme in the novels is the power of art to redeem the soul. As a hip
hop/spoken word artist for Warriors of Light Records, Damali uses her words to literally
save souls, giving her listeners hope that saves them from the vampires around them. Addi-
tionally, the novels illustrate how art can be destructive if used for nefarious purposes; Fal-
lon Nuit uses his record label Blood Music as a cover for his evil work. Also important in
the series is the idea that faith and unity are powerful forces in the fight against evil, as
symbolized by both Damali’s multicultural and multiethnic guardians and the Covenant.

FURTHER READING
Banks, L.A. The Awakening. New York: St. Martin’s, 2004.
———. The Bitten. New York: St. Martin’s, 2005.
———. The Cursed. New York: St. Martin’s, 2007.
———. The Damned. New York: St. Martin’s, 2007.
———. The Forbidden. New York: St. Martin’s, 2005.
———. The Forsaken. New York: St. Martin’s, 2007.
———. The Hunted. New York: St. Martin’s, 2005.
———. Minion. New York: St. Martin’s, 2003.
———. The Wicked. New York: St. Martin’s, 2008.
Jackson, Monia. Creepin’. New York: Harlequin, 2007.

Marlene D. Allen

BEAT STREET (ORION PICTURES, USA, 1984). Financed and co-

produced by Harry Belafonte and directed by Stan Latham, Beat Street was released in
1984 and joined Wild Style (1982), Style Wars (1983), and Breakin’ (1984) as some of the
first films to map the cultural terrain of hip hop.
A movie that stresses a positive image of hip hop, Beat Street won the NAACP Image
Award in 1984. The main characters in the film are two young black brothers, Kenny
(Guy Davis), whose ambition is to find success as a rap music DJ, and Lee (Robert
Taylor), who spends his after school hours break dancing, a nascent gymnastic dance
form born in the black and Latino neighborhoods of New York. The third protagonist in
the film is Ramon (Ron Chardiet), one of Kenny and Lee’s closest friends. Ramon, a
dreamer, neglects his responsibilities and lives to paint graffiti on the subway cars that
crisscross New York City.
10 BEAT STREET

The young men are represented as ambitious but unemployed, and each one is obsessed
with his art form of choice. Eventually Kenny meets a young college music professor,
Tracy (Rae Dawn Chong), who provides him with connections that may help him achieve
success. Ramon, however, will pay a high price for his single-minded artistic vision.
Although in Beat Street rap music takes a backseat to break dancing and graffiti, taken
together, the three young men embody the art forms defined by hip hop scholar Tricia
Rose (1994) as the major expressions of hip hop culture: rap music, break dancing, and
graffiti.
Hip hop, the film’s overall theme, originated in the neighborhoods of black and Latino
youth, and the movie takes place in a bleak world; a visual landscape of the South Bronx’s
subway tracks and deteriorating neighborhoods is a background for the story. The film,
however, is far from depressing because it provides a hopeful message whereby it is pos-
sible for underprivileged minority youth to break through the oppressive strictures of
poverty by pursuing their artistic dreams.
Colorful graffiti art enlivens the cold and dreary landscape and provides, as well, the
space for a resistant political stance because the graffiti artist, Ramon, openly rejects a cap-
italist work ethic to embrace the oppositional values of hip hop. In the words of critic
Albert Johnson, “According to the cinematic gospel of street life, graffiti is the emblem of
a new artistic modernism: these secret, nocturnal painters, the scourge of the New York
Transit Authority, are ‘Les Fauves’ of the lower classes” (1990, 25). Johnson explains the
underclass and oppositional origins of hip hop as represented in Beat Street by arguing that
“Behind the carefree lyricism of the dances are the drowned-out cries of poverty and
hunger” (1990, 25). Although the film’s storyline suggests the exploitative ways in which
some individuals, such as entertainment executives and producers, might interconnect with
hip hop artists in order to co-opt them and make a profit, and other institutions, such as
police agencies, seek to control and constrain urban youth, the film is recognized by most
critics as optimistic and affirmative.
Beat Street featured artist Afrika Bambaataa, recognized as one of the founding
fathers of rap, and his Zulu Nation Crew. Bambaataa is known, as well, for his strong
support of hip hop artists and his promotion of Rock Steady Crew, whose break dancers
were featured in Beat Street and Flashdance (1983), another musical film that provides
one of the first filmic examples of the evolving form of break dance. Beat Street pro-
vides plentiful takes of break dance choreography, including a break dance battle
between Rock Steady Crew and the New York City Breakers, showcasing the talents of
urban youth as well as the multicultural strands of the hip hop terrain. Other early rap
stars featured in the film are Kool Moe Dee, Kool DJ Herc, Melle Mellas, and Doug E.
Fresh, as well as Puerto Rican MC Brenda K. Starr and rappers Lisa Lee, Sha-Rock,
and Debbie Dee, who created one of the first all-women rap groups, the Us Girls. The
movie Beat Street, now a hip hop classic, is a cultural time capsule that traces and
showcases the contributions of young men and women of color to the evolution of hip
hop in America.

FURTHER READING
Johnson, Albert. “Moods Indigo.” Film Quarterly, Vol. 2 (1990): 13–27.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown,
CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Trudy Mercadal-Sabbaugh
 BELLY 11

BEATTY, PAUL (1962–). Contemporary spoken word artist, poet, and novelist.
Born in Los Angeles in 1962, Paul Beatty first garnered attention in the early 1990s at
the Slam Poetry clubs of New York. Beatty honed his poetry skills and acerbic wit at the
legendary Nuyorican Poets Café. During this time, he released two books of poetry, Big
Bank Take Little Bank (1991) and Joker, Joker, Deuce (1994). Both collections reveal
Beatty’s biting satire and focus on social and race-related issues.
In 1996, Beatty made a seamless transition from poet to novelist with the critically
acclaimed The White Boy Shuffle. Maintaining his attention to wordplay and humor, The
White Boy Shuffle shows Beatty’s growth from quick-witted quips to sustained social com-
mentary, leading New York Times book reviewer Richard Bernstein to conclude that “this
first novel by the poet Paul Beatty is a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of black
American life, a kind of literary-parodic counterpart to hip-hop and stand-up comedy.”
Fashioned as a semiautobiographical bildungsroman, The White Boy Shuffle places Beatty
in a long tradition of African American coming-of-age stories. In the novel, Beatty cri-
tiques the ineffectual multiculturalism of the 1990s and incorporates provocative scenes,
including the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict. The White Boy Shuffle cemented
Beatty’s reputation as an up-and-coming writer.
Tuff (2000), Beatty’s second novel, addressed similar issues to The White Boy Shuffle,
such as racial pigeonholing, but without the poignancy and delicacy of his debut novel.
Tuff received mixed reviews from critics. Once again, it is Beatty’s command of language
that stands out. Beatty’s continued incorporation of rap lyrics and poetry interspersed in
his fiction fully established him as a hip hop writer, a moniker he resists. For Beatty, the
hip hop label discounts the plurality his work embraces, ignoring the myriad of other
sources from which he draws.
In 2006 Beatty compiled a collection of African American humor in Hokum: An
Anthology of African American Humor. This well-selected sample of some familiar
texts and a few lesser-known ones serves as homage to his predecessors and asks for a
reexamination of African American literature through the context of humor. This
anthology has stirred up controversy, especially the cover art. The picture of a water-
melon rind fashioned as a grin has led some black leaders to condemn the cover of
Hokum as inappropriate and insensitive.
Although humor is the most striking characteristic of Paul Beatty’s writing, a cosmo-
politan sensibility underlies much of his work, giving it depth and weight. His characters
resist rigid classification, finding acceptance and belonging in the most unlikely places.
The spirit of individuality imbued in Beatty’s characters is also represented in his writing,
which draws as freely from hip hop as it does from classical literature.

FURTHER READING
Bernstein, Richard. “Books of the Times; Black Poet’s First Novel Aims the Jokes Both Ways.” The
New York Times. 31 May 1996, C25.

Alexander Hartwiger

BELLY (BIG DOG FILMS, USA, 1998). This is the debut film of famed rap
music video director Hype Williams.
Written by Hype Williams in collaboration with Nas and Anthony Bodden, Belly is a
story about the quintessential urban gangster. A murky plot gets lost in fantastic visuals as
12 BETWEEN GOD AND GANGSTA RAP: BEARING WITNESS TO BLACK CULTURE

Williams brings his video directing style to the silver screen. He even brings many of the
rap stars whose videos he directed with him. The film tells the story of Tommy (DMX) and
Sincere (Nas) as they part ways. Sincere is just that in his effort to give up the drug game
and pursue a legitimate life for himself and his family. Encouraged by his wife Tionne
(Tionne T’Boz Watkins), Sincere seeks a connection to something much deeper than the
streets and bloody money he and Tommy have accumulated. Meanwhile, Tommy is too
enamored with the “big score” to leave the lifestyle.
As the two men’s lives diverge so does the real sense of the plot. Williams seems to be
rewriting history as he invokes the likes of Minister Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X in
the character of Reverend Savior (Benjamin Davis). In a plot twist, Tommy is forced by
federal agents to become a part of the Reverend’s organization so that he can execute the
Reverend. As Tommy sits with the Reverend on New Year’s Eve 1999, Reverend Savior
asks him to make a choice and tells him to choose light rather than darkness. Simultane-
ously, Sincere is packing up his family and moving to Africa. The plot disintegrates into a
mélange of wishful thinking about the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.
In the end, the film is one long music video. Its aesthetic prowess marks it as part of the
inner city, black male, drug-and-gang-violence era of films. Its cast of rap and hip hop stars
cements its position in hip hop cinema.

FURTHER READING
Frazier, C. D. “Hip-hop World Goes ‘Belly’ Up On Gangsta-ism.” New York Amsterdam News,
Vol. 89 Issue 47 (19 Nov. 1998): 23.
Grant, Natasha. “Hype Williams’ ‘Belly’ Holds Up Well.” New York Amsterdam News, Vol. 95 Issue
4 (22 Jan. 2004): 17–17.

Tarshia L. Stanley

BETWEEN GOD AND GANGSTA RAP: BEARING WITNESS TO

BLACK CULTURE (1996). One of scholar and popular culture critic Michael
Eric Dyson’s early books on hip hop culture.
Scholar, educator, and preacher, Michael Eric Dyson renders a unique collection of
critical analyses of culture, in particular black culture, through this intriguing work on
race and identity. Key to understanding Dyson’s approach is that he is literally bearing
witness to black culture. The fact that he is able to bear witness speaks to his unmistak-
able proximity to black life and existence in America. Throughout hip-hop literature the
term proximity is thrown around often as a tool to verify authenticity and validity.
Dyson’s composition of diverse writings seems to emanate from someone close to if not
within the rap community and culture.
Dyson commences and culminates his work with epistles or letters, the former a letter
to his brother who is incarcerated, and the latter a letter to his third wife, in which he
relates his growing pains on his journey toward maturity in his approach to relationships.
His letter to his brother sets the tone for the harsh realities that will be excavated through
his thematic discussions of the multifaceted nature of black life. Dyson discusses hostility
within the black body and soul and the redemptive power of hope through education, spir-
ituality (namely, the church), and family. He also discusses sexuality and hypersexuality
as foundations of both pain and joy, while keeping at the forefront the struggle with
intense yet masked white racism. These themes permeate Dyson’s work, which begins
 BLACK BOOK CLUBS 13

with “Testimonials” chronicling the experiences of black men such as O.J. Simpson, Rev.
Dr. Gardner Calvin Taylor, Michael Jordan, Sam Cooke, and Marion Barry. The following
section, “Lessons,” digs deeply into politics and racial identity. Through discussion of
Newt Gingrich, Quabiliah Shabazz, the NAACP, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X,
and Carol Moseley Braun, Dyson adds insight to a seemingly tumultuous rift between poli-
tics and racial identity. His third and final section, “Songs of Celebration,” stems mainly
from Dyson’s writings as a hip-hop journalist for magazines such as Vibe and Rolling
Stone. He explores the highs and lows of black artistic expression ranging from the black
vernacular bible all the way to gospel music, R & B, and of course, hip-hop, bringing about
a trite advancement into his benediction, which allows for the formulation of a tightly and
uniquely ordered sermon for the modern socially conscientious reader.
Dyson posits that the essence of black culture today lies in the cross sections of society,
spirituality, and politics. Cultural expression that brings voice to the diversity of America
is found somewhere “between God and gangsta rap.” The schism that has been apparently
widened due to gangsta rap, which supposedly is the cause of America’s moral decay, is
merely a convenient method for a complacent, elitist society to avoid dealing with the
larger issues of race, class, and gender. Dyson masterfully takes postmodern theory and
applies it sympathetically to black culture, allowing for a critique that bears witness to the
fact that American culture is nonextant without black life. Dyson’s proximity to the culture
allows the reader to appreciate his critique of the culture.

See also Dyson, Michael Eric

FURTHER READING
Dyson, Michael Eric. Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina & the Color of Disaster.
Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2007.
———. Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop. New York: Basic Civitas, 2007.

W.C. Baxter III

BLACK BOOK CLUBS. Reading groups for people predomninantly of African

descent organized around reading material concerned with the culture, politics, or history
of black people. Black book clubs have experienced a dramatic increase in the last decade
as urban/street literature and a renewed interest in self-publishing by people of color has
grown exponentially.
Rather than a new phenomenon, black book clubs have a long history in our society. After
emancipation (1863) formerly enslaved African Americans organized literary societies,
known in contemporary times as “the book club.”

Freed blacks first formed literary societies as a social outlet and as a platform to support
antislavery organizations. These societies provided a place where blacks could read the
Bible and recite their own poetry or autobiographical narratives, speak out freely against
slavery, and discuss community issues, such as how to build a school or fund a newspaper.
In Boston around 1830 the African American Female Intelligence Society was founded for
“the diffusion of knowledge, the suppression of vice and immorality, and for cherishing
such virtues as will render us happy and useful to society.” On September 20, 1831 a Female
Literary Association of Philadelphia held its first conclave. . . . By 1834 New York had a
14 BLACK BOOK CLUBS

Colored Ladies’ Literary Society, and Philadelphia the Minerva Literary Association. By
1833 Pennsylvania had its Young Men’s Literary, Moral Reform Society and the Philadelphia
Library Company of Colored Persons. (West 2000, 51)

Ida B. Wells Barnett (1862–1931) and W. E. B. DuBois (1868–1963) were society advo-
cates. Journalist Barnett and her group, Lyceum, read risqué newspapers when they gathered
every Friday evening at LeMoyne Normal Institute in Tennessee. Wells wrote the follow-
ing: “The literary exercises consisted of recitations, essays, and debates interspersed with
music. The exercises always closed with a reading of the Evening Star—a spicy journal”
(DeCosta-Willis 1995, 33). Crisis editor DuBois and his male group, “Sons of Freedom,”
read and discussed United States history. He wrote that the literary society was “the best
thing that could be done for the colored people” (Rampersad 1990, 10–11).
Toni Morrison (Beloved) stated, “Novels are for talking about and quarreling about and
engaging in some powerful way. However that happens, at a reading group, a study group,
a classroom or just some friends getting together, it’s a delightful, desirable thing to do”
(Farr 2004, 1).
And, reading is a new passion for a book club at Thurgood Marshall High School in
Baltimore where 30 black boys read hip hop literature instead of classics. They also
devoured Display of Power: How FUBU Changed a World of Fashion Branding and
Lifestyle by Daymond John, founder of the FUBU black fashion line (Jones 2007, 1B).
During the Barnett/DuBois era, there were virtually no established black writers. How-
ever, black people read during the 1890 literary renaissance when Frances E. W. Harper
(Iola Leroy) reigned, through the Harlem Renaissance (1920–1930) when Langston
Hughes poetized (The Weary Blues), and during the Black Arts Movement (1960–1970)
led by Amiri Baraka (Blues People).
By the 1970s to mid-1990s, a new wave of books emerged. Thousands of readers
across the nation committed themselves to books written by black authors. In 1992 the
Academia Literary Society of Montclair, New Jersey, read The Autobiography of
Malcolm X and Paula Giddings’ classic When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black
Women on Race and Sex in America. In Atlanta Black Women United in Literary Devel-
opment (BUILD) read Disappearing Acts by Terry McMillan and the Renaissance clas-
sic, The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman (West 1992, 51–52). Treble Clef & Book
Lovers Club originated in 1908 at Virginia Union University and read The Color Purple
in the late 1990s. The same-aged Inquirers in Atlanta read Our Kind of People: Inside
Black America’s Upper Class by Lawrence Otis Graham during the late 1990s (West
2002, 42).
As Charles Johnson (Middle Passage) wrote in Callaloo (1984) about new fiction writers,
“We must celebrate the hard-won advances of black fiction in the last decade, for they are
crucial steps in the evolution of our literature and consciousness, but the danger in being too
easily satisfied, as Donald Hall points out in his magnificent essay, ‘Poetry and Ambition’
(Kenyon Review, Fall 1983), is that great models of literature become forgotten, anything
goes after a time, and the high-wire of performance may be lowered more than we like”
(Johnson 1984, 1). The televised Oprah’s Book Club helped to change the way America read,
even though most of the books Oprah offered were not by black authors. Nevertheless,
reading hit a revolutionary stride in the black neighborhood.
In the late 1990s clubbers happily read literary fiction and books of intense social sig-
nificance, and then came change. Terry McMillan claimed the stage with Mama, and Sister
Souljah claimed the stage with The Coldest Winter Ever. In the company of literary suc-
 BLACK BOOK CLUBS 15

cesses from Alice Walker (The Color Purple) and Toni Morrison, works by McMillan,
Souljah, and similar authors encouraged publishers to do a double take amid changing
popular music standards. The new kid on the block was hip-hop.
What does hip-hop literature look like? The stories are urban, focus on drug lords,
employ profanity, wallow in materialism, utilize misogynist dialogue, glory in immoral
sex, and use the N-word (Ebony Apr. 2007, 34). Nikki Turner (A Hustler’s Wife) defends
the word “nigger.” “I try not to use that word in narration, but my characters may use it in
dialogue and in their internal thoughts. My readers depend on me to give them true-to-life
stories and until society stops using it, you’ll find it in my novels. Personally, it’s not a
word that I use in conversation” (Holloway 2007, 38).
Among the 2006–2007 major hip hop books are Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s
Hold on Young Black Women by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting (Ebony Mar. 2007, 33), The
Best-Kept Secret by Kimberla Lawson Roby, Dutch II: Angel’s Revenge by Teri Woods,
and Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans. However, The Mis-Education of the
Negro, Carter G. Woodson’s 1933 classic, continues to hold its own (Essence 2006, 86).
According to “Flying off the Shelves,” published in the January/February 2007 Black
Issues Book Review (BIBR), number one titles included Red River by Lalita Tademy; It’s
No Secret: From Nas to Jay-Z, From Seduction to Scandal, a Hip-Hop Helen of Troy Tells
All by Carmen Bryan; as well as The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the Amer-
ican Dream by Barack Obama and The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner.
In 2006 two very different books topped the New York Times best seller list. On Sunday,
April 23, it was The Covenant With Black America, written by National Public Radio talk
show host Tavis Smiley and published by Third World Press (Smikle 2006, 20). One week
later Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea’s Uninhibited Commen-
taries on Love and Life by Tyler Perry was at the top of the New York Times best seller list.
Reading material has changed. Yet, how is the book club, as an important cultural
institution, faring?
As previously noted, the Baltimore club reads hip hop exclusively. On the flip side
Linda Caldwell Epps of the Bethany Book Club at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark,
New Jersey, reports that her club “has not entertained reading hip hop literature” (Per-
sonal Interview 2007). However, Bethany recently read the classic Manchild in the
Promised Land by Claude Brown and the controversial On The Down Low: A Journal
Into the Lives of “Straight” Black Men Who Sleep With Men by J.L. King.
In BIBR July/August 2006 the books&clubs column focused on the National Book Club
Conference in Atlanta. The conference feted 500 attendees from 70 book clubs, plus 50
authors, including Mosely (Fortunate Son) and J. California Cooper (Some Soul to Keep),
who, although they are not creators of street literature, are extremely popular with black
readers. The main thrust of this gathering is to bring black readers of literature together
(John-Hall 2006, 10–11).
There is also The Pittsburgh Cadre, an all-male group. Not one hip hop title is on their
list, though they did read Standing at the Scratch Line (2001) by Guy Johnson. They have
read African Holistic Health (2004) by Dr. Llaila O. Africa in addition to Pawned Sover-
eignty: Sharpened Black Perspectives on Americanization, Africa, War and Reparations
(2003) by Ezrah Aharone (Houser 2006, 12).
It is fact that hip hop is driving classics off shelves at chain and independent stores and
that literary and hip hop writers growl at each other about who is more authentic and
relevant (Dodson 2006, 6). In the middle of this battle royale are million dollar profits.
Bling bling sells, hip hop literature is dynamic, throngs of urbanites can relate to the rush
16 BLACK NOISE: RAP MUSIC AND BLACK CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA

the adventure brings, and young readers—and some oldsters too—are much more inter-
ested in A Hustler’s Wife than The Bishop’s Wife. (A Hustler’s Wife was written in 2003,
with a sequel in 2007. The Bishop’s Wife is a prim 1940s film starring Loretta Young that
in revival 40+ years later as The Preacher’s Wife starred popular black actors Courtney
Vance, Denzel Washington, and a gospel singing Whitney Houston.)
Black folks are fervent readers and one mission of contemporary society—to read
works by African American authors—is unchanged. These truths co-exist with the busi-
ness management reality that stores stock what is hot—and hip-hop is hot; it is a genre not
embraced 100% by black book clubs but one that is accepted, with much excitement, by
the general population and audience of new and previously hesitant readers.

FURTHER READING
DeCosta-Willis, Miriam, ed. The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells: An Intimate Portrait of the Activist
as a Young Woman. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1995.
Dodson, Angela P. “Between The Lines: The Inside Scoop on What’s Happening in the Publishing
Industry.” Black Issues Book Review (July/August 2006).
“Ebony Bookshelf, April Top Picks.” Ebony (April 2007).
“Ebony Bookshelf. Top Picks for Women.” Ebony (March 2007).
Epps, Linda Caldwell. Personal Interview, 16 March 2007.
“Essence Best Sellers.” Essence (January 2006).
Farr, Cecilia Konchar. Reading Oprah: How Oprah’s Book Club Changed the Way America Reads.
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004.
“Flying Off the Shelves.” Black Issues Book Review (January/February 2007): 46.
Holloway, Lynette R. “5 Questions For: Nikki Turner.” Ebony, Vol. LXII no. 6 (April 2007): 38.
Houser, Pat. “Warning: Black Men Thinking: Pittsburgh Group Uses Books to Foster Discussion on
Crucial Issues.” Black Issues Book Review (July/August 2006).
John-Hall, Annette. “Just 500 or So of Our Best Friends: National Book Club Conference Will Limit
Size to Keep the Literary Ambience.” Black Issues Book Review (July/August 2006).
Johnson, Charles. “Whole Sight: Notes on New Black Fiction.” Callaloo Fiction: A Special Issue,
No. 22 (autumn 1984): 1–6.
Jones, Brent. “At Thurgood Marshall High, Reading Is a New Passion for One Group of Students;
‘Books’ Is Password for Males-Only Club.” Baltimore Sun. 4 April 2007, 1B.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Art & Imagination of W.E.B. DuBois. New York: Schocken Books, 1990.
Smiley, Tavis. The Covenant With Black America. Chicago, IL: Third World Press, 2006.
West, Sandra L. “Entrusted to Our Keeping: A Legacy of African-American Literary Societies.”
African Voices (Winter 2000).
West, Sandra L. “A Small Circle of Friends: The Joy and Tradition of Shared Reading.” Emerge
(April 1992).

Sandra L. West

BLACK NOISE: RAP MUSIC AND BLACK CULTURE IN CON-

TEMPORARY AMERICA (1994). Black Noise, written by hip hop scholar
Tricia Rose, was the first book-length study of rap in the history of hip hop culture.
In Black Noise Rose brings together a wide array of research methods and theories to
recount the history of rap and hip hop culture, tracing its evolution from its inner-city
origins in 1970s New York to its increasing dependence on in-studio production and
technologies in the 1990s. Rose describes rap as an oppositional cultural practice and
examines its relationship with black culture in American society. She brings together a
 BLACK NOISE: RAP MUSIC AND BLACK CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA 17

wide variety of voices and illuminates the many genres and audiences of rap, challenging
the popular media’s linking of violence, inner city youth, and rap, and the notion, much
disseminated by media coverage, that rap is always violent and sexist. Written at least
partially as a response to such negative representations of rap, Rose’s book is divided
into five chapters that deal with four major areas: 1) the history of rap and hip hop, 2) the
relationships between technology, commerce, and music, 3) the political discourse
between controlling and oppositional forces, and 4) gender relationships within rap and
the female point of view.
Instead of a rigidly linear history of its evolution, Rose explains the “day to day cul-
tural forces” that shape rap, a musical form developed by urban black and Hispanic youth,
and claims that “much of rap’s critical force grows out of the cultural potency that racially
segregated conditions foster” (2008, xiii). Black Noise provides an overview of the social
conditions that fueled the development of rap from its informal inner city origins to its
place as a major profit maker for media corporations. In subsequent chapters, Rose brings
together the post-industrial conditions of New York City, that is, the socio-economic cir-
cumstances that affect many of its residents—such as poverty, unemployment, and sub-
standard housing—and their effects on rap music and the two other major aspects of hip
hop culture: break dance and graffiti. In other words, rap and hip hop are the means by
which impoverished youth of New York cope creatively, and often politically, with
poverty and its effects. Rose also analyzes how pervasive stereotypes ascribed to rap,
urban youth, and violence affect the corporate institutions that produce rap music and
how these institutions take on disciplining and policing roles when dealing with black
rappers and their audiences.
In her chapter on technology, orality, and black cultural practices in rap music, Rose pro-
vides an overview of the syncretism of technology and black cultural practices, explaining,
for example, how rap traits such as repetition and sampling are grounded in oral traditions
in black culture, such as poetry, word-play, and storytelling. Dissecting the intersections of
Afro-diasporic cultural traditions and the sounds created by rap artists, Rose explains that
in rap “technology is made to articulate sounds and images and practices associated with
orally based forms” (2008, 86). Equipment typically used in rap music, such as samplers
and mixing boards, was recreated and reengineered by urban youth, and Rose explores the
meanings given by audiences to those musical properties in rap that are dependent on tech-
nology, such as beats, bass, loops, and volume. The ways in which rap audiences ascribe
meaning often differ across borderlines of race, gender, and culture.
Rose quotes activist scholars, such as Angela Davis and Michele Wallace, and rap-
pers, such as TLC, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, and Salt ‘N’ Pepa, to address racism, sex-
ism, and female sexual power in rap music. Although some critics have found Rose’s
analysis of feminism and female rappers problematic, suggesting it is inconsistent, Rose
was one of the first to argue that female rappers can be powerful oppositional voices,
and her analysis was a spearhead for a feminist discussion of rap. Other critics find that
because it concentrates solely on rap’s New York origins, Black Noise’s coverage is
somewhat circumscribed.
Despite the criticism, Black Noise is widely considered a cornerstone in the history of rap
music. It was the first book to deal not only with an in-depth analysis of the socioeconomic
and cultural dynamics that gave rise to rap and hip hop but also with the intersections of
technology and rap music, media institutions and their relationship with rappers, and femi-
nism and rap. It remains, to this day, a core resource of rap music and hip hop culture for
rap fans and scholars alike.
18 BLACK POETRY

FURTHER READING
Ross, Andrew, and Tricia Rose. Microphone Friends: Youth Music and Youth Culture. New York:
Routledge, 1994.
Rose, Tricia. The Hip-Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip-Hop and Why It
Matters. Basic Civitas: New York, 2008.

Trudy Mercadal-Sabbaugh

BLACK POETRY. The black poetic tradition in the United States has its roots in the
folklore and secular and religious music created by enslaved blacks in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. This vernacular culture, steeped in the oral tradition and musical
practices of their native Africa, featured characteristic elements and modes of call and
response, improvisation, storytelling, irony, hyperbole, rhyme, praise, ridicule, and so on.
The earliest forms of African American expression were work songs, field cries and
hollers, shouts, proverbs, folktales, ballads, sermons, and spirituals. These often employed
verbal techniques of signifying, rapping, lying, boasting, and toasting. These seminal
forms of African American culture reflected the slaves’ retention of their African beliefs
and heritage, even as they adapted to a new language and culture in America. As they
struggled to endure the brutal conditions and cruelties of subjugation, they fashioned an
ethos of faith, hope, and survival in a society that denied them the basic rights of citizenship
and the status of full human beings.
Thus the slaves and their descendants found themselves in a complex relationship with
the American nation. W. E. B. Du Bois, writing at the turn of the twentieth century,
described it as “a peculiar sensation, a double-consciousness, [the] sense of looking at
one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that
looks on in amused contempt and pity” (Gates 1997, 615). This double consciousness,
contends scholar Sandra Adell, is the “founding metaphor” of the African American literary
tradition. Thus, whether consciously or unconsciously, the black writer in the United States
faces a psychic dilemma. Consequently, Du Bois and other theorists and artists who came
after him declared that black art must confront this fundamental crisis of African American
identity. And, if it is to be relevant, it must address the oppressive social conditions stem-
ming from white supremacy. They call for socially responsive art that draws upon folklore
and music in order to achieve authentic black expression. Black poetry’s evolution has thus
been shaped by its attention to these concerns as poets endeavor to convey the black expe-
rience and re-imagine its possibilities.
The earliest published black poetry by enslaved poets Jupiter Hammon, Phillis Wheatley,
and George Moses Horton, and free blacks James Whitfield and Frances E. W. Harper dis-
played the heavy influence of the Bible and neoclassical European poetry. Yet these literary
poets addressed many of the same themes as their folk counterparts—yearning for freedom,
social injustice, the indignities of being deemed inferior to whites, and religious salvation.
And like the folk secular and spiritual music, they often contained coded messages of
protest or thinly veiled metaphors indicting the slave masters for their hypocrisy and moral
failings.
Wheatley was the first black American poet to publish a full poetry collection, with
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). It was first issued in London, how-
ever, because no Boston publisher was convinced that she had written it, even though some
of the city’s most respected citizens had confirmed her authorship. June Jordan and others
 BLACK POETRY 19

have commented on the inherently subversive nature of a black woman slave writing poetry
in eighteenth century, white male-dominated America. By the very act of writing, Wheatley
and these other pioneers of the African American literary tradition refuted the justifications
for slavery. Horton became the first black southern poet to publish a collection, with The
Hope of Liberty (1829). Whitfield and Harper were activists and abolitionist poets admired
for their oratorical skills. Whitfield, who campaigned for black liberation through sepa-
ratism, published America and Other Poems (1853), which contained bitter works of social
protest. Harper was a vigorous proponent of blacks’ and women’s rights and a leader in both
of those movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Poems on Miscel-
laneous Subjects (1854) contains some of her best-known protest poetry.
In the aftermath of Emancipation, dialect poetry became popular as a means to celebrate
the speech and exploits of common folk. James Weldon Johnson and Paul Laurence Dunbar
were two of the most accomplished poets in that regard. They also wrote traditional liter-
ary poems that, among their various themes, extolled the genius of folk culture (“O Black
and Unknown Bards”) and the heroism of slaves who joined the Union cause in the Civil
War (“The Unsung Heroes”). Dunbar’s skillful use of dialect inspired other poets (includ-
ing Johnson, who later disparaged its use). But some criticized it as minstrelsy, a parody
of black colloquial speech that reinforced white stereotypes of southern blacks as child-
like, colorful, and contented. Yet scholars have also noted the subversive subtext of “An
Ante-Bellum Sermon” and the subtle protest of his often-anthologized lyric poems “Sym-
pathy” and “We Wear the Mask.” His dialect poems, found in volumes such as Lyrics of
Lowly Life (1896), were extremely popular among white audiences, but his works employ-
ing European lyric forms were largely ignored, a situation he lamented in “The Poet.”
Other notable writers during this period included Alice Dunbar-Nelson, William Stanley
Braithwaite, and Fenton Johnson.
The vibrancy of black cultural and political life in 1920s New York, especially Harlem,
helped to spark a period of intense artistic activity and a high point in black creative
expression. It marked the Harlem Renaissance as an important historical moment, as black
artists and writers achieved unprecedented recognition and publication. The most well
known of the poets were Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Georgia
Douglas Johnson, Jean Toomer, Arna Bontemps, Gwendolyn Bennett, Helene Johnson,
Anne Spencer, and Angelina Weld Grimké. They constituted a coterie of poets who were
lauded by white critics and patrons and dubbed exemplars of a “New Negro Aesthetic” by
scholar Alain Locke.
Hughes eventually became the most celebrated of the Harlem Renaissance writers,
achieving iconic status within the American literary canon. His prolific outpouring of
poetry, prose, and drama incorporated black vernacular speech forms and music. He dis-
tinguished himself from his peers with his innovative use of rhythmic structures bor-
rowed from blues and jazz, particularly in his first two books and later in the suite of
bebop influenced poems, Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) and Ask Your Mama:
Twelve Moods for Jazz (1961). Hughes addressed the wide range of urban black experi-
ence, yet he also wrote poems dealing with southern rural themes. His focus on poverty,
class struggle, and promoting international solidarity among the poor and working
classes was prompted by his travels to the Soviet Union in the 1930s. He never ceased
his advocacy of a truly racial art though. In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”
(1926), Hughes decried the artist who would rather be “a poet—not a Negro poet.” For
another forty years, Hughes continued to produce poems and other works that honored
uniquely black expressive forms.
20 BLACK POETRY

Sterling Brown’s first book, Southern Road (1932), appeared as the Harlem Renaissance
was coming to a close, but it signaled a vital new phase in black poetry. As Joanne V. Gabbin,
Eugenia Collier, Mark Sanders, and others have noted, Brown also drew on folk forms in
his masterful use of dialect and his invention of the blues ballad form, exemplified in “Ma
Rainey.” His poems featuring archetypal heroes—Crispus Attucks McKoy, Old Lem, Big
Boy, Joe Meeks, Wild Bill, and the trickster Slim Greer—satirized racism. Brown, in the
critics’ estimation, had brilliantly fused folk and modernist sensibilities to create black
expression of the highest order.
In the intervening period of the 1930s to the 1960s, Melvin Tolson, Frank Marshall
Davis, Robert Hayden, Margaret Danner, Margaret Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lance
Jeffers, Owen Dodson, and Bob Kaufman, among others, gained prominence. Hayden,
Tolson, and Walker were clearly influenced by folk forms; their works are steeped in his-
tory and honor political heroes and the determined spirit of ordinary folk. Hayden’s
superbly executed, often elegiac, poems were among the most powerful works of his gen-
eration. Marshall’s ironic poems about the thwarting of middle class dreams foreshadowed
themes of Black Arts poets such as Baraka and Madhubuti. Danner, whose absorbing mod-
ernist style remains fresh, celebrated African heritage. Kaufman, associated with the north-
ern California Beat scene, addressed the alienation of the visionary artist in vivid, freely
associative imagery and jazz-inspired rhythms.
Brooks, the dominant poet of the period, created portraits of urban “heroes”—ordinary
black women and men leading lives of struggle, particularly in her native South Side
Chicago. Brooks’s work rendered, arguably, the most fully realized expression in poetry to
date of the interior lives of black Americans. Her treatment of black women’s self-concept
and emotional concerns deepened the articulation of the complexities of race and gender.
In 1950, she became the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize for Annie Allen (1949)
whose title character’s coming-of-age is chronicled in the technically virtuosic long lyric
“The Anniad.” Her encounter in 1967 at Fisk University with the fiery younger writers of
the new black consciousness movement marked the beginning of an important transition
for Brooks. In the Mecca (1968) exhibited a shift in her aesthetic, surrendering what
Cheryl Clarke calls the “lyric space” and turning toward a more communal ethos and col-
lective voice in her poems.
Embracing the new black aesthetic of the period, which called for art that spoke of and
to the black masses and rejected the influence of “white” literary values and practices, she
worked only with black independent publishers from 1969 onward. As Brooks herself
noted, her work was no more political in its themes than it had always been. What changed,
however, as Gabbin points out, was Brooks’s awareness that she was speaking to a black
audience who was listening and who might be sparked to some new self-discovery by her
words.
In the mid-1960s, with the advent of the Black Power movement and a new spirit of black
pride sweeping the country, a generation of poets threw off the “shackles” of a Eurocentric
literary tradition in favor of a “black aesthetic.” They adopted a set of values, attitudes, prac-
tices, and actions aimed at, in Amiri Baraka’s words, “reshap[ing] the minds of the people”
and “mov[ing] them to revolutionary positions” (1999, 503). These values included self-
love and black unity, and through their art these poets hoped to transform the lives of the
masses of lower and working class blacks. They thus helped to launch the Black Arts Move-
ment (BAM), whose goals were to create positive images of blackness and build a unified
“nation within a nation” that would resist racist oppression. Baraka—poet, playwright, edu-
cator, organizer, and political activist—was its acknowledged leading figure. He and other
 BLACK POETRY 21

important Black Arts figures, including Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Larry Neal, Askia
Touré, A. B. Spellman, and The Last Poets were concentrated on the East Coast. Others in
the forefront of the movement were found in all regions of the country. They included Mari
Evans, Etheridge Knight, Haki Madhubuti, Carolyn Rodgers, and Eugene Redmond in the
Midwest; Quincy Troupe and Jayne Cortez on the West Coast; and Kalamuya Salaam and
Tom Dent in the South.
As the “aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept,” according to Neal,
Black Arts involved the awareness and responsiveness of the poet to the needs and con-
cerns of the masses of black people. It aimed as well to set the criteria by which “true
black art” could be judged. The poet, rooted in the community, was expected to speak to
the people in forms that drew their authenticity from black vernacular speech and music
and themes based in an astute understanding of black history and contemporary socio-
political realities. Many of these poets, like Baraka, wedded their art to radical political
activity aimed at creating social revolution. For others, poetry was analogous to political
action, especially in terms of raising awareness of—and explicitly or implicitly offering
solutions to—the multiple problems of drugs, violence, poverty, family dysfunction,
police repression, joblessness, and so on, plaguing black communities. The Black Arts,
the most significant evolutionary moment in twentieth century black poetry, issued a call
for fundamental social change.
Straightforward language was considered essential for reaching the poets’ intended
audience, but so too was the aspect of performance. Poems were crafted and read to
emphasize their oral and aural elements. Poets took their cue from the performers in their
midst—musicians, singers, preachers, street corner orators, and hawkers of all kinds.
Often the poem employed the informal, conversational voice of a familiar—or, it carried
the seductive tones of an intimate, the bluesy crooning of a singer, or the commanding
cadences of a warrior-general. Delivery of these effects was a vital component of the
poem’s meaning. It was also considered “correct” to take the poetry to the people. Rather
than staging poetry readings in the traditional venues of the university or bookstore, poets
performed in bars, coffeehouses, churches, clubs, or even on the street, wherever the every-
day folk might gather. More so than previous generations, BAM linked poetry to perform-
ance. It would become as important again in the 1990s and 2000s with the popularity of
spoken word, a performance-oriented style of poetry.
Often the poets’ themes and techniques overlapped. Virtually all of them dealt with music
in their work in some way, paying homage to musical artists such as John Coltrane and
Aretha Franklin, or incorporating jazzy verbal riffs, tonal effects, songlike refrains, and lyric
samples of R&B songs. Some performed to jazz music, such as Jayne Cortez and The Last
Poets, or with gospel choirs, such as Nikki Giovanni. Baraka’s early poems employed sur-
realistic imagery that betrayed his association with the bohemian avant-garde in 1950s
Greenwich Village. His work grew more strident throughout the 1960s, often with provoca-
tive images drawn from history and contemporary politics, percussive rhythms, and profane
diction that gave it force and immediacy. Madhubuti delivered pointed irony and caustic wit
in poems that often dealt with political awakening and transformation. He and Sanchez both
addressed black male-female relationships, and the need for love, unity, and collective
building. Sanchez’s incantatory rhythms also addressed community problems, especially
drugs, and personal strength and perseverance. Giovanni’s early works were militant calls for
revolution by any means necessary. Her themes later shifted to more personal matters of love,
relationship, and motherhood. In general, BAM poets were also attentive to colonial strug-
gles in Africa and the rest of the Third World, recognizing their common oppression by white
22 BLACK POETRY

supremacy. Their works conveyed their support for African independence movements of the
1950s–1960s and embraced their African heritage as a source of spiritual sustenance.
The Black Arts left a rich legacy of activism and artistic achievement for poets of
succeeding generations. The recent crop of hip hop writers, musicians, filmmakers, and
spoken word poets have noted the influence of these forerunners—in particular,
Baraka, Sanchez, Madhubuti, and Giovanni. In turn, these elder poets have forged
bonds and mentoring relationships with the younger artists. For example, Baraka’s son,
Ras, is an activist and poet in his own right, and Saul Williams has acknowledged the
elder poet’s influence. Sanchez, as a creative writing professor and activist-poet, has
nurtured numerous poets and hip hop artists in Philadelphia—notably Ursula Rucker
and The Roots. Giovanni’s memorial tattoo and poems for Tupac Shakur have been
widely publicized. And Madhubuti’s literary entrepreneurship continues with new pub-
lishers, such as Jessica Care Moore-Poole’s Moore Black Press in Atlanta.
By the mid 1970s the prominence of Black Nationalist poetry had waned. Important
poets emerged during the declining years of the Black Arts era whose work was less
closely associated with the black aesthetic. They included Audre Lorde, June Jordan,
Lucille Clifton, Clarence Major, Michael S. Harper, Alice Walker, Naomi Long Madgett,
Maya Angelou, Colleen McElroy, Jay Wright, Al Young, and Ntozake Shange. Although
the Black Arts influence was evident in many of their works, these poets did not all adhere
to a particular ideology of black art. They favored instead a wider treatment of themes con-
cerning identity, sexuality, gender, and international politics. Their works assumed, for
instance, a broad array of black identities or took feminist stances regarding gender rela-
tionships and other social and political issues.
Audre Lorde and June Jordan in particular dealt with the politics of sexuality, a topic
only narrowly treated by their BAM peers. Lorde, self-described black lesbian feminist
mother-warrior-poet, urged women to overcome silence and celebrated women’s love,
mutual support, and collaboration across cultures in their struggles. She also wrote of the
power and responsibilities of the mother and her lineage with African warrior-women.
Jordan advocated in more militant tones awareness of and action against various and inter-
locking forms of oppression. She wrote poems supporting Palestinian rights and con-
demning Latin American repression and South African apartheid in the 1980s. She also
explored personal themes, such as romantic love, opening a space, as did Lorde, to cele-
brate gay and lesbian and bisexual relationships.
Shange’s poetry most clearly exhibited the stylistic hallmarks of BAM with its use of ver-
nacular diction and unconventional grammar. But she built upon its themes with an intense
examination of women’s lives. Her pioneering “choreopoem” for colored girls who have
considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf opened on Broadway in 1975. A communal
drama developed in collaboration with women’s performance groups in the Bay Area, it
detailed aspects of the journey to womanhood in seven women’s voices, music, and dance.
It was also controversial, and it was criticized for its negative portrayals of black men. In
subsequent collections of poems Shange continued to explore the black woman’s voice,
love, and empowerment, as well as African diaspora culture and political issues.
Angelou, who has achieved iconic status in black America, became the first black poet
and woman to read at a president’s inauguration in 1993. Her poetry and autobiographies
are filled with humor, pathos, and sardonic wit as they chart her own and the collective black
experience in the United States. Lucille Clifton’s spare, elegant poems deal with women’s
resilience, family, and lineage, among other subjects. Wright’s work explores culture within
and outside U.S. boundaries. His poems are deeply concerned with history as a synthesis of
 BLACK POETRY 23

languages and cultures. Harper’s work, like Hayden’s, investigates African American his-
tory and honors heroes, past and present. His work is also engaged with music, jazz espe-
cially, as a model for his improvisational approach to sound and harmony in poetry. Major’s
poems, like his self-reflective fiction, often deconstruct conventions of poetic structure and
voice. His sharp observations and precise images reflect, as well, his painter’s sensibility.
Collectively, these poets represented a departure from the prescriptive program of cultural
nationalism and presaged the expansiveness of black poetry in coming years.
During the late 1970s through the 1980s, poets explored a multiplicity of concerns, yet
place, history and identity (individual, cultural, national), myth, music, community, mem-
ory, ancestry, and childhood were recurring subjects. Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Ai,
Nathaniel Mackey, Marilyn Nelson, Thylias Moss, Wanda Coleman, Pat Parker, Sherley
Ann Williams, Lorenzo Thomas, Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Afaa Michael Weaver,
Brenda Marie Osbey, Calvin Forbes, E. Ethelbert Miller, and transplanted Caribbean poets
Kamau Brathwaite and Derek Walcott, among others, emerged as important voices.
Dove’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Thomas and Beulah (1986) deftly melds per-
sonal narrative and the history of Depression and World War II-era Akron, Ohio. In Mother
Love (1995) she explores the Demeter-Persephone relationship in exacting lyric forms.
Komunyakaa ranges over a broad terrain in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Neon Vernacular
(1993), which contains selections from several of his books. It includes piercing poems
chronicling his Vietnam War experience and complex portraits of his native Bogalusa,
Louisiana. Mackey’s eclectic influences include myth, spirituality, jazz, African belief sys-
tems, and avant-garde poetics. His poems are dense landscapes of sound and imagery.
Osbey mines the rich cultural heritage of her native New Orleans in poems that honor the
rituals of daily life and the ever-present ancestors. Marilyn Nelson’s work offers sensitive
portraits of family and historic figures and poignant treatment of American slavery. Ai’s
provocative persona poems are satirical commentaries on political and pop culture figures.
Moss’s encyclopedic oeuvre is dense with explorations of history, science, religion, art,
politics, and contemporary life and culture. Both Brathwaite and the Nobel Laureate
Walcott address cultural memory and pride, as well as identity and language complicated
by the colonial past of their native West Indies. Brathwaite’s poetry is infused with the
idioms of the common people, which he calls “nation language.” Walcott also explores
themes of history, nostalgia, and home in classical lyric forms, masterfully displayed, for
example, in Omeros (1990), his revisioning of Homer’s epic The Odyssey.
The 1980s and 1990s saw the growth of writing collectives and workshops organized
and supported by established and emerging writers around the country. From Boston’s
Dark Room Collective to Berkeley’s Poetry for the People, and numerous sites in between,
new voices that emerged in the next decade were nurtured. The founding in 1996 of Cave
Canem, a workshop retreat for black poets, and the institution of its Cave Canem First
Book Prize also tremendously invigorated black poetry into the twenty-first century. And
the increasing popularity of hip hop and the phenomenon of the poetry slam would
contribute to the abundance and variety of poetic production.
Spoken word and slams have come to define poetry for many among the Hip Hop Gen-
eration. Spoken word poets have drawn their inspiration and models from Black Arts poets
and rap. Rap’s forerunners were Gil Scott-Heron and The Last Poets, who popularized a
style of chanting lyrics to music in the early 1970s. These artists were overtly political in
their messages, as were many early rap artists. Although rap owes its form to the music
and performance aesthetic of the Black Arts movement, it can trace its roots to the boasts
and toasts of the folk tradition. Poetry slams, timed “bouts” between individual poets or
24 BLACK POETRY

teams of poets, originated in the mid-1980s in a Chicago tavern. Each performance of a

poem would be scored “Olympics style” by judges recruited from the audience. The poetry
slam quickly became a highly popular, and populist, form of poetry presentation, and the
competitions soon led to regional and national championships. Patricia Smith, for exam-
ple, who has published several collections of poems, first gained wide recognition as a
national slam champion. Although poets adhere to certain slam rules, winning audience
approval is paramount to success. In order for the poet to command attention, delivery
became all-important, although the poetry often suffered in quality as a result. The best
slam poets, however, could tout well-crafted as well as dramatically delivered poems.
Poetry slams thus became a natural venue for the resurrected style known as spoken word.
Spoken word exults in poetry’s foundation in an oral tradition. Inspired by rap’s
rhymes and beats, it features heightened wordplay, rhythmic and sonic effects, hyperbolic
imagery, and, often, narrative elements. Most often it is performed in slams, open micro-
phones, concerts, and theater performances. But because spoken word’s popularity exists
largely outside of academia, it has sparked debate over a divide between academic, or lit-
erary poetry “for the page” and performance-driven “for the stage” poetry. Yet for many
poets it is a superficial divide because they may produce both literary and performance-
oriented poems. More important, moreover, is that spoken word, despite its immediacy
and dramatic force, is ultimately judged by how effectively it uses the fundamental con-
ventions of poetry—line, image, diction, rhythm, form, and so on. And literary poetry,
despite its serious reputation, must be orally evocative in order to engage its audience.
Contemporary black poetry thrives in both modes.
Of the numerous spoken word poets to emerge since the early 1990s, Saul Williams,
Jessica Care Moore-Poole, Tracie Morris, Tony Medina, Willie Perdomo, Asha Bandele,
Paul Beatty, Reg E. Gaines, Tish Benson, Dana Bryant, Roger Bonair-Agard, Carl Hancock
Rux, Sarah Jones, and Ursula Rucker were early standouts. Many of them participated in
slams at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City. They also appeared in
films such as Slam (1998), Slam Nation (1998), and The United States of Poetry (1996).
Spoken word has been promoted more recently via Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam on
HBO and on Broadway, featuring poets Georgia Me, Black Ice, Staceyann Chin, and oth-
ers. Seminal spoken word anthologies include Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets
Café (1994); Listen Up! (1999); Bum Rush the Page (2001); and Check the Rhyme: An
Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees (2006).
Because of the emphasis on orality, some poets, such as Perdomo, have published their
work simultaneously in book and CD formats; others have abandoned the page altogether,
in favor of digital formats. Poetry by Rucker, Aya de León, and Amir Sulaiman, for exam-
ple, may be more easily found on CDs and video than in print.
The current popularity of poetry has also led to the “crossover” of rappers and neo-soul
artists, such as Tupac Shakur, Jill Scott, and Alicia Keys, with published poetry collections.
Spoken word phenom Saul Williams has authored four books and recorded as many music
CDs. Spoken word, nurtured by hip hop culture, seems to be stimulating a new level of
cross-fertilization between the genres.
From the 1990s into the 2000s a plethora of new voices have established their signifi-
cance. Among them are Harryette Mullen, Elizabeth Alexander, Carl Phillips, Essex
Hemphill, Kwame Dawes, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Kevin Young, Allison
Joseph, Claudia Rankine, Nikky Finney, Ruth Forman, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Tracy K.
Smith, Major Jackson, Forrest Hamer, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, John R. Keene, A. Van
Jordan, and Terrance Hayes. These poets defy easy categorization because they exhibit a
 BLACK POPULAR CULTURE 25

general ethos of conveying the multifaceted aspects of black experiences and ideas. Influ-
enced perhaps by the neo-formalism of the 1980s, many of them show a commitment to
traditional forms in their work. Alexander’s work engages the richness, complexities, and
nuances of black culture. Phillips’s urbane poems chart desire, longing, and memory.
Tracy K. Smith’s evocative poems range from the realm of the deeply personal to the
starkly political with luminous lyricism. Trethewey has garnered a Pulitzer Prize with
work that explores loss and complexities of race and class in the historic and contempo-
rary South. Finney affirms her southern roots and a strong family tradition but also speaks
of black women’s lives imperiled by racism and exploitation. Hemphill, who died in 1995,
was outspoken in confronting homophobia, misogyny, and racism. His poems also cele-
brate black gay relationships and activism.
This generation also indulges the perennial impulse to “make it new.” Mullen’s experi-
mental approach aligns her with contemporary language poetry, as she foregrounds lan-
guage itself. She highlights, among other themes, women, consumer culture, and black
vernacular. Rankine creates hybrid forms, incorporating prose, graphics, and images from
television and advertising in work that examines American society. Jordan and Young have
used, respectively, conventions of the screenplay and dictionary, and of film noir and pulp
fiction, in their poetry. Ellis exploits the idioms of funk and D.C. go-go music in his
poems’ percussive exhortations. And Hayes plays with new forms based on alphabetic, syl-
labic, and linear schemes. Along with emerging poets Lyrae van Clief-Stefanon, Tyehimba
Jess, Kyle Dargan, Dawn Lundy Martin, Sean Hill, Ross Gay, Aracelis Girmay, and many
others, they confirm the continuing vitality of the tradition.
As the first decade of the twenty-first century nears its end, black poetry continues, in
what Sonia Sanchez calls its “third renaissance;” influenced as always by changing modes
of black speech and music, it continues to generate new forms and styles.

FURTHER READING
Baraka, Amiri, and William J. Harris, eds. The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader. 2nd Edition. New
York: Thunders Mouth, 1999.
Brown, Fahamisha Patricia. Performing the Word: African American Poetry as Vernacular Culture.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Gabbin, Joanne V., ed. The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry. Charlottesville, VA:
Virginia University Press, 1999.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Lit-
erature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.
Gladney, Marvin. “The Black Arts Movement and Hip Hop.” African American Review, Vol. 29 Issue 2
(1995): 291–301.
Lansana, Quraysh Ali. “Sibling Rivalries: Literary Poetry Versus Spoken Word: Why Does the
Divide Exist and What Does It Mean?” Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 6 Issue 2 (2004): 14–18.

Sharan Strange

BLACK POPULAR CULTURE. Black Popular Culture refers to mainstream rep-

resentations of African American life and culture. It relies on the media, music, art, and
literature to disseminate and showcase the multifaceted experiences of African American
life in the United States.
The visibility of Black Popular Culture has grown tremendously since the 1970s
through print and visual media. However, attempts to portray systematic oppressions of
26 BLACK POPULAR CULTURE

race, class, gender, and sexual orientation are slow to emerge in mainstream programming.
Although no single representative category can adequately speak for all experiences, dis-
tinctive characteristics of dress, behavior, and language inform the popular imagination
surrounding Black Popular Culture. With influences from clothing to art, the explosion of
hip hop literature is the most noticeable addition to black popular culture. This genre ush-
ered in a new era of writers who sought to capture the reality of their lives as Americans
silenced by the larger society. Hip hop literature gained its notoriety and fan base by speak-
ing into the silences that permeate urban life.
The explosion of hip hop literature gained popularity in the early 1990s by focusing on
urban city landscapes to explore themes of crime, violence, drugs, and sexuality.
Monikers like “Ghetto Lit,” “Street Lit,” “Urban Lit,” and the use of Black English attract
a wide variety of readers. Although contemporary writers of hip hop literature share shelf
space with the likes of James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker, this genre
speaks to an audience of teenagers and young adults who identify with the urban envi-
ronment, specifically the flashy book covers that portray noticeable realities of urban life.
Hip hop literature lends authenticity to its works by exploring recognizable themes of
poverty, drug use, and violence. Although many of these themes speak to the realities of
life across America, hip hop literature delves deeper into the underworld of urban life to
capture marginalized worlds of existence, where individuals struggle for survival and
redemption.
Many consider Donald Goines as the early progenitor of hip hop literature since his 1971
publication of Dopefiend: Story of a Black Junkie. Written during his time in prison, Dope-
fiend offered scathing accounts of Detroit street life as Goines sought to create a face for an
unknown world. Despite his involvement in the crime world, or perhaps because of it, his
novels portray the realities of poverty-stricken areas that often seem immune to police
enforcement. Similarly, Sister Souljah’s 1999 classic, The Coldest Winter Ever, marked the
emergence of women in hip hop literature. Souljah’s first novel chronicles the life of a young
Brooklyn girl whose familial ties to the drug world lead to a life of repeated mistakes and
misadventures. Relying on tales of violence, materialism, and drug use, the novel exposes the
insurmountable odds stacked against inner city communities. Although Goines and Souljah
laid the foundation for this genre, contemporary writers of hip hop literature continue to
expand the conventions by delving deeper into everyday complexities of urban life.
Hip hop literature has evolved since its early days and contemporary authors continue
to appear on bestseller lists. From the work of Erica Kennedy to Shannon Holmes, hip
hop literature exposes the gritty lifestyles of the urban environment that mainstream
American society overlooks. Through poetry, artists such as Jill Scott, Alicia Keys, and
Tupac Shakur have expanded the boundaries of hip hop literature to include a more per-
sonalized reflection of African American life. These poems are filled with explosive
images and ideas that ask readers to question everyday realities, dreams, failures, and
joys that motivate and inform the present world. Although hip hop literature continues
to offer a wide assortment of perspectives that continue to articulate the realities of urban
life, some critics charge that such literary endeavors provide few viable solutions to
issues plaguing the inner city. Although hip hop writers deviate from the dynamic and
challenging prose found in canonical works of literature, readers will be find voices of
struggle and resistance emerging from the pages of this genre. Ultimately, these works
take readers on a journey into familiar and unfamiliar waters as they attempt to account
for the motivations that fuel the available choices of the urban landscape. In the realm
of black popular culture, hip hop literature leads the next generation of writers.
 BLACK SEXUAL POLITICS: AFRICAN AMERICANS, GENDER, AND THE NEW RACISM 27

FURTHER READING
Bracey, Earnest N. On Racism: Essays on Black Popular Culture, African American Politics, and the
New Black Aesthetics. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003.
Dent, Gina. Black Popular Culture: Discussions in Contemporary Culture. New York: New Press, 1998.
Goines, Donald. Dopefiend: Story of a Black Junkie. 1971. Los Angeles: Holloway House Publish-
ing Company, 2007.
Neal, Mark Anthony. Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic. New York:
Routledge, 2002.
Scott, Jill. The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 2005.
Souljah, Sister. The Coldest Winter Ever. New York: Pocket Books, 1999.

Lauren Chambers

BLACK SEXUAL POLITICS: AFRICAN AMERICANS, GENDER,

AND THE NEW RACISM (2005). Patricia Hill Collins’s Black Sexual Politics:
African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism is a comprehensive text that illuminates
how race, sexuality, and gender inform both the interactions between African American
men and women and how they, in turn, are perceived by the world at large.
On the heels of her seminal text Black Feminist Thought, Black Sexual Politics is an
informative work that positions discussions of sexuality and gender in equal significance
to race when envisioning ideologies and paradigms for equality and social justice. Fur-
thermore, Collins integrates within the text that notions of Black sexual politics must be
analyzed outside of a monotheistic ideal of African Americans, employing the diversity
and complexity of African Americans and African American culture.
Organizationally, the book is divided into three sections, each of which illuminates
three overarching arguments that are the groundwork for the text. The first third embarks
on an analysis of what Collins refers to as a “new racism,” a racism grounded in the his-
tory of African Americans in chattel slavery while appropriating contemporary praxes of
transnationalism, globalization, and the hegemonic influence of mass media. The young
Hip Hop Generation is uniquely affected by new racism because Collins suggests that,
“The emergence of a new Black youth culture in the United States that simultaneously
empowers and undermines African American progress signals a new phase in the con-
tours of racism itself as well as antiracist initiatives that will be needed to counter it”
(2006, 54). The commodification of Black bodies is a specific outgrowth of the political
economies of chattel slavery, creating a series of controlling images to serve as prototypes
for Black behavior. Through this institution, the bodies of black men and women held sig-
nificant sexual, economic, and political connotations. Black male bodies were objectified
as strong, sexually potent, violent, and stupid, which birthed the controlling images of the
Black Buck, Uncle Tom, and Coon caricatures. Black female bodies were sexualized in a
different way in that their reproductive capacity was exploited, in turn fostering notions
of black women as being sexually rapacious and immoral. These notions gave rise to the
controlling images of the Jezebel and Mammy figures. These ideologies of black men and
women survived over time, morphing according to social mores, solidifying a significant
role in black sexual politics and the new racism.
The second part of the book places black sexual politics and new racism within the
nexus of popular culture. The 1990s marked a significant decade in the mass packaging,
marketing and commodification of Black Popular Culture to all parts of the globe. Black
28 BLACK STUDIES, RAP, AND THE ACADEMY

femininity and masculinity thus became contested sites for the reconfiguration of black
sexual politics. Complicated further by class implications, notions of black authenticity as
being decidedly poor and working class and black respectability as being best manifested
through the black middle class took shape through a redefinition of Black gender ideology
for the consumption of the masses. Collins’s use of popular Black athletes, actors, and
musicians serves to further the discussion of how African Americans, under the dictates of
new racism, both subvert and uphold notions of black sexual ideologies. Furthermore,
Collins calls for a progressive black sexual politics that challenges the limits and margin-
alization of controlling images. More specifically, a new progressive black sexual ideology
is one that seeks out broader definitions of manhood and womanhood that don’t require the
exploitation and subjugation of one to achieve the other. Rather, she states that it is neces-
sary to move outside these confines and navigate a more meaningful, complex, and
enlightened black sexual political structure.
In the last section of the book, Collins moves outside of popular culture to think more
broadly about ways in which black sexual politics can be redefined and the implications of
no attempts to challenge or redefine black sexual politics. Collins provides the framework
for discussing the ways in which violence has historically been perpetrated against black
bodies. In present day terms, black bodies are being consistently raped and lynched by
institutions, which exert a particular type of social control apropos to the post-civil rights,
Hip Hop Generation. Furthermore, this institutionalized violence coupled with the dictates
of new racism complicates the way in which black men and women view each other, espe-
cially with respect to intimate relationships. With the proliferation of HIV/AIDS in black
communities, a progressive black sexual politics is paramount in order to dismantle
oppressive hierarchies of social control while pushing forward a decidedly anti-racist, anti-
heterosexist, anti-sexist agenda.

FURTHER READING
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of
Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 1991.
———. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. Minneapolis, MN: University of
Minnesota Press, 1998.
———. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism. Philadelphia, PA: Tem-
ple University Press, 2006.

Courtney Young

BLACK STUDIES, RAP, AND THE ACADEMY (1995). Houston A.

Baker’s controversial foray into rap music criticism was met with mixed reviews.
Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy, published in 1995, is one of the early treatises on
rap music that advocated for serious academic treatment of the subject. The work begins by
looking at the complexity and heterogeneity of black studies. Black studies (now known as
African American studies in most places) was criticized in its early days because the disci-
pline itself necessarily lay outside of traditional academic studies. Covering a wide range of
topics from the LA Riots of 1992, which were sparked by the Rodney King verdict, to the
indecency trial of rap group 2 Live Crew, Baker attempts to create a theoretical framework
for the place rap could occupy in serious study of black culture and cultural productions.
 BLACKGIRL MAGAZINE 29

One of the main premises of the book is that rap music, like black studies, links schol-
arly thought to the real lives of the black people. According to Baker, to have a black
intelligentsia who is out of touch with the people is useless; for him rap as a contempo-
rary expression of culture, economics, and politics is an invaluable critical tool for
studying and advancing black life. Yet, Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy is accused
of not being as thoughtful a contribution to rap studies as it should have been. Baker’s
repeated misquoting of rap lyrics and his uneven reading of the genre’s penchant for the
commercial reads as if he only assumes certain things about the genre or, worse, does
not take it very seriously himself.
The book is also known as a culminating event in Baker’s criticism of Henry Louis
Gates (the well known Harvard University professor of African American Studies). In
1990 Professor Gates appeared as an expert defense witness for 2 Live Crew as they faced
obscenity charges. Baker takes Gates to task for Gate’s irresponsibility and shortsightedness
(Pavlic, 2008).
Many of the criticisms surrounding the text mark Baker as out of touch with the rap
scene of the 1990s. Although Baker may have been beyond his area of expertise, he
should certainly be credited with broaching the subject of rap in the academy at the end
of the twentieth century. Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy, though dated, documents
the controversial place rap occupied and continues to occupy in the American academy.

FURTHER READING
Marlowe, Ann. “Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy.” ArtForum (Dec. 1993).
Pavlic, Edward. “Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy.” African American Review (Summer 1997).

Tarshia L. Stanley

BLACKGIRL MAGAZINE. A quarterly magazine founded and edited by Kenya

Jordana James to entertain and inform African American adolescents.
Blackgirl Magazine was founded in 2001 by eleven-year-old Kenya Jordana James. Its
purpose is to entertain and inform as well as to promote positive messages. The magazine
has featured interviews with a number of well-known athletes, celebrities, and artists,
including Lauren Hill, Forrest Whitaker, Kyla Pratt, and Venus and Serena Williams;
James’s first boon was an interview with Atlanta hip hop duo Outkast. The magazine now
has a circulation of approximately 5,000 subscribers and is sold in a number of metro-
politan Atlanta venues, such as African American bookstores and the like. Although
clearly intended to entertain its young readership, Blackgirl also bears the mark of
James’s perspective, which departs somewhat from other popular periodicals aimed at
this second generation of hip hop.
As founder and editor, Kenya James has been highly lauded for her accomplishments at
such a young age. In 2001 she invested $1,200 of profits from her cake business to com-
pose the first issue of Blackgirl; that issue sold out. Kenyajordana Cakes, the baking ven-
ture that facilitated her start-up capital, followed an earlier jewelry business that she began
in third grade. James has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on CNN’s Lou
Dobbs Tonight. In 2004, she earned a second place Student Entrepreneur award through
the Guardian’s Girls Going Places competition from Guardian Life Insurance Company; it
came with a $5,000 scholarship. James has already made a significant showing for herself
30 BLAXPLOITATION FILMS

and her magazine, and those efforts have been acknowledged on both small and large
scales.
One of the most distinguishing elements of Blackgirl has been James’s ability to garner
high-profile interviews. She has interviewed quite an impressive list of celebrities, repre-
senting the Hip Hop Generation and beyond. She asks questions that probe her subjects for
their connections to the magazine’s young readers and that address relevant social issues.
There are the usual questions about an actor’s work or an athlete’s work ethic. Perhaps
what defines James and Blackgirl, however, is her effort to ask more thoughtful, culturally
specific questions, though at an adolescent level. The magazine also beefs up its content
by addressing real life and real girls, not only celebrity life. Similarly, the magazine’s web-
site follows its mission by offering a “First Fruits” section that presents the wisdom of eld-
ers, such as Georgia State University professor Asa Hilliard, and a “Reader’s Write”
section that allows readers to publish their own work. Likewise, James also offers an
“Inspiring Teens” section that informs teens about motivational events such as workshops
and lectures.
James and Blackgirl are part of an emerging group of periodical literature grounded in
hip hop and its culture. Her choices for interview subjects reflect that in their inclusion of
Talib Kwali and Little Bow Wow. However, she also seems to be going beyond the status
quo with an Afro-Centric take on the culture.
In accordance with her tendency to turn one endeavor into another, James has recently
moved into both the skin care and the clothing design industries. Her skin care line, the
Kenyajordana Collection, expresses her commitment to an Afrocentric perspective. The
products are marketed as “natural” and “healthy”; therefore, they are composed of materi-
als such as shea butter and avoid synthetic and artificial ingredients. Like the magazine
itself, the collection has received national publicity. Magazines such as Honey, Vibe, Sister
2 Sister, and Heart and Soul have featured positive reporting on the skin care line. The
budding clothing line, Modest Apparel, will display African themes and reflect the maga-
zine’s concern with images for African American girls.
Overall, Kenya Jordana James has been able to fill a void in the culture of periodical
literature. She consciously links her magazine with the generation that she represents
and purposely chooses to speak directly to the demographic of African American girls
in hip hop’s second generation. Moreover, her entrepreneurial spirit reflects something
of a trend in hip hop’s younger generation. Her work presents a promising display of
awareness and commitment for the culture of the day.

Tikenya S. Foster-Singletary

BLAXPLOITATION FILMS. Films from the 1970s that featured black casts and
thematic material that have their roots in urban literature and that continue to influence
contemporary characters and storylines in urban literature and film.
Blaxploitation films refer to a period of low-budget, independent American cinema from
the early 1970s (approximately 1970–1975) that featured dominant African American
characters in lead roles. Although exclusively genre pictures (action, thriller, and horror),
Blaxploitation challenged many of the subservient stereotypes of African Americans in
American cinema, while also reflecting and perpetuating a whole new cache of stereo-
types, many of which persist to the present.
 BLAXPLOITATION FILMS 31

The term Blaxploitation today is fairly well known, but as a semantic construction it
remains a highly problematic term. Obviously, Blaxploitation is a contraction of “black”
and “exploitation,” but here “exploitation” refers more to a context of film production,
exhibition, and marketing than it does to the material exploitation of an African American
workforce. Although clearly material exploitation occurred (Fred Williamson has com-
mented that he’d be considerably more financially successful had he been white and made
these films), the “exploitation” in Blaxploitation refers to the kind of low-budget, B-movies
that would often only play the urban grindhouse or drive-in circuits. So the “exploitation”
in Blaxploitation refers, in the first instance, to a specific and time-specific period of genre
film production in the early 1970s.
Cinema folklore has it that the term Blaxploitation was coined by (a presumably white)
reviewer in Variety in reference to Ossie Davis’s Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) (based
on the novel by Chester Himes), thereby making it, alongside Melvin Van Peebles’s land-
mark film Sweet Sweetback’s Badassss Song (1971), the first Blaxploitation film. These
two movies’ successes at the box office established the financial viability of a cinema that
featured African American casts and was a market that Hollywood, up until that time, had
largely ignored. Prior to these films, Hollywood “wisdom” was that the Black audiences
were not interested in seeing black actors on-screen (based primarily on poor box office
statistics of Sidney Portier films in primarily African American neighborhoods).
But it was the release in 1971 of Shaft that really heralds Blaxploitation properly. Not only
was the “black private dick who’s a sex machine with all the chicks,” as Isaac Hayes’s Oscar
winning theme song described Richard Roundtree’s character, the first proper Blaxploitation
hero, John Shaft ushered in a whole posse of African American movie heroes, played by such
black actors as Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Jim Kelly, and Ron O’Neal. These male heroes
often found themselves as lone heroes of color fighting against an almost all-white criminal
element. In films such as Slaughter (1972), Superfly (1972), and Black Caesar (1973), black
men were shown “stickin’ it to the Man,” “the Man” standing for white hegemony. Whether
uncovering a Mafia plot to artificially start a race-war in Harlem (Shaft) or taking over the
Harlem underworld itself (Black Caesar—a self-conscious echo of Mervyn Le Roy’s Little
Caesar (1931)), these “new” heroes were occupying a cinematic narrative space that had pre-
viously been the exclusive domain of white actors.
Directors of color were also coming to the fore, paving the way for later filmmakers
such as John Singleton, Ernest Dickerson, and of course, Spike Lee. Shaft and Shaft’s
Big Score (1972) were directed by Life Magazine photographer Gordon Parks. His son,
Gordon Parks Jr., directed the superior Superfly, Three the Hard Way (1974), Thomasine
& Bushrod (1974), and Aaron Loves Angela (1975), but unfortunately he died in a plane
crash in Africa in 1979; given the strength of the short filmography Parks Jr. left, a very
promising filmmaker was taken from American cinema way too soon.
Aside from the contributions of directors such as Parks and Parks Jr., or stars like
Roundtree, O’Neal, Williamson, and Brown, there are dozens of unsung African American
film pioneers who worked in all aspects of film production in this period. Directors and stars
get all the glory, but, as the DVD extras on the Shaft films seem to demonstrate, most of the
crew on these films was black, too. There is a history of black filmmaking in America that
needs to be written that includes the roles beyond the privileged place of the director.
While not considered a Blaxploitation film, the Bruce Lee classic, Enter the Dragon
(1974), introduced exploitation audiences to karate champion Jim Kelly. Kelly,
although never as prolific as Williamson or Brown, is particularly noteworthy for Black
32 BLAXPLOITATION FILMS

Belt Jones (1974), directed by Dragon’s helmer, Robert Clouse. Jones is, in many respects,
a quintessential Blaxploitation film because it includes a number of central tropes in this
genre/movement. The first trope occurs early in the film: Pinky’s Pool Hall is also an
underground drug den and is “visited” by the local black militia led by Ted Lange (later to
play Isaac on The Love Boat). The militia is not too keen on Pinky selling drugs to their
own in the neighborhood. Its inclusion, although a frequent trope of the Blaxploitation
Film, echoes the social realities of contemporary African American urban life—there is
tension between black militants trying to clean up their streets and African American prof-
iteers, who, although not controlling the local drug traffic (white criminals are often
revealed to be the puppet masters in these films), are certainly key points in its circulation.
Although this representation is neither positive nor subtle, the role of Jones occupies a cen-
tral fulcrum, with the urban drug dealers and black militants as opposite polarities. This
simplistic model is the standard structural trope in most of these films.
More significantly, Black Belt Jones also demonstrates the importance of karate within
African American popular culture. More than just an alternative to street violence, karate is
shown to give black youth a number of opportunities, including Pop Byrd’s dojo, a safe
place to hang out (at least until Pinky’s boys try to muscle in), physical exercise, mental and
physical discipline, and self-respect. This is why the good guys are so willing to defend the
dojo—they know what it means to the community. The dojo and Pinky’s pool hall stand as
opposite opportunities for kids within South Central LA; the former a positive influence, the
latter a negative influence.
Women were also “stickin’ it to the Man” in Blaxploitation cinema, and although these
films would be unlikely to appease the emerging feminist scholars of the day, in films
such as Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), and Friday Foster (1975), Pam Grier broke
many of the stereotypical roles open to women, let alone women of color, at the time.
Women were now ascending to the ranks of action heroes, previously dominated by men.
Tamara Dobson was the superspy/action hero Cleopatra Jones in two films (1973 and
1975), and Jeannie Bell was “taking out the trash” in TNT Jackson (1975).
TNT Jackson’s director, Cirio Santiago, is an example that not all Blaxploitation films
were American; a good number of the really low-rent Blaxploitation films actually were
made in the Philippines. To make exploitation movies as cheaply as possible, a number of
movies were made in Asia—including the early Pam Grier classics Women in Cages
(1971) and Black Mama, White Mama (1972). But Santiago also produced the Jack Hill
films The Big Bird Cage (1972) and The Big Doll House (1971) (which also starred Grier)
and directed the explicitly Marxist Blaxploitation film Savage! (1973), in which a Pilipino
government mercenary is captured by Marxist rebels and converted to their cause.
With the exception perhaps of John Shaft walking the streets of Manhattan to Isaac
Hayes’s soundtrack, the quintessential figure of Blaxploitation cinema is the pimp. The
pimp, the man in the wild clothes and enormous hat who lives off the women who sell their
bodies on the street, seems like an odd choice for a hero. But as Darius James notes in his
book on Blaxploitation attitude, “Just as the oils and pastels of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec had
celebrated the prostitute, the Blaxploitation Film was a class of art with the pimp as sub-
ject. These films drew on and elevated the black underground’s oral tradition of the trick-
ster’s tale and the hustler’s toast” (1995). James draws a connection between the pimp and
the oral tradition’s use of trickster figures—folkloristic characters that move between two
worlds, neither gods nor men, good nor evil, black nor white, like Brer Rabbit in the Uncle
Remus stories. They are neither heroes nor villains, but represent the permeability of life
and of the processes of change. James notes that in the early 1970s, black kids wanted to
 BLAXPLOITATION FILMS 33

emulate these trickster figures—sticking it to the man, having lots of money in their pock-
ets while never seeming to do a “normal” job, and having gorgeous women at their beck
and call. For many theorists of the post-civil rights black youth culture, the pimp was the
emblem for emulation.
The central figure of the pimp is probably best represented in Michael Campus’s 1973
film The Mack. The Mack, in many respects, echoes the contemporary literature of Iceberg
Slim, the pimp turned novelist whose books, such as Pimp—The Story Of My Life, are now
seen as major contributions in the field of African American literature. As such, the film
gives exceptional insight and detail on the pimp business. The film goes beyond the busi-
ness end of the trade and explores the subaltern community within the world of prostitu-
tion. For example, we see “The Players’ Picnic,” a Sunday social outing where the local
Los Angeles procurers gather in a park, play baseball, eat barbecue, and have fun with one
another. The sequence is a tad surreal, with children playing and couples arguing—the
whole scene feels like the height of normalcy and yet, these are pimps and prostitutes. But
that is the point. These “underworld” figures, so parodied in other Blaxploitation films
such as those noted above, are still just regular folk who have families and enjoy going to
company picnics. This sequence has an overriding sense of community to it, a sense of
family and security. The people who work in the sex industry are not presented as deviant
or pathetic—quite the contrary. They are presented as real people who have real lives. The
movie is dedicated to “the players who helped make this film and who appeared in it,” that
is, the sex industry workers (pimps predominantly) who advised and appeared in the film,
which gives the movie a further sense of authenticity and respect.
As in Black Belt Jones, the influences on Goldie in The Mack demonstrate similar
polarities. His brother wants him to be a militant, his mother wants him to be a good
Christian, his friends want him to be a Mack, the cops want him to be a criminal, and the
mob wants him to be a junky again so they can control him. The roles that Goldie has
available to him—militant, Christian, pimp, criminal, junky—are, in many respects, the
only options black men felt were open to them in the early 1970s. These are differing and
often conflicting signals as to what a man is to do with his life, and Goldie is likewise
caught up in those dilemmas. It is not surprising that many black men, and probably a
number of non-black men too, identified with Goldie in this film.
Another theme the film plays with is that of brothers. Goldie is placed in opposition with
his own brother—where Goldie wants to rule the streets, his brother wants to clean them
up. But this kind of polarity also has a further symbolic dimension, whereby brothers are
not just brothers (i.e., blood kin), but also “brothers” (i.e., all black men). By the end of
the movie Goldie and his (blood) brother come to a tacit understanding. This idea can be
extended to suggest that the movie is asking that all “brothers” need to get together and
come to an understanding with one another.
There is even an attempt to understand racism in this film—when the two corrupt and
racist cops confront Goldie, they point out that their hatred of him is based on envy. They
envy him his money, his women, his cool, his attitude, and his freedom. Granted, this is a
pretty simplistic attempt at the sociology of racism, but bear in mind that The Mack is one
of the few Blaxploitation films that even attempted to explain racism.
Finally, what stands out most about The Mack are the details we get about the pimp busi-
ness. As we follow Goldie in his quest to be the best pimp on the Sunset Strip, we also
learn how the industry operates. Goldie’s professionalism and his refusal to exploit his
“stable” (beyond the living off the avails of prostitution) show us the virtues in a good
pimp—honesty, stability, no drugs, no abuse, and so on. Even though this may be more
34 BLOGS

fantasy than reality (and The Mack does glamorize the sex industry), we still see more
gritty detail about these characters’ lives than in any of the films already discussed.
Despite the work of such organizations as the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leader-
ship Conference, and the Urban League, who joined forces to form the short-lived Coalition
Against Blaxploitation (CAB) and whose mandate was to try to get Blaxploitation off
American screens because it was seen as reifying negative stereotypes of African
American culture, the cause of Blaxploitation’s decline and ultimate disappearance is
probably more banal. I would argue that the decline of Blaxploitation’s popularity was in
part due to the decline in soul music’s popularity. The classic Blaxploitation films featured
gritty and energetic music by Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield (Superfly), James Brown (Black
Caesar), and Bobby Womack (Across 110th Street (1972)), and as soul music became
increasingly dominated by white crossover musical acts under disco, so too did “soul cin-
ema” become increasingly “discoed” as white dominated black-oriented films became
more dominant. A case in point is the third Shaft film, Shaft in Africa (1973); at the peak
of Blaxploitation’s popularity, MGM decided the property was too successful to leave in
African American hands. Gordon Parks was replaced by English director John Guillerman,
who was lined up to direct the anticipated blockbuster The Towering Inferno (1974), and
the new script was by Hollywood stalwart Stirling Silliphant (who later wrote The Swarm
(1978)), whereas the content of the film increased the social consciousness of the series
(contemporary African slave traders). The disco craze dominated black-oriented cinema in
the late 1970s, as evidenced by films such as Car Wash (1976, directed by Michael Schultz
with a script by Joel Schumacher) and The Wiz (1978, directed by Sidney Lumet with
another script by Schumacher).
The legacy of Blaxploitation is still felt today. With the exception of John Singleton’s
remake/rethinking of Shaft (2000), contemporary African American filmmakers such as
Singleton, Dickerson, and Lee are not Blaxploitation filmmakers, but they have inherited
the mantel from directors such as Parks. Keenan Ivory Wayan’s 1988 parody of
Blaxploitation, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of the
movement, but the casting of Grier in Jackie Brown (1997) (while not strictly a neo-
Blaxploitation film), gives Tarantino’s movie a certain soul cinema aesthetic. In 1996,
Black Caesar’s director, Larry Cohen, reunited many of the Blaxploitation stars
(Roundtree, Brown, Kelly, Williamson, O’Neal, and Grier) for Original Gangstas, a neo-
Blaxploitation response to the current spate of “’Hood” films, such as Menace II Society
(1993) and Boyz N The Hood (1991). Blaxploitation has also crossed ethnic lines, with
Jonathan Kesselman’s first “Jewsploitation” film, The Hebrew Hammer (2003).

FURTHER READING
James, Darius. That’s Blaxploitation!: Roots of the Baadasssss ‘Tude (Rated X by an All-Whyte
Jury). New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.

Mikel Koven

BLOGS. A blog (adapted from the term “Web log”) is an interactive Web site that com-
bines journal writing, original reporting, and message board media with images and
embedded hyperlinks. Its author, better known as a blogger, posts entries in sequential
order often with “tags” to classify subject matter, “permalinks” to facilitate direct or
archival access, and a forum for public commentary.
 BLOGS 35

The practice of blogging preceded the naming of the phenomenon, with many of its
attributes being used in other Web-based communication tools, such as Usenet news-
groups and personal homepages popularized in the mid-1980s and 1990s. Early bloggers
began authoring sites that offered personal reflections or pages of collected hyperlinks to
a variety of their favorite Internet portals. With the creation of template sites, such as
Open Diary in 1998 and LiveJournal and Blogger in 1999, users were able to maintain
their own blogs regardless of Web programming expertise. Initially, most blogs were
maintained and consumed by a small techno-literate population. By 2004, over 4 million
blogs had been created and the word became Merriam Webster’s most looked-up term for
that year. As of 2007, Blog-watch site Technorati tracked 97.7 million blogs worldwide,
collectively referred to as the “blogosphere”—a comprehensive and interlinking system
of blog pages and the bloggers behind them. According to Rebecca Blood

Weblogs are the place for daily stories, impassioned reactions, mundane details, and miscel-
lanea. They are as varied as their maintainers, and they are creating a generation of involved,
impassioned citizens, and articulate, observant human beings. (Blood 2002, xii)

The first hip hop-inspired blogs, which appeared between 2001 and 2003, wove together
discussions about hip hop culture with other pertinent political and social issues. Early
bloggers, such as Lynne D. Johnson (Lynnedjohnson.com), Hashim Warren (Hiphop-
blogs.com), and Jay Smooth (Hiphopmusic.com), established the platform as a discursive
space that published information absent from both traditional media coverage and hip hop
radio and print outlets. Such bloggers built trust with the readers of their sites through can-
did reflections about the culture and at times their personal lives, as well as by engaging in
conversation with page visitors through their comment pages. This established a hip hop-
inspired online community through an Internet-based call and response.
Synergy and community building among the early bloggers was an essential tool. Digital
relationships were fostered with black political bloggers such as Chris Rabb (Afronetizen),
Keith Boykin (Keithboykin.com), and others with subject matter that was not entirely hip hop
specific. For bloggers posting about a culture heavily controlled and decontextualized from
its origins by corporate interests, hip hop blogging became a means to re-politicize the move-
ment. The early bloggers’ content reflected a need to address issues of media representation
of black communities, especially as it pertained to the burgeoning digital realm. Debates
about authenticity and commercialization raged online between bloggers about their own
sites, echoing similarly contested tropes in hip hop musical and intellectual circles. Blogging
offered the opportunity to publish on a broad variety of issues without being bound to the
regulations of traditional media, regardless of one’s geographic locale or professional stand-
ing, and thus reordered the membership of the technocracy.
As blogs became more prevalent in the broader culture between 2004 and 2007, the
number and influence of hip hop blogs increased as well. Bloggers were able to
enhance the content available on their sites and spike readership with the use of inte-
grated mixed media—music and video in particular. Shadow sites such as YouTube and
sendspace offered users a chance to upload large audio and video files onto shared com-
munal servers for free, facilitating the spread of new and unreleased material, as well
as the reintroduction of invaluable archival footage once relegated to analog audio and
videotapes back into public space. The increased presence of wireless Internet, digital
cameras, and updated cellular technology facilitated such advancements as live blog-
ging, mobile blogging (“mobloging”), and video blogging (“vlogging”).
36 BOYZ N THE HOOD

Such access created a power shift in the industry, as bloggers moved away from being
reactive critics to being gatekeepers of exclusive content. Leaked unreleased music once
valuable to bootleggers and DJs was instead posted on audio blogs, sometimes shared by
the artists or the labels themselves to garner publicity or gauge interest from fans. New
York DJ and former radio host Stretch Armstrong digitized cassette recordings of rare Nas
and Redman recordings on his Konstant Kontact page from his own collection. Images of
artists and gossip about their personal lives became desired fodder for such sites, and artist
Kanye West regularly spoke about blogs in interviews and his music.
Blogs continued to serve as alternative spaces for commentary and critique alongside
major media outlets, and some bloggers were also viewed as respected spokespeople for
the culture. In 2005, blogger Karsh created the Black Weblog Awards, which has turned
into an annual voter-based honor. Most mainstream music and entertainment titles not
only developed in-house blogging outlets but also hired outside bloggers to post exclu-
sive content to their sites. Ahsmi “Eskay” Rawlins (Nahright) was hired as an editor of
XXL’s online site, whereas Shereka “Fresh” Roberts (Crunk and Disorderly) was hon-
ored by Vibe as a member of the New Power Generation on their 2007 Juice List (she
maintained a column on XXL’s site as well). Others who were members of mainstream
publications also used the medium to voice dissension or release privileged information.
The most infamous example was the site bittervibes, a blog that was written by a dis-
gruntled employee of Vibe who detailed interoffice politics prior to a major reordering
of the staff in 2005.
In the era of blog expansion, many hip hop blogs still devote short posts or hyperlinks
to political ideas and projects, but those that attract the largest number of visitors and atten-
tion often focus on hip hop’s place in the music and entertainment industries. Other sites
led by hip hop intellectuals and activists such as Mark Anthony Neal, Marc Lamont Hill,
Tiffany Brown, and the bloggers of Blackprof.com use postings about music as a means to
also address social and political issues affecting diasporic digital communities.

FURTHER READING
Blood, Rebecca. “Introduction.” We’ve Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing the Culture. John
Rodzvilla, ed. Cambridge: Perseus, 2002.

Paul Farber

BOYZ N THE HOOD (COLUMBIA PICTURES, USA, 1991). One of

the seminal films in the canon of hip hop cinema.
Boyz N The Hood was written and directed by John Singleton and starred Cuba Gooding
Jr., Laurence (Larry) Fishburne, Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson), Angela Bassett, Morris
Chestnut, and Nia Long. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director and
Best Original Screenplay. It was the first film written and directed by Singleton and the act-
ing debuts of Gooding Jr. and rapper and NWA founder Ice Cube, who also contributed the
song “How to Survive in South Central” to the soundtrack. In addition to this, NWA’s song
“Boyz n the Hood” provided the film’s title.
The film, the tagline of which is “Increase the Peace,” opens with the statistics that “one
in twenty-one African-American males will die of murder” and “most will be killed by
another African-American,” which is followed by a close-up of a stop sign, a message cen-
tral to both the dramatic narrative and political function of the film.
 BOYZ N THE HOOD 37

The film takes place in 1980s Los Angeles and tells the story of ten-year old Tre Styles
(as a child, Desi Arnez Hines II, and as a young adult, Gooding Jr.) who, because of
behavior problems in school and his mother’s (Bassett) educational and career responsi-
bilities, is sent to live with his father, Jason “Furious” Styles (Fishburne) in Crenshaw,
South Central LA, in order to benefit from male guidance and discipline. Upon his
arrival, Tre is greeted with domestic duties designed to make him a responsible man,
unlike his friend, Darin “Doughboy” Baker (Baha Jackson/Ice Cube), and his brother,
Ricky Baker (Donovan McCrary/Chestnut), who are raised by their single mothers
Brenda (Tyra Ferrell) and Chris (Kenneth Brown/Redge Green). Tre’s situation and rela-
tionship with his father is clearly juxtaposed to that of his friends, who are all being
raised by single mothers, their fathers having died or abandoned them, and who all
become involved in teenage parenthood, gangs, drugs, or violence.
As the film progresses, each scene presents political and moral dilemmas, catalysts, and
lessons for Tre and the audience. On Tre’s first night at his father’s, a burglar attempts to
break into their home only to be met with an armed Furious. In spite of being victims of a
crime, they are forced to wait a long time for police to arrive and are treated disrespect-
fully by an African American officer. In another scene, Tre and his friends find the body of
a dead young man and are later harassed by a gang of teenagers who steal their football
and beat up Doughboy, both references to the theme of black-on-black violence, which
runs throughout the film.
Although most of the scenes take place in Crenshaw, in one early scene, Furious takes Tre
fishing as a form of bonding and to lecture him on safe sex and the problem of teenage preg-
nancy in the African American community. Upon their return, Furious and Tre see Doughboy
and Chris being arrested, confirmation of Furious’s warnings. At this point, the film moves
seven years into the future, where the viewer finds Tre with a job and morally upstanding
Catholic girlfriend Brandi (Long), Ricky with a girlfriend and child, as well as a chance to go
to a university on a football scholarship, Doughboy on parole, and Chris in a wheelchair.
As the film progresses, Tre experiences police harassment (by the same African American
officer whom he encounters as a child), Tre and Brandi lose their virginity, and Tre and
Ricky are targeted by a gang, resulting in Ricky’s death and leaving his child fatherless. In
response, Doughboy leads the friends in search of the killers. Tre abandons the search
before Doughboy finds and kills the perpetrators and, in the final scene, they discuss their
different perspectives and paths. As the film ends, the audience is told that Doughboy
would be killed two weeks after his brother’s funeral and Tre and Brandi would go off to
college, as further and final confirmation of the film’s thesis.
The discourse of the breakdown of the African American family, although important,
is highly ideological and problematic as an explanation of social problems, such as drugs,
crime, gang violence, and poverty itself. By viewing such problems as the result of failed
gender and family roles, the film depends on a conservative family-values morality, the
application of an ethic of individual responsibility onto the entire African American com-
munity, and traditional gender constructions, the reassertion of which would correct the
problem, as Furious illustrates. What is more, this conservative interpretation replaces
any substantial critique or analysis of racism, power, politics, or economics as causes of
or influences on social problems, except in specific scenes, the most notable of which was
when Furious, a financial advisor, explains to Tre about real estate, white investment, and
gentrification, as the local community listens, and another scene when Furious lectures
Tre and Ricky on the cultural bias of the SATs. The rest of the political commentary is
limited to statements on billboards, which appear throughout the film.
38 BRAXTON, CHARLIE

In spite (or because) of its limitations and problems, Boyz N The Hood is an important
film that should be seen as a document of a particular set of problems as represented in
popular culture and as a socially conservative thesis on the African American condition
and race relations in post-civil rights America.

FURTHER READING
“Boyz N The Hood.” Internet Movie Database. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101507/>.
Diawara, Manthia. “Black American Cinema: The New Realism.” In Black American Cinema.
Manthia Diawara, ed. New York: Routledge, 1993, 3–25.
Dyson, Michael Eric. “Between Apocalypse and Redemption: John Singleton’s Boyz N The Hood.”
Cultural Critique, Vol. 21 (Spring 1992): 121–142.
———. Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism. Minneapolis, MN: University of
Minnesota Press, 1993.
Watkins, S. Craig. Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema. Chicago,
IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Aaron Winter

BRAXTON, CHARLIE (1961–). Hip hop journalist, poet, social activist, play-
wright, and filmmaker.
Mississippian Charlie Braxton has been called the “Godfather of southern hip hop” by
fellow hip hop journalist Anthony Colom, and journalists from powerful hip hop maga-
zines both past (The Source) and present (Ozone) cite his influence. Southern hip hop has
been denounced by some critics for being less intellectual and more sexually explicit than
the genre in other regions, and one of Braxton’s most important contributions to hip hop
is that he saw the merits of southern artists before many in the hip hop community did—
and he was unafraid to write about these artists. In several stories and interviews, Braxton
points out the ways that southern hip hop artists such as Killer Mike and Tela are as lyri-
cally skilled as their northern counterparts, and he argues—quite convincingly—that
southern duo Outkast is the greatest group in the history of hip hop. Braxton has also written
about GRITS, a Christian rap duo, and by doing so became one of the few mainstream hip
hop journalists to write seriously about gospel rap.
Whether he is asking questions for an interview or writing a review, part of Braxton’s
appeal comes from a poetic, dreamlike writing style that consistently emphasizes the black
southern culture of his subjects. In the story, “Amen, Smoke,” for instance, Braxton
describes rapper Smoke D’s music in a way that recalls the fiery revelations of a black
southern church:

blazing lyrics filled with a burning truth that ignites your soul like a serpentine fire, giving you
the kind of tingling sensation that you get in your spine when someone confronts you with a
verity so profound that you can’t help but shake your head and say “amen.”

Braxton’s descriptive style comes in part because he is a poet; his work has appeared in
respected journals, such as the African American Review, and in anthologies, such as In the
Tradition (1992) and Troubled Waters (1997).
Braxton has a strong sense of community that resonates in his writing. Braxton is both an
activist (Braxton has organized protests against domestic violence and served as a mentor to
many hip hop artists) and a proud southerner, and because of those identities, Braxton has
 BREAKIN’ 39

been able to offer a subtle critique of the music when it becomes destructive or alienating.
Braxton, for instance, has praised the southern rap group Nappy Roots for their complex dis-
cussion of race and class issues, but he has also remained critical of their lyrics’ misogyny.
Ultimately, Braxton’s communal spirit shines through in many of his projects: partici-
pating in Dirty States of America, a documentary about southern hip hop; writing the Afro-
centric liner notes for a Best of Pete Rock and CL Smooth CD; and serving as a panelist
in several public forums about race, class, and gender politics.

FURTHER READING
Braxton, Charlie. “Amen, Smoke.” Jackson Free Press. (Feb. 2004). 15 July 2007. <www.jackson
freepress.com>.
Powell, Kevin, and Charlie Braxton. “Conversations with Hip Hop Journalists Kevin Powell and Char-
lie Braxton.” Davy D’s Hip Hop Corner (March 2002). 15 July 2007. <http://www.daveyd.com/
kevincharliewarpt4.html>.

Rochelle Spencer

BREAKIN’ (CANON PICTURES, USA, 1984). Also known as Break-

dance: The Movie, this tale of two West Coast break dancers joining forces with a white,
classically trained dancer represents the gradual mainstreaming of contemporary hip hop
culture that began in the early 1980s.
Directed by Palestinian Joel Silberg, Breakin’ tells the story of Ozone (Adolfo “Shabba
Doo” Quinones) and Turbo (Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers), two street dancers
from Venice Beach, California, who meet and team up with Kelly (Lucinda Dickey), a
white ballet and jazz dancer. After struggling to have their dance fusion taken seriously on
the streets and in classical dancing circles, the team sticks together and begins to win dance
battles, ultimately finding success and affirmation in a classical dance competition.
Breakin’ was released at the height of the break dancing craze, but during a time when
break dancing culture was still predominantly a street culture. Along with several other
films that focused on aspects of hip hop culture of the time, most notably Beat Street and
Wild Style, Breakin’ cashed in on the public interest in these cultures. Released during the
same year as the less mainstream Beat Street, which was set in New York, Breakin’ is often
regarded as its West Coast companion. In contrast to the ground work of East Coast break
dancing, the West Coast style involves more upright dancing known as “body popping”
and “pop and lock.”
Breakin’ was originally inspired by a German documentary entitled Breakin’ and Enterin’
that focused on the Los Angeles club Radiotron. Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers
went from dancing in the documentary to starring in Breakin’, and Radiotron’s MC, Ice-T,
also went on to cameo in Breakin’. Moving on from its low-budget documentary roots,
Breakin’ was a relatively big budget, major studio production that offered a suggestion of
bringing hip hop culture into the white mainstream, and vice versa. The film’s plot suggests
this transition also: the dancers’ efforts to be accepted by the white, classical dance circles
mirror a desire for white audiences to embrace hip hop culture. These elements render the
film less credible for some audiences who lament the way in which hip hop culture has
become diluted through mass marketing, in particular to white, middle-class audiences.
Breakin’ is, for some, an embarrassment and a dire warning of things to come; for
others it is a pop culture favorite that, although not exactly underground, should be valued
40 BROTHERS GONNA WORK IT OUT

for publicizing break dancing, and hip hop culture in general, as a cultural development
to be taken seriously.
A sequel, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, displaying a further diluted brand of hip hop
culture, was released the same year.

Laura H. Marks

BROTHERS GONNA WORK IT OUT: SEXUAL POLITICS IN THE

GOLDEN AGE OF RAP NATIONALISM (2005). Written by Charise L.
Cheney, this work is a collection of critical essays published by New York University Press
in 2005. The significance of this work lies in the fundamental questions Cheney raises
about rap music, Black culture, and the politics of hip hop.
The first essay, “From the Revolutionary War to the ‘Revolutionary Generation’: Some
Introductory Thoughts on Rap Music, Black Nationalism, and the Golden Age of Rap
Nationalism,” includes comments on “raptivists” (a term denoting members of the hip hop
community who are both lyricists and activists), and their place in black popular culture
and American political culture. Cheney argues that hip hop deserves serious attention and
reveals important social undercurrents in black culture. She addresses the subgenre of
“gangsta rap” and how many scholars and listeners unfairly assume this genre (due to its
overwhelming popularity) represents hip hop in general. Cheney provides a survey of the
possible origins of and new definitions for hip hop culture and the concept of Black
Nationalism.
In “‘We Men Ain’t We?’ Mas(k)ulinity and the Gendered Politics of Black National-
ism,” Cheney examines the sexual politics of classical and modern black autonomy, and
the shifting state of manhood and identity for black men. The role of violence, sex, and
gendered language is examined in context of the progression of Black Nationalism, with
emphasis on incidents involving the Black Panthers, hero-worshipped as innovators by
raptivists in following years.
“Brothers Gonna Work It Out: The Popular/Political Culture of Rap Music,” forms the
core of the work. Cheney notes the pivotal development of rap in 1988 with Public
Enemy’s release of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back as not only a cultural
statement but a political one. The sudden shift in the genre is partly in response to the
unmet needs of black Americans and the simultaneous “crisis in black leadership” in the
late 1980s and early 1990s. A new sense of nationalism, heavily present in hip hop music,
formed as a response to the turmoil of the twenty preceding years. In the early 1990s, when
rap music came under great scrutiny, critics focused only on “gangsta” rap, which Cheney
describes as “the most controversial and sensational of rap genres.” Many who had worked
tirelessly for black civil rights in earlier decades were disgusted by the sexist and violent
images perpetuated by hip hop (mainly “gangsta” rap) artists. Contemporary activists,
however, challenged what older generations considered progress. As such, rap music
became an invaluable medium in which Black Nationalism could be discussed and devel-
oped. Cheney discusses Public Enemy’s influence and role in using rap as a forum for
political discussion and racial awareness.
“Ladies First? Defining Manhood in the Golden Age of Rap Nationalism” begins by
exploring the ways in which black artists must re-assert their maleness, thus appearing
misogynist and vulgar. Cheney does not excuse this image but contextualizes it: with many
black men dying young in violent acts, living in homes headed by women, or going to
 BROWN, CLAUDE 41

prison, raptivists sought to reclaim masculinity and power. In response to this hyper-
masculinization, Cheney explores female raptivists including Sister Souljah and Queen
Latifah, negotiating the complex dynamics of women who choose to participate in a tradi-
tion known for suppressing women. The representation of and response to homosexuality
is also detailed, contextualizing negative reactions propagated by the Black Power move-
ment of the 1970s.
Cheney examines religious reflections in rap in “Representin’ God: Masculinity and the
Use of the Bible in Rap Nationalism,” asserting raptivists use the Bible to gain authority
through divine providence. Consequently, the Bible as a tool for establishing black sup-
pression in American history is explored, as well as divine providence and visions of the
apocalypse in Black Nationalism.
The essay collection concludes with “Be True to the Game: Final Reflections on the Pol-
itics and Practices of the Hip-Hop Nation.” Cheney discusses the mainstreaming of rap
music, highlighting the differences between rap artists and activists and their correspon-
ding roles in creating social awareness about black issues. Special attention is given to the
rising power of hip hop and representative organizations. Lastly, Cheney reflects on liber-
ation, stating “[African Americans’] power lies not in the subordination of others but in a
collective and democratic struggle” (2005, 173). From this struggle can come peaceful rev-
olution and liberation.

FURTHER READING
Niesel, Jeff. “Hip-Hop Matters: Rewriting the Sexual Politics of Rap Music.” In Third Wave Agenda:
Being Feminist, Doing Feminism. Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, eds. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press, 1997, 239–253.

Karley K. Adney

BROWN, CLAUDE (1937–2002). Author of Manchild in the Promised

Land—one of the seminal memoirs detailing growing up in urban black America.
During his youth, Brown spent years in and out of juvenile detention centers; however,
he graduated from shoplifting, fighting, and skipping school to study at Howard University
under the tutelage of novelist Toni Morrison. At Howard, Brown pursued a liberal arts
degree, worked part-time, and wrote short stories. Brown began writing Manchild in the
Promised Land, a memoir about his youth in Harlem, during his first year at Howard after
an article he wrote caught the attention of a publisher who encouraged him to write about
his life.
Brown’s first and best-known novel, Manchild in the Promised Land, was published in
1965, and in addition to detailing Brown’s transformation from a hardened, streetwise
youth into a successful, self-made man, the novel also captures the angst of the period.
During the same year, Lyndon B. Johnson gave his “Great Society” speech and was sworn
in for his first full term as president of the United States, the unmanned spacecraft Gemini II
was launched, Malcolm X was assassinated, Alabama State Troopers attacked civil rights
demonstrators, the United States began bombing North Vietnam, Martin Luther King
Jr. led civil rights activists on a third march from Selma, Alabama, to the capitol in
Montgomery, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized the first of several
demonstrations against United States involvement in Vietnam, and Slick Rick, a British-
American rapper, was born.
42 BROWN, CUPCAKE

Manchild has been in print for more than forty years and has been praised for its por-
trayal of a lost generation of African Americans. In describing the experiences of a gener-
ation of blacks who migrated from the rural south to the industrial north, Brown’s work
captures an historical moment in the lives of working-poor African Americans. His unsen-
timental look at life in the inner city expands upon other stories about the working-poor,
such as John Steinbeck’s 1939 The Grapes of Wrath, a tale about migrant farm workers in
Oklahoma. Brown’s work is no less an example of a black experience than that related by
James Baldwin in his coming-of-age novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), or by Jacob
Lawrence in his 1941 series, Migration of the Negro.
Since its release in 1965, Manchild has been a top seller, and it continues to hold its own
in a rapidly changing, often fickle, marketplace. Brown had no way of knowing the impact
his coming-of-age tale would have on its readers. Soon after the release of Manchild,
Brown received letters from young black men stationed in Vietnam, many of them thank-
ing Brown for penning “our” story. Manchild is no less relevant today as another genera-
tion of young black men learn to negotiate life in America’s inner cities.

FURTHER READING
Baker, Houston A., Jr. “The Environment as Enemy in a Black Autobiography: Manchild in the
Promised Land.” Phylon, Vol. 32 Issue 1 (1971): 53–59.
Boyd, Herb, and Robert L. Allen, eds. Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America. New
York: Ballantine Books, 1995.
Rosenblatt, Roger. Black Fiction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.

Mary Loving Blanchard

BROWN, CUPCAKE (1964?–). Author whose memoir A Piece of Cake: A

Memoir (2006) chronicles her rise from sexual abuse, drug addiction, and gang violence
to her career as an attorney.
Cupcake Brown lived in San Diego, California, with her mother until an epileptic
seizure took her mother’s life in 1976 when Brown was eleven years old. This catastrophe
led to further unsettling of Brown’s once stable home life because she learned that her
father, Tim Long, was not her biological father. As a result, Brown and her brother Larry
were not permitted to reside with Long. Mr. Burns, Brown’s biological father, placed her
and Larry in the care of a sadistic foster mother who lived in Lancaster, California.
Brown’s foster mother’s nephew sexually molested Brown within hours of her inhabit-
ing this new residence. Though she ran away, this only shifted the sexual, physical, and
psychological violence from the foster home to the street, where Brown suffered through
prostitution accented by alcohol and narcotics.
Brown did have an uncle who remained a lifeline that she consistently reached out to as
she suffered abuse from her various foster parents. He eventually arranged for Brown to
live with her great aunt Becky in South Central Los Angeles where Becky also cared for
her three grandsons whose mother tragically died in an automobile accident. Through the
influence of her older cousin, Brown was initiated into a gang, the Eight Tray Crips, when
she was fourteen. During a party celebrating her 15th birthday she was shot in the back
during a drive-by. After making a full recovery, Brown left the gang.
Brown returned to San Diego, where she became fully emancipated at age sixteen.
Though Brown worked at a small security company until the time that her emancipation
 BROWN, PARRY “EBONY SATIN” A. 43

was granted, she soon quit this job and started selling drugs. Brown continued nursing an
alcohol and drug addiction while supporting herself through shoplifting scams and nar-
cotics dealing. While continuing to feed these vices, Brown attended a vocational school,
where she learned skills necessary to being a legal secretary. In 1987, Brown earned her
first job as a legal secretary with the Littler Mendelson law firm in San Diego. She worked
full time but continued feeding her drug addiction.
In 1989 Brown entered a recovery program at Mesa Vista Hospital. She followed recov-
ery with enrollment at San Diego City Community College. After earning an associates
degree, she was accepted to San Diego State University. Brown worked full time, funded
one hundred percent of her education, and graduated magna cum laude. In 1998, she
attended the University of San Francisco School of Law and graduated, having been
awarded the “Judge Harold J. Haley Award for Exceptional Distinction in Scholarship,
Character, and Activities.” Brown is an attorney at Bingham McCutchen, one of the
twenty-five largest law firms in the nation.

FURTHER READING
Brown, Cupcake. A Piece of Cake: A Memoir. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006.

Michelle S. Hite

BROWN, PARRY “EBONY SATIN” A. (1952–). In addition to her other

multi-media venues, since 2001, Brown has written several popular novels that extend her
outreach and qualify her as someone who is important to the second wave of hip hop
literature.
Hailing from nature-rich California, Parry Brown is obviously a force of nature herself.
She followed the trail of others in the hip hop literary world and self-published her own
first book, a self-help book for the woman of size called, Sexy Doesn’t Have a Dress Size:
Lessons in Love. Without counseling experience or training as a psychologist, Brown
sought to bolster the self-esteem of the women who she saw as her audience. In addition
to her publishing efforts, and as the director of publicity for the output of that publishing
company, Brown is a board member for several companies as well as a radio talk show
host. She developed her pen name, “Ebony Satin,” from her devotion to the Internet. A
divorcee who was newly remarried in 2006, Brown wants to pass along her gospel of
strength and self-esteem to other black women.
Brown attracted attention from her self-publishing efforts, and she wrote The Shirt Off
His Back, which highlighted the efforts of a single black father, Terry Winston, to find
love an a woman worthy enough to help him raise his twin daughters. What Goes
Around: A Novel is a sequel that follows the lives of Terry and his new wife in raising
the girls when their birthmother wants back into their lives because she needs a kidney
transplant.
Sittin’ in the Front Pew traces the unraveling of Edward Zachary Naylor by his four
daughters after his death and their subsequent discovery of a new sister. The story follows
how these sisters pull together to sustain one another and to celebrate their father’s life
without judging him.
After she attended a firefighting conference, Brown was inspired to write Fannin’ the
Flames, a novel that focuses on the lives of several minority firefighters. As with her
other works, Brown was determined to showcase examples of positive black male role
44 BROWN SUGAR

models. The main protagonist, Jerome White, is so real to many of Brown’s readers that
they feel moved to write to her of their love of him—a fictitious character. Brown’s
willingness to take up real-life issues and to “come real” about strong black males in
her novels has made her successful and respected among her readership. Brown has
also contributed to two fiction anthologies, Proverbs for the People and Love is Blind,
both published by Kensington Publishers. A mother and a grandmother, Brown’s deter-
mination to tell positive stories in her novels and to live a positive life is a necessary
example for many readers.

FURTHER READING
Brown, Parry A. Destiny’s Daughters. New York: Kensington Publishing, 2006.
———. Fannin’ the Flames. New York: One World/Ballentine Books, 2005.
———. Sexy Doesn’t Have a Dress Size: Lessons in Love. San Pedro: ShanKrys, 2000.
———. Shirt Off His Back. New York: Strivers Row, 2001.
———. Sittin’ in the Front Pew. New York: Strivers Row, 2002.
———. What Goes Around: A Novel. New York: One World/Ballentine Books, 2006.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

BROWN SUGAR (20TH CENTURY FOX, USA, 2002). Director Rick

Famuyima’s tale of hip hop and love.
Written by Michael Elliot and directed by Rick Famuyiwa, Brown Sugar is a roman-
tic comedy about childhood friends Andre “Dre” Ellis (Taye Diggs) and Sidney “Sid”
Shaw (Sanaa Lathan), who, after a failed marriage and broken engagement, respec-
tively, realize that they have been in love with each other all along. Hip hop, the literal
and figurative soundtrack of their lives, ties not only Syd and Dre together, but also the
movie’s plot.
Drawing influence from the song “I Used to Love H.E.R.” by Common Sense (Resur-
rection, 1994), the movie reverses the allegory. Although Common speaks of his love for
hip hop, personified as a young woman, for Dre and Syd in Brown Sugar, hip hop also
stands as a metaphor for their love. Syd, a successful editor of XXL magazine, is in fact
authoring a book titled “I Used to Love Him.” The narration that she provides throughout
the movie is meant to be excerpts from that book, and the first line of the film
narration/book is “I’ve started every interview I’ve ever given the same way for over ten
years: ‘So, when did you fall in love with hip hop?’” This question hints at the nostalgic
tone that dominates the film. A series of cameos follow—from Russell Simmons to Talib
Kweli—in answer to the question, and their replies speak of street parties, two turn tables,
emceeing, and b-boying—“old school” hip hop.
The split between “old school” hip hop and “new school” rap is a major theme
throughout the film. The introductory scene of Dre and Syd as kids in a park listening to
a freestyle cipher featuring Dana Dane, Doogie Fresh, and Slick Rick is contrasted by
the present day scene: Syd working as an editor and Dre in a boardroom at a major
record label. Syd narrates this shift, “Hip hop was as young, naïve, confused, sometimes
innocent, and sometimes as mischievous as I was,” and later, “Ever thought you’d see
the day hip hop grew up? From red Kool-Aid block parties in the Bronx, to champagne
toasts in Soho.” With this “growth” has also come commercialization—which sugges-
tively runs parallel to the “new school” rap at times. This is represented in Brown Sugar
 BULLETPROOF DIVA 45

by Dre’s boss at Millennium Records and the label’s new group Ren and Ten, “The Hip
Hop Dalmatians” (their gimmick is that one of them is black, the other white). Con-
trasted with them is Cav—Chris Anton Vichon (Mos Def)—who represents what Dre
describes as “real hip hop.”
Unable to answer “Why did it all get so complicated?”, Dre struggles with his con-
science and leaves Millennium to start Brown Sugar Records with Cav as his first artist.
His old boss criticized Dre for wanting to “keep it real.” He says, “We keep it profitable.
It’s too hard to do both of them.” This, however, is what “Brown Sugar” represents for Dre:
the woman (hip hop) who is classy and sexy—the best of both worlds. Can hip hop stay
true to its origins while still enjoying its mainstream success? Can Dre and Syd be both
best friends and lovers? The conclusion of Brown Sugar is a resounding “yes” to both of
these questions. The movie ends with Dre and Syd (by this time both single again) pro-
claiming their love to one another on Hot 97 radio followed by the station debuting Cav’s
new single, appropriately titled “Brown Sugar.”

Thomas Haliburton

BULLETPROOF DIVA: TALES OF RACE, SEX, AND HAIR (1997).

A collection of Lisa Jones’s essays from The Village Voice.
The “bulletproof diva” is a term that author Lisa Jones uses to characterize the
resiliency of African American women who some consider to be a part of the Third
Wave Feminist movement representing Generation X. Jones stresses that these black
women are not the stereotypical “emasculating black bitch too hard for love or piety.”
In fact, the bulletproof diva, according to Jones, is “whoever you make her—corporate
girl, teen mom, or the combination—as long as she has the lip and nerve, and as long
as she uses that lip and nerve to raise up herself and the world. Bulletproof Diva is part
of the larger “third wave” movement of black feminism that writes both despite and
because of black women’s exclusion via the term and yet through the inclusive nature
of the term.
The collection of forty-four separate essays stitched together from her column “Skin
Trade” written in “The Village Voice” during the early 1990s, avoids the direct line to
the end of the text, instead taking its readers on a veritable journey through American
identity politics. The entries range from the ever-important notion of self-naming as a
means of agency in the article “My Slave Name” to the scathing attack of Black male-
female relationships in the essay “Genitalia and the Paycheck.” Through this pastiche of
her own work, Jones stitches, via pen and paper, a mosaic quilt showcasing black femi-
nist identity politics and the great American dilemma of finding a voice within the col-
lective “we” that is America, more specifically as a black women in post-feminist hip
hop America.
Although not the author’s intent and surely not her singular claim to fame, Jones, the
daughter of Hettie Jones and LeRoi Jones (aka Amiri Baraka), aggressively and without
apology writes from both the personal and the political. Each of the five chapters: “How I
Invented Multiculturalism,” “Bring the Heroines,” The Blackest Market,” “Genitalia and
the Paycheck,” and “The Hair Trade” responds in some way to the problematization of
American identity.
Viewed as one of the paragons of the literary movement within hip hop culture,
Bulletproof Diva is a critique of certain aspects of the movement itself. The text resists
46 BURN: A NOVEL

being anti anything or anyone. Rather, it examines the fusions of racial and sexual iden-
tities and the aesthetics of black hair. As the subtitle suggests, hair is ever important in the
discussion of a diva’s life within hip hop culture. The “currency” of hair is paramount in
conversations about a Black woman’s agency and sense of self. The viability of the
importance of this single topic—black women’s hair—is such that the final chapter of the
book is solely dedicated to dissecting the contemporary debates of black female hair.

FURTHER READINGS
Springer, Kimberly. “Third Wave Black Feminism?” Signs, Vol. 27 Issue 4 (2002): 1059–1082.
Thompson, Deborah. “Keeping Up With the Joneses: The Naming of Racial Identities in the Auto-
biographical Writings of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Hettie Jones, and Lisa Jones.” College Lit-
erature, Vol. 29 Issue 1 (2002).

Terry Bozeman

BURN: A NOVEL (2006). In her hip hop novel Burn, Sofía Quintero writing as
Black Artemis explores a seminal element of hip hop culture known as graffiti or aerosol art.
Despite being Black Artemis’s third novel, it is her “oldest” story. In the discussion
guide contained in the novel, the author states that Burn had been “incubating” for over a
decade and was the most closely based on her own work/life experiences in comparison to
her first two novels, Explicit Content and Picture Me Rollin’ (2006, 320).
Under the pen name Black Artemis, Quintero writes revolutionary hip hop fiction and
was once named one of the “New School Activists Most Likely to Change New York”
by City Limits Magazine. Before becoming a novelist, she worked in a variety of paid
and volunteer positions geared toward promoting the public good and effecting social
change. For example, she once worked as the deputy director of two alternative incar-
ceration programs for the Vera Institute of Justice. One of these programs was a non-
profit bail bond agency. Several years later, Quintero did advocacy work for the Hispanic
AIDS Forum and once organized a focus group of transgender Latinas in order to better
serve that constituency. Through these and other work experiences, she developed the
philosophy that pressing social issues required innovative and maybe even radical “outside
the box” solutions.
This real life experience is evidenced in the nuanced, compelling, and self-actualized
characters revealed in Burn. It is obvious by her third novel that Black Artemis has several
trademark qualities in creating her hip hop noir. First, hip hop culture is always a support-
ing character in all of her work—providing education around the sociopolitical history of
hip hop. Second, women serve as protagonists on their own terms, replete with contradic-
tions and compelling humanity. And third, Black Artemis writes in an entertaining way,
especially as it relates to the crime-drama elements of her stories. Her plot twists are more
riveting and multi-dimensional than most suspense-genre fiction on the New York Times
best seller list. Burn is no exception to these “rules” (2006, 321).
Told from the perspective of a complicated yet endearing heroine named Jasmine Reyes,
Burn is a novel about the risk and consequences of pursuing alternatives when the path val-
idated by society is either inaccessible or fails. Abandoned at a young age by her parents,
Jasmine has been a “hustler” all her life. She and twin brother Jason learned to survive by
any means necessary. Jason becomes entangled with the criminal justice system and later
commits suicide while incarcerated on Riker’s Island.
 BUSINESS OF HIP HOP PUBLISHING 47

Jasmine is determined to go legitimate and eventually starts her own business, capital-
izing upon her own inherent street savvy by becoming a bail bonds agent. Through her
work she meets a client who reminds her of her beloved brother. The client, Macho
Booker, is also a brilliant graffiti artist. Jasmine posts bail for Macho, and after nearly
a year of stability, he disappears without a trace. Determined to find him, and prove to her-
self that he was worth the benefit of the doubt, Jasmine begins an investigation that crosses
many boundaries—literally and figuratively—where life and death hang in the balance,
including her own. All the while, true to form, Black Artemis delivers timely commentary
on issues such as gender identity, healthcare inequities, immigration reform, sexual orien-
tation, and identity politics.

FURTHER READING
Quintero, Sofia. Black Artemis. 12 Dec. 2007. <http://www blackartemis.com>.
———. Burn: A Novel. New York: New American Library/Penguin, 2006.

Marcella Runell Hall

BUSINESS OF HIP HOP PUBLISHING. The publication of hip hop, street,

and urban literature has grown exponentially in the last decade.
In the 1960s, Robert Beck, also know as Iceberg Slim, wrote about his experiences as
a pimp and the prostitution culture. His first book, Pimp: The Story of My Life, depicts his
experiences on the streets as a promoter of prostitution. Since the first printing in 1969,
the work has sold millions of copies. The success of Slim’s work paved the way for 1970s
author Donald Goines. Goines, an ex-con, drug addict, and pimp, commenced his writing
career in prison. He wrote over twenty books about the street game. Since the emergence
of the works of Slim and Goines, fiction geared toward reflecting the gritty details of
street life has mostly remained stagnant. The success of this genre of literature quickly
faded away.
From the late 1970s to the present day, rap music, which is the epitome of the term
hip hop, has created a worldwide trend in clothing, music, lifestyle, and culture. A gen-
eration of people born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s not only want to listen to rappers
rap about being in gangs, police brutality, their dealings with women or men, hustling
drugs, or the harsh realities of the inner city but they also want to read about these expe-
riences as well. They are now rushing to bookstores and street vendors to buy books that
have a direct linkage to the hip hop culture. As a result of this, the business of publish-
ing hip hop literature has been quite a successful venture. It has flourished in a short time
span of about ten years. Several pioneers and key elements making up the business of
hip hop publishing are Vickie M. Stringer, who is an author and founder of Triple Crown
Publications, nonmainstream and mainstream publishers; the rapper 50 Cents; and the
writer Zane.
Vickie M. Stringer grew up in a middle class neighborhood. Her mother was a school
teacher and her father was an electrical engineer. While a freshman at Western Michigan
University, she fell in love with a drug dealer and the street life. She dropped out of col-
lege, had a son, and became a professional criminal and madam. She was incarcerated for
seven years for money laundering and drug trafficking.
Stringer read more than her eyes could stand in prison. While incarcerated, she started
writing her novel Let That Be The Reason. She had a strong desire to tell her story, but most
48 BUSINESS OF HIP HOP PUBLISHING

importantly she wrote to steer others away from choosing crime as an option for survival.
This was Stringer’s intention and purpose for her novel.
After being freed from jail, Stringer finished her novel in about six weeks and sent
her unsolicited manuscript to twenty-six publishing houses but was rejected by all. As
a result of this, Stringer decided to self-publish her first novel, Let That Be The Reason,
with $100 donations from family and friends. In 2001, 1,500 copies were published by
Stringer and sold for $10 each. Stringer sold her novel at the car wash, to beauty
salons, and from the trunk of her car. She even solicited potential buyers on the street
and went door-to-door selling her work. Stemming from a desperate need to have her
voice heard, her selling techniques were similar to the tactics of guerilla marketing
strategies and grass roots efforts used by the pioneers of rap to sell their music. In
2002, Stringer was offered $50,000 by UpStream Publications to publish Let That Be
The Reason. It has since sold over 100,000 copies, and was listed on Essence magazine’s
bestsellers list.
Stringer’s success paved the way for Triple Crown Publications, which is a leading
hip hop publishing house founded by Stringer. Stringer’s Triple Crown Publications
made major contributions to the hip hop literary genre by publishing A Hustler’s Wife
by Nikki Turner and Gangsta by K’wan. Triple Crown Publications has published over
16 authors and has also helped writers, such as T. N. Baker, to move from Triple
Crown Publications to major publishing houses. Several writers represented by Triple
Crown Publications have received deals from big publishing companies worth over a
million dollars. In addition, 10 titles represented by Triple Crown Publications have
been purchased by a Japanese publishing house and are available in Japan. In the
future, Stringer plans to branch out and create a production company that will transform
her titles to DVD films.
In addition to Triple Crown Publications, several other nonmainstream publishing
houses have emerged. For example, Terri Woods Publishing was founded by the hip hip
literature author Terri Woods. She wrote and self-published True to the Game. Woods sold
this book on the streets of New York City and out of the trunk of her car. It has sold over
200,000 copies. Under Meow Meow Productions, an imprint of Terri Woods Publishing,
B-More Careful by hip hop literary author Shannon Holmes was published. In addition,
Atria Books has also offered Holmes a six figure book deal. Other noteworthy nonmain-
stream publishing houses include Urban Books, Macavelli Press, Black Print Publishing,
Melodrama Publishing, Q-Boro Books, and Ghetto Heat. All have produced titles that have
made a major impact on the business of hip hop literature.
Major publishing houses have also contributed greatly to the hip hop publishing busi-
ness as well. Many works that are in this literary genre were initially published by the
author because they were rejected by major publishers. When these major companies
saw the self-published works sell thousands of copies without their backings, they
decided to support hip hop literature. After the success of Stringer’s self-published Let
That Be The Reason, Stringer received a six figure deal from Simon & Schuster’s Atria
Books to write Imagine This and Dirty Red. Erica Kennedy’s Bling, a novel about a
woman who comes to New York to work for a hip hop mogul similar to the perceived
personalities of P. Diddy or Russell Simmons, received a seven figure deal for the movie
and book rights.
The rapper 50 Cent has also had an opportunity to contribute to the publishing game.
Simon & Schuster’s MTV Pocket Books linked up with the hip hop star to form a new
venture in fiction called G-Unit Books. 50 Cent’s imprint will publish books about G-Unit
 BYNOE, YVONNE 49

rappers such as Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Young Buck, and Olivia. Other authors will be
contributing to G-Unit Books as well. The first title under G-Unit Books will be written
by author Nikki Turner.
Another major contributor to the business is the queen of black erotica fiction, Zane.
Her steamy and racy novels, such as The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth and The
Heat Seekers, are not necessarily based on the hip hop culture, but they are read by the
Hip Hop Generation. Housewives, businesswomen, and college students also enjoy
Zane’s work.
Zane, a former sales executive for a paper company, has a degree in chemical engineer-
ing from Howard University. She is also a wife and a mother of four children. In 2000, she
self-published Addicted: A Novel under the pseudonym Zane and under her own imprint
Strebor Books. Her first book was a huge success, sold at major bookstores, and made
numerous bestseller lists. A few years after Addicted was published, Zane acquired a dis-
tribution deal with Simon & Schuster to publish other authors. In 2004, Zane opened her
own bookstore in Baltimore, Maryland, called Endeavors. She is also trying to start her
own film production company, which would produce her books.
The business of hip hop publishing emerged from the desire and efforts of writers who
were very persistent and were not given the opportunity to be represented by top-notch
publishers. Because of their need to tell their story, they picked nontraditional ways to hus-
tle their work to the masses and relied on guerilla marketing techniques to publish their
works. Surprisingly, their tactics were extremely successful. They were able to grab the
attention of mainstream publishing houses, such as Simon & Schuster, and opened the
doors for financial growth in the area of hip hop literature.

FURTHER READING
Deahl, Rachel. “Hip-Hop Loses Bad Rap with Publishers.” Publishers Weekly (19 Dec. 2005):
10–11.
El-Amin, Zakiyyah. “Queen of Hip-Hop Literature.” Black Enterprise (Jan. 2006): 49.
George, Lianne. “Bringing the Bling to the Book Biz” Maclean’s (12 July 2004): 53.
Johnson, Kalyn. “Zane, Inc: She Has More on Her Mind than Black Erotica.” Black Issues Book
Review (Sept.–Oct. 2004): 17–20.
Murray, Victoria Christopher. “Triple Crown Winner.” Black Issues Book Review (May–June 2004): 28.
Osborne, Gwendolyn. “Old School Masters of Blaxploitation Lit: The Lives and Works of Iceberg
Slim and Donald Goines.” Black Issues Book Review (Sept.–Oct. 2001): 54–55.
Patrick, Diane. “Urban Fiction.” Publishers Weekly (19 May 2003): 31.
Sauer, Patrick J. “Redemption Doesn’t Come Easy: How I Did It.” INC. Magazine (May 2006):
107–108.
Smith, Dinitia. “Unorthodox Publisher Animates Hip-Hop Lit.” The New York Times, 9 Sept.
2004: E6.
Springen, Karen and Peg Tyre. “It’s Gangsta Lit.” Newsweek (14 June 2004): 54.
Wyatt, Edward. “50 Cent and Posse: The Books.” The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2005: E2.

Ava Williams

BYNOE, YVONNE (196?–). Yvonne Bynoe has been heralded as one of the
most important voices of the Hip Hop Generation.
A writer and lecturer, Bynoe combines hip hop culture, politics, and other relevant
issues in her writings. She has the unique distinction of having garnered praise from the
50 BYNOE, YVONNE

world of academia as well as respect from the hip hop community. Duke University pro-
fessor Mark Anthony Neal has declared Bynoe as a leading member of the “hip hop
intelligentsia.”
Bynoe received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
As a law student at Fordham University, Bynoe published a newsletter entitled “Full
Disclosure: The Business of Hip Hop.” It was intended to give aspiring hip hop artists and
entrepreneurs valuable business and legal information. Bynoe is an outspoken advocate for
the need for activism in the Hip Hop Generation. She educates through her various speak-
ing engagements at colleges, universities, and conferences. Bynoe emphasizes the need for
self-evaluation in the hip hop culture. She was a panelist and speaker at the first Feminism
and Hip Hop Conference at the University of Chicago. Bynoe asserts that women must
take an active role in changing the images of women in hip hop. Bynoe is vocal about the
need to correct the misogyny and degradation that occurs against women in hip hop music.
Bynoe believes that the erasure of sexism in the hip hop community must first start with
female self-healing. According to Bynoe, only then can they effectively combat the nega-
tive images of women in hip hop.
Bynoe is the author of Stand and Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership, and Hip Hop.
Published in 2004, the book calls the Hip Hop Generation to action. Bynoe challenges the
Hip Hop Generation to take a more active role in the political processes of society. She
illustrates the link between politics and popular culture and the power of the people to
impact the community. In the book, Bynoe maintains that it is the activists in the commu-
nity and not the artists that have the true power to promote and initiate lasting change in
the hip hop community.
Bynoe’s second book, The Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture was published
in December of 2005. The work is the first comprehensive guide to the history and evo-
lution of hip hop culture. According to Bynoe there are four manifestations of hip hop
culture: MC’ing, B-boying, Deejaying, and Graffiti. MC’ing represents the lyrical ele-
ment of hip hop, including rapping and spoken word. B-boying includes the physical
aspects, primarily break dancing. Deejaying is the musical element, which includes
scratching, mixing, and sampling. Lastly, graffiti is the visual aspect of hip hop, which
includes tagging. In the introduction, Bynoe gives an overview of the first 30 years of
rap and hip hop culture. The encyclopedia covers all four manifestations in over 500
entries that range from rap artist “A+” to the hip hop organization “Zulu Nation.”
Artists who have made both critical and commercial contributions to hip hop are fea-
tured in the encyclopedia. Bynoe also includes selected discographies and bibliogra-
phies related to various entries. She also appends The Hip Hop Declaration of Peace
that was revealed by KRS-One in May of 2002, as well as the proclamation recogniz-
ing November as Hip Hop History month and the resolution establishing Hip Hop
Appreciation Week.
Bynoe is a prolific writer whose works have appeared in several online publications,
including AlterNet.org, PoliticallyBlack.com, and PopandPolitics.com. She has also
written for The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and Colorlines. Bynoe has
contributed to several anthologies, including Rhythm and Business: The Political Econ-
omy of Black Music, Race and Resistance: African Americans in the 21st Century, and
Writing Arguments. Additionally, Bynoe has provided political and cultural commentary
for National Public Radio (NPR) on News & Notes with Ed Gordon.
Bynoe is cofounder of the Urban Think Tank Institute, a nonprofit organization founded
to educate and engage young adults about political leadership and policy issues. Bynoe
 BYNOE, YVONNE 51

also served as president of the organization. In 2005 she created the Stand & Deliver:
Agent of Change grant to aid community activists in their pursuits to positively impact
their communities. Bynoe is also an advisory committee member of Black Youth Vote! and
a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
Bynoe has stated that “I consider myself someone who provides information and analy-
sis that helps people to make decisions for their own lives.” Bynoe’s contribution to the
world of hip hop culture has enabled and inspired a generation of hip hop activists.

FURTHER READING
Bynoe, Yvonne. The Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture. New York: Greenwood, 2005.
———. Stand & Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership and Hip Hop Culture. New York: Soft Skull
Press, 2004.

Kimberly R. Oden
 C
CALDERÓN, JENNIFER “JLOVE” (1971–). Born Jennifer McLaughlin in
Denver, Colorado, “JLove” Calderón is an activist, educator, and author of That White
Girl (2007).
Calderón graduated from San Diego State University in 1993 with a B.A. in Africana Stud-
ies and then earned a master’s degree in Education from Long Island University. After writ-
ing commentaries for various print and online magazines, such as rapstation.com, RedEye,
and others, Calderón went on to author several books. Regardless of platform or genre, she
frequently raises issues of race, gender, and culture, especially as they relate to hip hop.
For example, in 2002 Calderón wrote an editorial for RedEye entitled White Like Me in
which she outlined a ten-point code of ethics for white people involved in hip hop culture.
In her introduction she states, “[W]e must challenge each other to go on a journey of self-
discovery, in order to understand the true desires and motivations behind our involvement
in the Hip-Hop community.” With strident charges as “Be conscious of your unearned priv-
ilege” and “Don’t think you are the exception to the rule,” Calderón withstood a backlash
from other whites in hip hop who balked at her insistence that their participation in a cul-
ture originated by people of African descent engendered any special responsibility.
In 2003 Calderón cofounded the nonprofit organization called We Got Issues with long-
time friend, fellow activist and hip hop artist Rha Goddess. Together they co-edited We Got
Issues! A Young Women’s Guide to Bold, Courageous, and Empowered Life in 2006. They
collected and published “rants” from young women across the United States on what they
believe to be the ten most pressing issues they face today. We Got Issues! has evolved into
a multimedia production, in which the “rants” are performed throughout the country in a
show that can be described as “The Vagina Monologues” with a hip hop sensibility.
Calderón’s first novel That White Girl was published by Atria/Simon & Schuster in
2007. That White Girl is a fictionalized account of Calderón’s own coming-of-age as a
middle class Irish American girl in multiracial Denver during the 1980s and under the
influence of early hip hop. Fascinated with all things hip hop, the teen protagonist Amber
becomes a graffiti artist under the tutelage of one of Denver’s finest writers and ultimately
joins the Rollin’ 30s, the local chapter of the Crips gang. Throughout the novel, Amber
grapples with racism and white privilege and discovers a new passion for hip hop as a tool
for promoting social justice. In a review for AllHipHop.com, Kathy Iandoli writes, “While
That White Girl may appear to be a (F)eminem saga at face value, it actually succeeds in
telling the tale of both gang life and Hip-Hop through a brand new pair of eyes. . . . The
remarkable (and respectable) aspect of Amber’s life and JLove’s writing is that she hardly
mixes discussions on her gang activity with her affiliation to the Hip-Hop culture. Kudos
to JLove for not perpetuating the stereotype that gangbangers love rap and vice versa.”
 CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP: A HISTORY OF THE HIP-HOP GENERATION 53

Presently, Calderón is editing another nonfiction book called Till the White Day is Done,
an anthology that explores the question, “What does it mean to be White in America?”
Various writers and artists will contribute essays and art, ranging from poetry to comic
strips, to the anthology.

FURTHER READING
Calderón, Jennifer, and Rha Goddess. That White Girl. New York: Simon & Schuster/Atria, 2007.
———. We Got Issues!: A Young Women’s Guide to a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life.
Novato, CA: New World Library, 2006.

Sofía Quintero

CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP: A HISTORY OF THE HIP-HOP

GENERATION (2005). Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop is one of the most
critically acclaimed and publicly known works of the recent wave of hip hop scholarship.
Consistently praised for its depth, ambition, and passion, the text is an incisive treatment
of the identity politics of the Hip Hop Generation, and the sociocultural tensions that shape
them. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop explicity follows in the footsteps of Bakari Kitwana’s The Hip
Hop Generation Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture in defining hip
hop as a foundational force in contemporary culture.
Rather than simply using discographies to frame its hip hop history, Can’t Stop Won’t
Stop treats hip hop as a method or a framework for a youth generation to engage with its
political and social world. A disguisedly activist text, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop traces its hip
hop history through a series of pressure drops—flashpoint moments where mainstream
America’s “politics of abandonment” and “politics of containment” bring the Hip Hop
Generation’s tensions and unrests to a critical mass. Riots in Jamaica, the Bronx, and Los
Angeles provide the historical and rhetorical bulkheads to which Chang anchors his nar-
rative; fires and raised fists are his two consistent images. Chang’s passions for hip hop
music and culture—exemplified by his cofounding of the wildly influential Solesides/
Quannum label out of California—shine through in his work, providing it with a narrative
coherence not always apparent in the book’s chronology.
The book distinguishes itself before its first chapter with a passionate and credible intro-
duction by DJ Kool Herc and some prefatory remarks by Chang urging readers to consider
his history as only one of many potential narratives of hip hop’s development. (This is his
defense against the criticism, most pointedly argued by KRS-One, that Can’t Stop Won’t
Stop avoids any claims to hip hop origins outside of the Bronx, neglecting to interview
Grandmaster Kaz, Pee Wee Dance, and KRS himself.) However, Chang’s opening chapter
seems like a radical divergence from the hip hop-focused prologues, outlining New York
Yankee Reggie Jackson’s struggles to rationalize his simultaneous mass celebrity status
with the racial discrimination he experiences. At the top of the ladder, even Reggie Jackson
can’t catch a break; on the streets, the fire-scarred South Bronx is a “wasteland,” a “spec-
tacular set of ruins.” This landscape—and this simultaneous public celebration and dele-
gitimization of America’s most successful Black figures—is, according to Chang, the
fertile earth from which hip hop springs and also one of its biggest problems. Chang fol-
lows these themes and tensions through a long, complex, and lyrical ode to hip hop, never
falling into “hip hop is dead” doomsaying but acutely aware of the internal issues that keep
the Hip Hop Generation from achieving its revolutionary potential.
54 CHANG, JEFF

FURTHER READING
Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: Picador, 2005.

Timothy S. Jones

CHANG, JEFF (1967–). As a journalist, radio DJ, label head, author, activist,
and intellectual, Jeff Chang can be considered one of the foremost and best-respected
voices in contemporary hip hop culture.
Chang has described himself in the San Fransisco Bay Guardian as an “over-educated
hip-hop-gen AZN cult-crit.” Born in Hawai’i in 1967, and a Sugarhill Gang fan at age
twelve, Chang moved to California in the early 1980s to attend Berkeley University. He
earned an undergraduate degree in economics and a subsequent master’s degree in Asian
American studies from UCLA. At university, Chang hosted a six-hour hip hop radio show
on CKVS under the name DJ Zen. Through his show, he met Tom Shimura, Xavier
Moseley, and Josh Davis in 1993, and the group founded the wildly influential label Sole-
Sides, featuring Shimura’s project Latryx, Moseley’s Blackalicious (with T. J. Parker,
a.k.a. The Gift Of Gab), and Davis as DJ Shadow. The Solesides crew’s work showed intel-
ligence, inventiveness, and wit, coupled with an aesthetic rooted in old soul: aspects all
highly visible in Chang’s writing.
In addition to heading SoleSides, Chang’s university experiences led him to a short
career as a community, labor, and student organizer for the students of the California State
University system. An outspoken and overt leftist, Chang’s experiences in grassroots com-
munity organizing and social justice work have strongly impacted the journalism and print
work he has produced. Chang remains committed to grassroots activism; he recently
organized the first National Hip-Hop Political Convention in 2004 and published a mono-
graph called “Constant Elevation: The Rise of Bay Area Hip Hop Activism” directed at
local Bay Area funding agencies.
As a writer, Chang has been highly prolific. A founding editor of Colorlines magazine
and a senior editor of Russell Simmons’s 360HipHop.com, Chang has also written for (and
occasionally criticized) the Village Voice, as well as The Nation, Vibe, Mother Jones, URB,
and The Bomb magazines. He regularly updates and maintains a blog called Zentronix.
However, Chang’s most successful publication is 2005’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History
of the Hip-Hop Generation. In an interview, Chang said, “my politics have always shaped
my aesthetics, probably to a fault.” This sentiment is clear in texts such as Can’t Stop Won’t
Stop. A winner of the American Book Award, the lengthy book considers the history of hip
hop as a series of grassroots, communitarian aesthetic and political practices, evolving in
dialogue with the political and social environment from which the music and the culture
arises. To use Chang’s words from an interview with Oliver Wang in Vibe Magazine, Can’t
Stop Won’t Stop looks at the social and cultural tensions of the period from 1968–2001
“from the street corner up”—through the lens of grassroots hip hop music, its producers,
and its followers. Robert Christgau, one of 20th Century music’s most influential critics
and Chang’s Village Voice contemporary, called Can’t Stop Won’t Stop “Nothing less than
the finest rap history extant.” More than a rap history, however, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop is
significant as a call-to-arms to the population group that Bakari Kitwana calls the Hip Hop
Generation. A defiantly activist text, Chang highlights flashpoints and moments of racial
and political solidarity in hip hop communities and, in ending the book with a photograph
of a raised black fist at the 2000 DNC, sounds a clear call for more.
 CHECK IT WHILE I WRECK IT 55

In 2007, Chang curated and edited Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop.
Whereas Can’t Stop Won’t Stop assessed the history and politics of hip hop, Total Chaos
addresses its aesthetics and its practice, elucidating Chang’s argument that hip hop is the “big
idea of our time” (Berkowitz). Rather than providing a cultural history, Total Chaos treats hip
hop as an aesthetic approach—in the introduction, Chang considers it a coherent, confronta-
tional aesthetic approach comparable to the Black Arts Movement (and even Artaud’s The-
atre of Cruelty). The inclusion of powerhouse hip hop authors such as Greg Tate, Harry
Allen, Oliver Wang, and DJ Spooky, alongside Native American, gay, Maori, and African
voices is highly significant and befits Chang’s commitment to polyvocality and inclusivity in
his scholarship. The release of Total Chaos was accompanied by a speaking tour; in addition,
Chang is an active and prolific speaker on both the campus and academic conference circuits.

FURTHER READING
Berkowitz, Elana. “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: An Interview with Hip-Hop Scholar Jeff Chang.”
<http://www.campusprogress.org/soundvision/170/canrsquot-stop-wonrsquot-stop-an-interview-
with-hip-hop-scholar-jeff-chang>.
Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: Picador, 2005.
———. “Constant Elevation: The Rise of Bay Area Hip Hop Activism.” 15 June 2007.
<http://www.cantstopwontstop.com/pdfs/monographfinal.pdf>.
———. “Introductory Essay,” Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop. Jeff Chang, ed.
New York: Picador, 2007.
———. “Self.” 15 June 2007. <http://www.cantstopwontstop.com/self.cfm>.
Wang, Oliver. “Book Talk: Jeff Chang—Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.” <http:www.vibe.com/news/
online_exclusives/2005/03/book>.

Timothy S. Jones

CHECK IT WHILE I WRECK IT: BLACK WOMANHOOD, HIP-HOP

CULTURE, AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE (2004). Gwendolyn D. Pough’s
first book, which examines the ways in which female rappers appropriate male spaces and
rhetoric to create their own identities.
A noted expert on hip hop culture and feminism, Gwendolyn D. Pough traces the roots
of activism and expression inherent in early hip hop culture. She begins the text by rene-
gotiating the black public sphere to celebrate the participation of black women. By doing
such she is able to theorize the activism of women such as Ida B. Wells Barnett, Alice
Walker, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper alongside artists such as Queen Latifah, MC
Lite, Lil’ Kim, and Lauryn Hill.
One of the most innovative ideas in Pough’s book comes when she introduces the
concept of “bringing wreck.” She writes the following:

I am concerned with the ways the rhetorical practices of Black women participants in Hip-Hop
culture bring wreck—that is moments when Black women’s discourses disrupt dominant mas-
culine discourses, break into the public sphere, and in some way impact or influence the U.S.
imaginary, even if that impact is fleeting. (2007, 76)

Pough’s notion of bringing wreck reinforces the idea that black women have always par-
ticipated in the politics of black culture and continue to do so in the often male-centered
arena of hip hop culture.
56 CHEEKES, SHONDA

The author takes to task the relegation of hip hop culture and rap music to purely
misogynistic ends and requires that feminist theorists look more deeply at the way that
women can use hip hop as a device to engage patriarchy. Pough further critiques the
prevailing criticism that hip hop imagery and lyrics should present women in a more
positive light as opposed to falling back to binaries perpetuated by white, male, capitalistic
patriarchy.

See also Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminism Anthology

FURTHER READING
Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down.
New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2000.
Pough, G., R. Raimist, E. Richardson, and A. Durham, eds. Home Girls Make Some Noise: A Hip
Hop Feminism Reader. Los Angeles, CA: Parker Publishing, 2007.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH:
Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Tarshia L. Stanley

CHEEKES, SHONDA (1970–). Author of contemporary literature with urban

themes for hip hop audiences.
Shonda Cheekes is a popular contemporary writer who lives in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
She has only written two novels, but they have been very well received by her devoted fans
who love her. Another Man’s Wife, published in 2003, is a story that engages issues and
deals with what a woman does when her husband, Jarrin in this case, of many years walks
out on her and how she has to readjust to his disappearance. She does not know that for
the five years of his disappearance Jarrin has started another family. When Yani does find
out, the information is devastating. Yani, the heroine of the book, relates her story in the
first person perspective. She meets another man, a businessman named Alex, who also
relates his perspective in the first person, and it is inevitable that these two will be together.
Jarrin shows up to create havoc in Yani’s life. The use of the first person increases the con-
nection that the reader is bound to feel with these well-drawn characters. The way that
Cheekes allows her heroine to articulate her struggles with her husband has garnered her
writing a lot of respect from prominent publications such as Publisher’s Weekly, which is
no small accomplishment for a beginning writer.
With heavy reader demand, Cheeks wrote a sequel to Another Man’s Wife. In the Midst
of It All, published in 2006, follows the story of Yani and Alex, who are now married, and
how they deal with their lives in the aftermath of September 11th in New York City. Jar-
rin’s second family turns up to make life complicated for her. The plot of the sequel also
takes up the concerns of Yani’s sister, Asia, who returns from the first book. Asia’s heart
had been hurt by a former fiancé and she has to learn to find love again from Detective
Johnny Johnson. In her willingness to deal with real life issues and difficulties, Cheekes
lifts her work from well-tread romantic fiction territory to hip hop literature with a heart.
She was praised again from many prominent book critics and got another review from
Publisher’s Weekly, more acknowledgment of her growing following.
Her novels garnered so much popularity that Cheekes was able to contribute to a short
story/novella anthology called Blackgentlemen.com. All of the stories are tied together with
 THE CHEETAH GIRLS 57

the common theme of women finding their true love in an on-line circumstance. Published
by the legendary Zane, the anthology represents the fact that Cheekes is a well-respected
writer. Readers will be happy to know that Cheekes’s third novel, Decoys, Inc. will be pub-
lished in October 2008. Her contribution to the collection via “Lessons Learned” also added
to her reputation as a writer who is a growing force in hip hop literature who will be around
for some time to come.

FURTHER READING
Cheekes, Shonda. Another Man’s Wife. Largo, FL: Strebor Books, 2003.
———. Decoys Inc. Largo, FL: Strebor Books, 2008.
———. In the Midst of It All. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.
———. “Lessons Learned.” Blackgentlemen.com. Largo, FL: Strebor Books, 2007.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

THE CHEETAH GIRLS (1999). At first a book series and then a Disney televi-
sion movie (followed by a sequel) targeted at young teenage girls of color.
The Cheetah Girls is a series of young adult novels by Deborah Gregory that tells the
story of five ethnically diverse high school students in New York City. There are sixteen
books in the series, which debuted in 1999. The concept for the books was born when
Gregory, a contributing writer at Essence and Vibe magazines, was approached by
Disney Publishing to create a series of novels that would appeal to young women of
color, which was a market that had previously been ignored by marketers of mass youth
culture. In 2003 the books were made into a made-for-television movie, which was
watched by 8.5 million viewers. A sequel to the film soon followed. The girls in the novels
are singers and dancers focused on becoming the next big girl group, and regularly
contrast themselves with representations of real-life bands that are significantly less
racially diverse.
There are five Cheetah Girls, and all come from significantly different backgrounds,
both ethnically and socio-economically. The main character of the novels is Galleria
Garibaldi. Her mother is an African American designer of plus-sized fashion for women
and is a former model; her father is an Italian immigrant. Galleria is spoiled by her wealthy
family, as is her best friend Chanel Simmons. Chanel’s mother is a single parent of
Dominican and Puerto Rican descent and was a model with Galleria’s mother; her father
is an immigrant from Cuba and a businessman, but he is not particularly involved in
Chanel’s life. In contrast to the wealth of Galleria and Chanel, the third band member,
Dorinda Rogers, is a foster child living in the housing projects of Harlem. A Latina girl,
Dorinda is, at age twelve, already working and a freshman in high school. (To write about
the foster child experience, Gregory drew on her own time in the system.) Finally, twins,
Aquanette and Anginette Walker, round out the group; they are African American and are
recent transplants from Houston to New York. The twins are very religious, are inspired by
Christian music, and occasionally have trouble dealing with the diversity of New York.
They are raised by their middle-class single father because it was determined that their
mother was an unsuitable guardian. Clearly, an important facet of The Cheetah Girls is
diversity, not only ethnically but also with regards to financial circumstances and family
make-up. Furthermore, each of the girls has a different body type and deals with under-
standing beauty in all its forms.
58 THE CHEETAH GIRLS

Thematically, the texts are held together by the “Cheetah Girls Credo,” which outlines
the ways the girls in the band are expected to act and by default models appropriate
behavior for Gregory’s readers. The credo guides the girls to treat others with compas-
sion, accept differences in other people, act responsibly at school and in the band, rely on
their inner selves and not their bodies to achieve their goals, be brave, seek support, admit
their mistakes, respect others, pick good friends, and follow no one’s dreams but their
own. These rules, outlined at the opening of each Cheetah Girls book, are reinforced by
the different plots of each novel, which generally challenge one or more of the girls on
an issue from this credo. For example, in the first book of the series, Galleria is called a
“chocolate-covered cannoli” (2003, 96), a reference to Galleria’s mixed Italian and
African American heritage. That this insult comes from a fellow Cheetah Girl forces the
girls in the group to discuss being respectful, admitting their mistakes, and accepting the
different and unique cultural background that each girl brings to the group. These mes-
sages are not delivered in a moralizing way but instead are sorted out amongst the girls.
Adults rarely intervene in these dilemmas, as individual responsibility and collective
problem-solving is championed.
In the credo, Gregory suggests that there are Cheetah Girls all over the world waiting to
be discovered. The Cheetah Girls books create a safe space for young women of color to
explore their own identities. Gregory enforces this idea of a safe, private space by having
the characters, especially Galleria, create their own language to use with one another. Each
book has a glossary of terms in the back that defines any invented words from that text. As
a result, the effect is not one of exclusion but rather inclusion, because each reader has
access to the meanings of the words and because it bonds together a community of read-
ers with secret knowledge that only they remain privy to. Interestingly, Gregory also uses
this glossary to define words used in the text that readers might not be familiar with, such
as monologue. In this way, the texts provide a space safe not only for the exploration of
identity but also for learning.
Finally, of interest is the feminist message in the novels. The adult women who are pres-
ent in the books are dynamic, powerful, and wise. There are few men in the texts, and dom-
inating women of color overshadow them. Galleria and Chanel refer to their mothers as
divas, and the girls in the group look up to these strong women; Galleria’s mother even
goes on to manage the band and encourages the girls to perform their own songs. Her
importance in the texts, however, is primarily her pride in her own racial identity and those
of each of the girls. She reinforces the overall project of the novels, which is to show girls
of color the power and strength possible for minority women.

See also Teen Fiction

FURTHER READING
Gregory, Deborah. The Cheetah Girls: Growl Power Forever, Books 9–12. New York: Jump at the
Sun/Hyperion, 2004.
———. The Cheetah Girls: Livin’ Large, Books 1–4. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, 2003.
———. The Cheetah Girls: Off the Hook, Books 13–16. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion,
2005.
———. The Cheetah Girls: Supa-Dupa Sparkle, Books 5–8. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion,
2003.

Brenna Clarke Gray

 CHUCK D 59

CHIDEYA, FARAI (1969–). Author, journalist, essayist, and news commentator

who has been connecting the world of hip hop to the political arena since she was sixteen
years old.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Chideya attended Harvard University and
graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in 1990. Beginning her career in earnest as a
researcher and reporter for Newsweek Magazine, she has since worked on television,
radio, online, and in print. A host for National Public Radio’s Notes and News, she has also
hosted Your Call, a call-in news radio show. Chideya has become a familiar media face,
anchoring Pure Oxygen, a show on the Oxygen television network and contributing polit-
ical commentaries to the CNN, ABC, MSNBC, BET, and MTV networks.
Demonstrating her passion for truth in politics, she has written three books. The first
book, published in 1995, Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About
African Americans, examines the cultural myths perpetuated in the media. Her second
book, The Color of Our Future (William Morrow, 1999), details her cross-country journey
to investigate the new parameters of race in a multicultural America. Lastly, her third book,
Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters (Soft Skull, 2004), interrogates the com-
plexities of America’s political scene, especially highlighted by the issues of the 2000 pres-
idential election. In addition to her books, Chideya’s articles and commentaries have
appeared in several prominent periodicals, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles
Times Magazine, Time Magazine, Vibe, Spin, O, and Essence, to name a few.
Not limiting herself to traditional print media, Chideya began her own online journal in
1996, PopandPolitics.com, which focuses on cultural and political issues of the day, yet is
geared toward a younger audience. Many of the essays published in Trust were first pub-
lished on the online journal’s Web site.
Chideya has worked tirelessly and courageously to present the voice of the hip hop gen-
eration to the world, demonstrating that this generation can be just as politically aware and
astute as traditional generations are and have been. This commitment was rewarded in
2003 when she was chosen to moderate the Democratic presidential election.
She has also been honored with several awards for her writing and journalism. She
received the GLAAD Award for an article that appeared in Spin magazine, a National Edu-
cation Reporting Award, and, in 2004, the “Young Lion” award from the Black Entertain-
ment & Telecommunications Association (BETA).

FURTHER READING
Chideya, Farai. The Color of Our Future. New York: Harper Collins, 1999.
———. Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans. New
York: Plume, 1995.

RaShell R. Smith-Spears

CHUCK D (CARLTON DOUGLAS RIDENHOUR) (1960–). Activist,

author, composer, and lyricist.
Carlton Ridenhour, better known as Chuck D, was one of the first artists to confidently
challenge the politics of an ever-changing society through a series of chart topping albums.
Born on August 1, 1960, in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York, Ridenhour is a breeze of
fresh fire. Upon graduating from Adelphi University in Long Island, he pursued his pas-
sion for rhyme and reason by examining the crevices of hard beats and backbiting lyrics
60 CINEMA

in the form of a new age hip hop song with a title to equal its intensity, Public Enemy
Number No. 1.
In 1987 Ridenhour, along with his stage partner, William Drayton (Flavor Flav), and
DJ, Professor Griff, founded Public Enemy, a political powerhouse. Not long after the
release of Public Enemy No. 1, music producer Rick Ruben signed the group to well-
known music label Def Jam. Public Enemy has produced hits exploring themes that decon-
struct slavery in the twenty-first century, male and female sexism, the promotion of
unwavering religions/leaders in the United States, and issues of relevancy/candidacy in the
White House. Influential albums include It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
(released in 1988), Fear of a Black Planet (released in 1990), and Apocalypse ’91 The
Enemy Strikes Back.
Ridenhour’s intellect for the spoken word perceptively presented itself in 1996 through
the release of his first solo album titled The Autobiography of Mistachuck. A companion
piece for this album was released in 1997 in a novel of the same title. To further his quest
for truth and revision, he co-wrote Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality with fellow
author Yusuf Jah. His latest release with Jah is titled Lyrics of a Rap Revolutionary, a col-
lection of anecdotal works explaining the motivation behind his most popular songs.
Ridenhour emphasizes education on every academic level. He travels to numerous uni-
versities, colleges, and public schools to lecture on issues ranging from fine arts to
firearms. With the 2005 distribution of New Whirl Odor, Ridenhour brilliantly targets a
new generation with hasher comments and louder questions. The introduction to New
Whirl Odor, titled “. . . AND NO ONE BROADCASETED LOUDER THAN . . . ,” voices
an excerpt from the Rev. Al Sharpton that states, “Chuck D said that Rap was the CNN of
the black community and no one broadcasts louder than Public Enemy.” This essential
statement surmises the realm of tremendous support he receives, as well as the endless
beneficial and bold content presented throughout the album. Ridenhour has also been a
spokesman for two consistent irregularities in the African American community, voter reg-
istration and music file sharing online.
Despite the negative criticism constantly circulated around Public Enemy’s lyrics,
Ridenhour continues to serve as a literary critic and commentator for national writers’ con-
ferences, music documentaries, and television specials. Carlton Ridenhour is a true cata-
lyst for firm speech.

FURTHER READING
Chuck D. Lyrics of A Rap Revolutionary. Vol 1. Yusef Jah, ed. New York: Offda Books, 2007.
Gates Jr., Henry Louis, ed. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd Ed. New York:
Norton, 2004.
Ridenhour, Carlton and Jah Yusef. Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality. New York: Dell, 1997.
Walser, Robert. “Rhythm, Rhyme, and Reason in the Music of Public Enemy.” Ethnomusicology,
Vol. 39 (1995): 193–217.

Delicia Daniels

CINEMA. Hip hop culture has been documented and explicated through film.
From its inception forward, hip hop has been infused with a degree of the cinematic. The
first rap song to appear on the pop charts, “Rapper’s Delight,” featured rhymes about the
contemporary blockbuster Superman. Kool Moe Dee’s hit “Wild Wild West” relied on
 CINEMA 61

motifs and themes found in Western pictures as an extended metaphor for inner city
violence. The Geto Boys’ self-titled album featured multiple references to and samples from
Brian DePalma’s Scarface (1983). In addition to borrowing samples and imagery from the
cinema, New York’s Wu-Tang Clan took both their group’s name and individual stage
names from the kung fu films they watched as children in Times Square. After several suc-
cessful albums, the group formed a distribution company to re-release the films that influ-
enced them onto DVD. Simultaneous to this borrowing, the film industry likewise borrowed
from hip hop and in the process created a unique cinematic genre. Almost as old as the cul-
tural movement itself, hip hop film reflected (and continues to do so) the many facets of the
subculture. Although the films consistently appeared in theaters as hip hop grew into a
worldwide phenomenon, early on they rarely received respect or critical attention.
By the early 1990s Hollywood and the public alike finally came to embrace hip hop cin-
ema because it crossed traditional generic boundaries and reconfigured previously held
notions of cinematic convention. Due to the confluence of cable television, especially
MTV and BET, home video distribution, and increasingly inexpensive recording devices,
hip hop’s influence on popular culture surpassed any other subculture before it. Whereas
rock and roll made similar forays into mass media, including films such as the Beatles’ A
Hard Day’s Night, Elvis Presley’s films, and lesser-known works such as the Chubby
Checker “Twist” movies, the massive output of hip hop artists today saturates commercial
industries at a rate heretofore unheard of. Its influence on media includes but is not limited
to magazines, fashion, and film. Due to the ease of film production and distribution, B-level
documentaries and gangster dramas now sit on the shelf next to big-budget Academy Award
winning hip hop films at the local rental chain.
Hip hop film cannot be easily categorized. Whereas a film might feature a rapper acting
in a role (like Ice Cube in xXx: State of the Union (2005), for example), it may not neces-
sarily be considered a hip hop film. Likewise, a film with no identifiable hip hop artist may
be considered a member of the genre (such as the 1995 French film La Haine). Therefore
we must consider a number of criteria that holistically inhabit the film to make a judgment
about the generic conventions that constitute hip hop film.
The film may focus on one of the “elements” of hip hop (b-boying, graffiti, mc-ing, dj-ing)
as in Wild Style (1983), 8 Mile (2002), or Style Wars (1983). It may feature a diegetic or
nondiegetic hip hop soundtrack, an urban setting, or slang common to rap music to under-
score the hip hop aesthetic. Examples of films featuring these elements include Juice
(1992), Friday (1995), Menace II Society (1993), and Do the Right Thing (1985). The films
may also include an examination of contemporary race and the “ownership” of hip hop as
a cultural force, especially the appropriation of rap by politicians and corporate interests.
Films featuring this sort of ideological investigation include Bulworth (1998) and Malibu’s
Most Wanted (2003). Although the films often cross-pollinate with traditional Hollywood
genres, hip hop cinema’s distinctiveness calls for a consideration of it as a genre unto itself.
Three categories of film exist within the genre of hip hop cinema: the documentary, the
fiction film, and the biopic. Although a single category may contain characteristics of the
others, these categories serve as a schematic to differentiate aesthetic and narrative styles
within the genre. Each possesses a specific goal and ideology specific to its type and has a
unique place in the genre.
The documentary essentially examines one or more characteristics of hip hop. It may
include interviews with figures inside the culture or reactions from people outside. Often
the documentary offers insight into forgotten or overlooked areas within hip hop. This
may include the other elements not as financially lucrative as rapping (graffiti, b-boying,
62 CINEMA

and dj-ing) or the origins of hip hop. Ultimately, this film form preserves the past and
focuses upon authenticity and ontology of the genre.
Hip hop’s earliest films do not deal with the subculture per se, but feature environs and
people related to its genesis. Two films in particular are important in this pre–hip hop era.
The first is Flyin’ Cut Sleeves (1993). The title is a reference to the zig-zag pattern cut into
the sleeves worn by various Latin and Black gangs of 1970s New York City. This film,
culled from interviews in 1971 of gang members, was shot with a Super 8 camera by
teacher and gang organizer Manny Dominguez’s wife, Rita Fecher. Fecher and Henry
Chalfant later edited the home movies and released the final product as a documentary film
decades later (Chang 2005, 52–53). The film 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s features New York
City gangs as well. The film captures members of a community poised for a positive, cre-
ative change through the emerging artistic revolution of hip hop. People such as Afrika
Bambattaa, former Black Spades gang leader and founder of the Zulu Nation, went on to
become leaders in the burgeoning hip hop world. Due to the limited release of both films,
they are highly prized by collectors and difficult to find. As of 2007, DVD transfers for
either film are commercially unavailable and VHS copies remain out of print.
The first documentary featuring New York hip hop in its infancy is Don Letts’ The Clash
on Broadway (1981, 2002). The film follows UK punk band the Clash around New York
and features performances from their June 1981 shows at the Bonds Casino in Times
Square. In it, the band reveals a banner and t-shirts designed by legendary graffiti artist
Futura 2000. One section of the film documents the Clash viewing a group of kids rapping
and performing choreographed dance moves on the sidewalk for passersby. Another fea-
tures graffiti artists Futura, Haze, and Zephyr painting a mural. Various versions of this
film circulated between fans for years before it was commercially released in 2002 as a
special feature to the Clash documentary Westway to the World (2002).
Another imminently important documentary is Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant’s Style
Wars (1983). Initially released on public television, Style Wars attempts to document the
four elements of hip hop, but quickly takes graffiti artists as its main focus. According to
Jeff Chang, the film originally began as a short film about breakers, but due to the ensuing
popularity and increased travel of their subjects, The Rock Steady Crew (New York’s pre-
eminent b-boy crew), the focus of the film changed (2005, 161). Reacting to the increased
popularity and ubiquity of graffiti, Mayor Ed Koch and city officials began a war against
graffiti on subway cars. The drama between young artists and the existing hegemonic order
seemed a more exciting story to Silver. In mid-production, he altered the focus of the film
in order to cover the ongoing war between the new artistic expression and attempts to foil
the artists by those who saw the paintings as vandalism.
Today, the hip hop documentary finds itself divided. On one side the artistic and anthro-
pological trail blazed by hip hop’s early documentaries is rigorously followed. Directors
such as Kevin Fitzgerald (Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (2000)), Paul Kell (5 Sides of a Coin
(2004)), Doug Pray (Scratch (2001) and Scratch: All the Way Live (2005)), Lauren Lazin
(Tupac: Resurrection (2003)), and Nick Broomfield (Biggie and Tupac (2002)) continue to
document hip hop culture past and present. Their insightful and intelligent works garnered
awards from film festivals and raves from critics. To date, the most critically acclaimed and
widely distributed contemporary hip hop documentary is director Michel Gondry’s concert
film, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2005).
The other half of the hip hop documentary sunk to the level of shock and exploitation.
The makers of “hood videos” distribute them straight to video and often feature shaky
home-video clips of graphic violence, misogyny, and drug use. Although marketed in hip
 CINEMA 63

hop magazines and possessing hip hop musical underscoring, in actuality these videos
have little, if nothing, to do with hip hop as an artistic expression. Instead, they focus on
the most sensational and negative aspects of inner city life without acknowledging artists
and activists working for a positive change.
After the documentary, the biopic (biographical or semi-biographical film) appeared in
the genre to offer viewers an intimate, yet less rough and unscripted, look into the hip hop
subculture. This subgenre served as a bridge between the traditional documentary and the
classical Hollywood narrative within hip hop cinema and has become the most prosperous
of the three subgenres thanks to rappers acting in their own thinly veiled life stories. The
first example of the biopic in hip hop cinema is Charlie Ahearn’s graffiti film Wild Style
(1983). Almost documentary in its direction, the film features Zoro’s (graffiti artist Lee
Quinones) romantic trials with Rose (graffiti artist Lady Pink), as well as slice-of-life seg-
ments in Zoro’s day-to-day life. The film may be the best documentation of the entire early
hip hop scene, featuring performances by DJs and rappers including Grandmaster Flash,
The Cold Crush Brothers, Busy Bee, and Grand Mixer DXT, breakers the Rock Steady
Crew and Mister Wiggles, and graffiti artists Dondi White, Zephyr, Rammellzee, Fab Five
Freddy, as well as the lead actors. In addition it includes members of the downtown art
scene Patti Astor and Glenn O’Brien, both important figures in exposing hip hop artists to
a larger group of artists and musicians outside the Bronx.
Other biopics followed including Krush Groove (1985), a barely fictionalized story of
Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin’s partnership and founding of Def Jam Records. Many
Def Jam artists including the Beastie Boys, Run DMC (whose success merited their own
film Tougher than Leather (1988)), LL Cool Jay (currently acting in Hollywood films),
The Fat Boys (who starred in The Disorderlies (1987)) and Kurtis Blow. Although panned
by critics, Krush Groove became a cult classic and a document of hip hop’s ascension from
street art to legitimate money-making industry giant.
Following in the footsteps of Krush Groove, the popular 8 Mile (2002) and Get Rich or
Die Tryin’ (2005) portray the rise of rappers Rabbit (Marshall “Eminem” Mathers) and
Marcus (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), respectively. Despite the fictionalized names, the films
are thinly veiled biographies of each film’s lead actor. Each film also heralded a new pro-
gression in the production of hip hop film by featuring respected directors not associated
with the world of hip hop. 8 Mile was directed by Oscar winner Curtis Hanson; Get Rich
boasted the lauded Irish director Jim Sheridan. Although only 8 Mile was hailed by critics,
both films proved that hip hop was still a strong draw at the box office and a favorite genre
among cinephiles and hip hop fans alike.
As hip hop culture became more popular in the mid-1980s Hollywood began to pro-
duce films with hip hop themes. Although not uniformly the case, many of these films
exploited hip hop as a fad to cash in on before moving to the next big thing. The first clas-
sical Hollywood narrative released was the Harry Belafonte produced, Stan Lathan
directed Beat Street (1984). Easily the best of the early films and an earnest attempt to
expose hip hop’s artistry to a larger audience, Beat Street features a who’s who of early
hip hop pioneers, including Afrika Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay, and Doug E. Fresh (Chang
2005, 192). The film, probably based on Style Wars, follows a young graffiti artist, Ramon
(Jon Chardiet), attempting to “get up” on a newly painted subway car while battling rival
tagger “Spit” and Kenny (Guy Davis), a young DJ working to perfect his turntable craft
while navigating the “serious” world of music and dance. In an attempt to cash in on the
success of Beat Street, Hollywood producers flooded cinemas with similar films, most
with little success.
64 CINEMA

The most important and influential films released in the wake of the initial flood of
classical Hollywood narrative hip hop films is Breakin’ (1984) and Breakin’ 2: Electric
Boogaloo (1984). Despite possessing none of the gritty realism and lacking the all-star hip
hop cast of Beat Street (save for a young pre-gangsta rap Ice-T rapping in a club over an
electro beat), the two Breakin’ films asserted a life for hip hop outside the boroughs of
New York City. Unlike Beat Street the Breakin’ films focus solely on the phenomenon of
b-boying, known after the films as “break dancing” (a term still derided by b-boys).
Whereas the first of the series possesses a watchable story about Ozone (Adolfo Quinones)
and Turbo’s (Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers) frustration with the upper class world
of dance, its sequel Electric Boogaloo is painful to watch. Any semblance of the “authentic-
ity” of hip hop and actual b-boying is shunned in the sequel for a syrupy Mickey
Rooney/Judy Garland style melodrama and choreographed Broadway musical dance moves.
After the initial wave of exploitative films, artists in the industry and hip hop aficiona-
dos began making their own narrative films. Films such as Disorderlies (1987), Who’s the
Man? (1993), CB4 (1993), and Friday (1995) focused on the lighter side of hip hop. Kid
and Play’s House Party (1990) and the series of films following it, although largely writ-
ten off during the gangsta era as too “soft,” proved to be one of hip hop film’s most suc-
cessful franchises and enjoyed a large distribution and strong box office receipts.
Furthermore, director Reginald Hudlin won both the Cinematography Award and the Film-
maker’s Trophy and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival
for his work on the film. Despite the auspicious beginning, the two sequels failed to live
up to the high standards set by Hudlin. Strangely enough, however, the popularity of the
three R-rated films spawned a short-lived Saturday morning children’s cartoon series.
Dramas such as Do the Right Thing (1989), Juice (1992), New Jack City (1991), Menace II
Society (1993), and Boyz N The Hood (1991) injected gravitas into the genre and helped set
the tone for hip hop overall in the 1990s. These films possess, at times, a documentary feel
reminiscent of the early hip hop films. The films also feature rappers as more serious, dra-
matic actors. In just a few years these films proved that rappers Ice Cube, Ice T, and Tupac
Shakur were not only among the best MCs in their field but also first-class actors able to
hold their own with seasoned professionals. The films also introduced powerful new direc-
torial talent to cinema. Spike Lee garnered multiple nominations for Golden Globes,
Oscars, and the Palm D’or at the Cannes Film Festival for Do the Right Thing. In 1991
John Singleton garnered nominations for Academy Awards in directing and best screen-
play for Boyz N The Hood, as well as won the Best New Director award from the New York
Film Critics Circle. For their work on Menace II Society, twin brothers Albert and Allen
Hughes were nominated for the Best First Feature Independent Spirit Award.
Once a commercial for an artist’s album, the music video now acts as a calling card for
young filmmakers looking to break into the Hollywood system. The two most successful
directors to make this transition were F. Gary Gray and Hype Williams. Gray began his
career directing videos for artists Outkast, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. His first feature-length
film Friday (1995) became a cult classic and helped launch the acting careers of Ice Cube
and Chris Tucker. Gray currently works on big-budget mainstream films and directed the
box office hits The Negotiator (1998), The Italian Job (2003), and Be Cool (2005). Hype
Williams may be the most prolific music video director in the art form’s history, directing
upwards of 100 videos since 1992. His signature style of bold colors and experimental cam-
era techniques (as well as his nom de plume) stem from his youthful experiences as a graf-
fiti artist. Videos such as Missy Elliot’s “The Rain,” Tupac Shakur’s “California Love,” and
Busta Rhymes “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” changed the way videos were
 COBB, WILLIAM JELANI 65

made and what was expected from their creator. In Williams’s hands videos became a work
of postmodern art, borrowing from Hollywood for ideas while simultaneously influencing
how Hollywood makes films. His feature film, Belly (1998), features rappers Nas, DMX,
and Method Man. Despite only having one feature film released to date, his videos and com-
mercials all possess a cinematic quality lacking in most of the fare on television.
Unlike their country and rock counterparts, rappers turned actors often make very suc-
cessful transitions to cinema. Chris “Ludacris” Bridges’ roles in two academy award win-
ning films established him as the most distinguished rapper turned actor in an increasingly
crowded field. He played a car thief in search of redemption in Crash (2004) and a sleazy
rapper in Hustle and Flow (2006). O’Shea “IceCube” Jackson’s films are easily the most
successful of any rapper turned actor. In addition to his successes with the series of Friday
and Barber Shop films, he found fertile ground as an action star in Three Kings (1999), All
About the Benjamins (2002), and xXx: State of the Union (2005) as well as starring in the
lucrative family films Are We There Yet? (2005) and Are We Done Yet? (2007). Before his
untimely death in 1996, Tupac Shakur had already received critical acclaim for his roles in
Juice, Poetic Justice (1993), Above the Rim (1994), and Gridlock’d (1997).
Now an established genre, hip hop films play at festivals internationally and boast critically
acclaimed and financially successful works throughout the world. Recently foreign films have
adopted hip hop, cementing its global importance as an artistic movement. Likely the first for-
eign hip hop film is the French La Haine (1995), which tells the story of three young men in
the suburban ghettos outside Paris. The late Dutch filmmaker Theo VanGogh released a hip
hop film documenting the Dutch underclass, Cool!, in 2004. Documentaries focusing on
Spanish-speaking countries’ embrace of hip hop appear in the critically lauded East of Havana
(2006) and Favela Rising (2005). Despite the assertion by rapper Nas in 2007 that “hip hop is
dead,” it is alive and kicking in the cinemas and video stores around the world.

See also Breakin’; Krush Groove; Style Wars

FURTHER READING
Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 2005.
———, ed. Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2006.
Forman, Murray, and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New
York: Routledge, 2004.
Watkins, S. Craig. Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema. Chicago,
IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Shane Gilley

COBB, WILLIAM JELANI (1969–). Author of several books on black culture,

including the hip hop anthology To the Break of Dawn and The Devil and Dave Chappelle:
And Other Essays.
Does hip hop make people more violent, more sexist, or more materialistic? Is hip hop
a destructive, rage-infused force, or is it, like the rock and roll that came before it, one of
the most satisfying—and ultimately—safest forms of rebellion?
66 COBB, WILLIAM JELANI

To the Break of Dawn, Dr. William Jelani Cobb’s insightful hip hop anthology, does not
answer the previous questions, nor does it attempt to. Instead, Dr. Cobb points out—in
breathless, joyful detail—the elements that make hip hop an important literary and musical
art form.
Born in 1969, Cobb is part of the “hip hop generation,” and indeed, in To the Break of
Dawn’s introduction, Cobb lovingly discusses how greatly hip hop influenced his life
(Cobb himself rapped and he was acquainted with legendary rapper LL Cool J) and the
myriad ways that MCs differ from rappers.

The rapper is judged by his ability to move units; the measure of the MC is the ability to move
crowds. The MC gets down to his task with only the barest elements of hip hop instrumental-
ization: two turntables and a microphone . . . The MC writes his own material. The MC would
still be writing his own material even if he didn’t have a record deal. A rapper without a record
deal is a commercial without a time slot. (2007, 9)

Cobb’s deep-rooted appreciation for hip hop’s lyrics—and for those persons who write
their “own material”—is perhaps the most wondrous aspect of the anthology. Lyrics are
hip hop’s heart and soul, yet today, surprisingly few discussions analyze hip hop’s merits
as literature. However, from the first page, Cobb does just that; he employs a variety of
techniques that establish the idea that hip hop is both poetry (he compares hip hop to the
work of Gwendolyn Brooks and The Last Poets) and prose (he cites novelists such as
Ralph Ellison and Donald Goines).
Cobb’s opening chapters delve into the idea that many black writers—whether their
medium is poetry, the novel, or hip hop—share the same obsessions. Cobb argues that
writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin admired the black preacher and
allowed the language of the black preacher to shape and define their art. Furthermore,
Cobb sees in the call-and-response and sermonlike styles of many modern rappers that
same kind of reverence for spirituality and the black preacher figure. Cobb goes on to dis-
cuss how, traditionally, black writers have favored the autobiography as a literary form that
asserts their humanity (“if one has a story, then they must, in fact, exist”), that bears wit-
ness to their pain (2007, 128). Ultimately, Cobb believes that many rappers owe much to
Alex Haley’s Autobiography of Malcolm X in their celebration of that near-mythical indi-
vidual who is both “hustler” and “wise man.”
If Cobb concentrates less on political and social movements that grew out of hip hop, as
a historian, he does offer a detailed assessment of the ways in which hip hop has been
influenced by earlier musical genres, such as the blues and jazz. Cobb argues that free-style
is similar to jazz improvisation, and that hip hop’s frank discussion of sexuality can be tied
to the blues. Also, Cobb compares flow (the speed and rhythm rappers use to deliver their
lyrics) to jazz’s swing and demonstrates how hip hop transformed and re-invigorated R&B
(Cobb cites Jody Watley’s Friends as an example).
Finally, in one of the most exciting chapters of the book, Cobb explores seven individ-
ual rappers the way that a professor might discuss novelists in an upper-level college sem-
inar. Cobb’s “Seven MCs”—Rakim, Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, Big Pun, Common, Eminem, and
the Notorious BIG—are case studies in hip hop’s Afrocentric intellectualism, nihilism, and
race and gender politics.
In contrast to Til the Break of Dawn, Cobb’s collection The Devil and Dave Chappelle:
And Other Essays offers intensive social commentary. Here, Cobb concentrates on sev-
eral issues that directly affect hip hop, including hip hop’s incessant misogyny and
 THE COLDEST WINTER EVER 67

commercialization (“The Hoodrat Theory,” “Pimping Three 6 Mafia”). He also discusses

topics that, indirectly, have affected hip hop culture: Hurricane Katrina, The Million Man
March and, of course, Dave Chapelle.

FURTHER READING
Cobb, William Jelani. To the Break of Dawn. New York: New York University Press, 2007.
———. The Devil and Dave Chappelle: And Other Essays. New York: Avalon, 2007.

Rochelle Spencer

THE COLDEST WINTER EVER (1999). Sister Souljah’s novel The Coldest
Winter Ever is credited with igniting the explosion of urban fiction that sent shock waves
through the publishing industry in the late 1990s.
Although Souljah’s debut as a novelist is heralded by many as the birth of a new liter-
ary genre, it is often overlooked that the novel sparked the renaissance of a literary genre
that made its appearance in the publishing market as early as the 1960s and 1970s. Pub-
lished in 1999, The Coldest Winter Ever joined the tradition of urban fiction texts, such as
Robert Beck’s (born Robert Lee Maupin) a.k.a. Iceberg Slim’s Pimp: The Story of My Life
(1967), Trick Baby (1967), Donald Goines’s Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp
(1972), and Chester Himes’s Blind Man with a Pistol (1989). Noted for its depiction of the
urban experience, urban fiction is primarily produced by writers who use their own first-
hand accounts of ghetto life to create thrilling tales of sex, drugs, prostitution, prison time,
and violence. Traditionally told through the voice of the black male anti-hero, these cau-
tionary tales focus on the black male’s struggle with the dominant power structure, crime,
and the implications of gang life. As the foremother of twenty-first century urban fiction,
Souljah sets her cautionary tale apart from its predecessors by offering a cautionary
coming-of-age story told from the black female perspective.
Explicit in its representation of urban tragedy, the novel’s raw urban realism forces read-
ers to critically analyze the impact of violence, sex, and drugs on young African American
women within the confines of the ghetto. Set in Brooklyn, New York, The Coldest Winter
Ever tells the story of a street savvy teenaged girl named Winter Santiaga, whose jaded
sense of respect and power complicates her ability to “survive” in the real world. Born to
Ricky Santiaga and his wife, Winter enters the world during one of the worst snowstorms
in New York’s history. As the daughter of a successful drug lord, Winter is well-
accustomed to being showered with name brand items that are unattainable luxuries for
many who live in their Brooklyn ghetto. By age sixteen Winter develops a strong disdain
for the poverty that surrounds her and is determined to subvert it at all costs. A staunch
ghetto princess, Winter is aware of poverty’s impact on the black community but fails to
realize that materialism and “catch me if you can” street smarts will ultimately lead to her
own destruction. Vowing never to fall from the prestige of fine designer clothing and pref-
erential treatment, Winter receives an abrupt reality check when her father’s reign as a top-
notch drug dealer is ended and she is forced to adjust to life without her father’s protection.
After Winter’s father relocates the family to an upscale Long Island community his
unquestioned power eventually comes to an end. Shortly after the Santiagas’ move to Long
Island the father is sent to prison and the mother is shot with a bullet meant for her hus-
band. Winter’s distress is heightened when all of her family’s possessions are seized by the
government, and her younger sisters, Mercedes, Lexus, and Porche, are placed in foster
68 THE COLDEST WINTER EVER

homes. The once self-assured daughter of a prominent drug dealer is shaken by the
challenge to survive in an affluent neighborhood where her father is not feared by others.
For the first time in her life Winter understands that her father’s influence has little signif-
icance outside of Brooklyn and that he is no match for their conservative Long Island
neighbors. Winter’s attempt to navigate her way through shifting power relations and her
new role as the family’s protector reveals that she is ill prepared to deal effectively with
life and the law. Staying true to her father’s example, Winter continues down the road of
self-destruction when she sets out to redeem him. Winter’s downward spiral is complete
when she is sentenced to fifteen years in prison for transporting drugs in her boyfriend’s
vehicle. The reality that brings Winter’s journey full circle is the realization that her
younger sister, Porche, is traveling down the same treacherous path. Unwilling to express
disapproval of Porche’s choices, Winter simply excuses herself from any advisory role,
leaving her sister’s outcome to the streets.
Read in its entirety, the novel’s primary goal of illustrating ghetto culture in Brooklyn,
New York, is achieved. Moreover, Souljah’s vivid tale of a young black woman’s struggle
to survive resonates with readers as a warning against the glorification of street life.
Although filled with a series of tragic events, The Coldest Winter Ever intertwines urban
realism with moral uplift in an effort to present the possibility of redemption to young
audiences. Souljah incorporates herself into the novel as a character who reaches out to
young black women encouraging them to make healthier life choices. Winter’s initial
rejection of Souljah’s message is reactionary, but after a series of life-altering events she
reflects on the importance of those shared words of wisdom.
With the significance of Souljah’s novel in continual debate, it is unmistakably clear that
The Coldest Winter Ever is regarded as a classic text among both writers and publishers in
the urban fiction market. As a seminal text of second wave urban fiction, the novel appeals
to a target audience that was viewed as a dead market by the American publishing indus-
try until the late 1990s. Souljah acknowledges the contestation over her novel and others
like it when urban fiction is compared to more highly regarded texts in the African
American literary tradition. As the author, Souljah remains adamant about the novel’s
importance, stating “I wanted to challenge young women to step back and take a long look
at how we treat each other. I believe that most of us treat women the way we’ve been taught
to treat one another. These women’s issues are the central theme of my book because I
believe there needs to be a radical transformation or a huge change in women and the way
we think, act and plan.” Less than ten years after the novel’s publication, the high demand
for this urban fiction classic speaks to the legitimacy of Souljah’s vision. In 2004 the
novel’s status as “classic” was reinforced when Atria Books re-released The Coldest
Winter Ever in a Special Collectors Edition featuring Souljah’s comments regarding the
novel’s development. Regardless of the ongoing conversation over the legitimacy of urban
fiction novels such as Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever, Teri Woods’s True to the Game
(1999), and Omar Tyree’s Flyy Girl (1993), the potential of this genre has surpassed the
expectations of countless writers, publishers, and vendors in the publishing industry.
Since the publication of Souljah’s first novel, the urban fiction genre has experi-
enced considerable expansion within major publishing houses. Urban fiction novels
that have emerged since the publication of the three 1999 classics include Shannon
Holmes’s B-More Careful (2001), K’wan Foye’s Gansta: An Urban Tragedy (2002),
Solomon Jones’s The Bridge (2003), C. Rene West’s Caught in the Struggle (2004), and
Relentless Aaron’s The Last Kingpin (2004). In addition to creating the momentum that
pushed the urban fiction renaissance, Souljah’s novel has inspired a series of women writers
 COLLEGE COURSES IN HIP HOP LITERATURE (1998–2007) 69

who are trailblazers in the corporatization of the role African Americans play in the urban
fiction publishing market. As the urban fiction genre began to evolve, some women writers
became concerned that major publishers were only semi-informed about the genre’s target
audiences, therefore making it quite difficult for up-and-coming writers. Experiencing rejec-
tion from major publishers in the industry led second wave urban fiction writers to own their
own publishing companies, thus claiming a larger stake of the corporate side of the industry.
Popular writers such as Vickie M. Stringer, Nikki Turner, and Teri Woods helped to
change the face of the urban fiction publishing industry. Having studied the publishing
market carefully and possessing a strong understanding of their target audiences, these
African American women writers-turned-publishers have taken the publishing industry by
storm. Stringer, one of the first women writers of hip hop fiction to pursue self-publication,
founded Triple Crown Publications when she self-published her first novel Let That Be The
Reason in 2001. Inspired by the writer Teri Woods, who entered the publishing arena when
she self-published True to the Game, Stringer went on to assist in building the writing
careers of other urban fiction writers, such as Nikki Turner. Turner’s writing career soared
while publishing under Triple Crown Publications with the release of A Hustler’s Wife
(2003) and A Project Chick (2003).
As a result of her success with Triple Crown Publications, Turner has since branched out
to obtain her own book deal with One World/Ballantine. After signing a lucrative two-book
deal with One World/Ballantine in 2004, Turner penned The Glamorous Life (2005) and
Riding Dirty on I-95 (2006). In addition to acquiring a publishing contract with One
World/Ballantine called Nikki Turner Presents, Turner has joined the ranks of authors such
as Zane and Carl Weber as African American writers who have signed on to have their
book series marketed by a major publishing house.

See also No Disrespect

FURTHER READING
Davis, Anthony C. “The New Sons of Iceberg Slim-Syndicated Media Group.” Black Issues Book
Review, Vol. 3 Issue 5 (2001): 56–57.
Lawrence, Arin M. “After a Season: The Book Credited with Igniting the Urban Genre, Sister
Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever, Is Back in a Collector’s Edition.” Black Issues Book Review,
Vol. 7 Issue 2 (2005): 46.
Osborne, Gwendolyn. “The Legacy of Ghetto Pulp Fiction.” Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 3 Issue 5
(2001): 50–52.
Young, Earni. “Urban Lit Goes Legit.” Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 8 Issue 5 (2006): 20–23.

Chaunda A. McDavis

COLLEGE COURSES IN HIP HOP LITERATURE (1998–2007).

Courses that focus on, evaluate, critique, and study hip hop culture, its literature and language,
which includes rap lyrics, journalism (The Source, XXL, Vibe, and other magazines),
dance, and rap artists, such as Tupac Shakur, Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls), and
Lil’ Kim.
Despite Heather Mac Donald’s 1998 article, “An F for Hip Hop 101,” featured in
New York’s City Journal, which argues that a course in hip hop culture taught by Edgar
Miranda at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice was “as needed as Viagra” and that
70 COLLEGE COURSES IN HIP HOP LITERATURE (1998–2007)

such courses are nothing more than “progressive idiocy,” hip hop is not only recognized as
a legitimate musical genre and intellectual discourse, it is also being widely taught at
colleges and universities around the globe.
Although the fanfare appears to be reserved for Ivy League professors, such as Michael
Eric Dyson, who recently left the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) to join the faculty
of Georgetown University; Anthony Ratcliff, who left Mount Holyoke for the University
of Massachusetts-Amherst; and the tag team of Timothy McCarthy and John Stauffer, who
teach at Harvard University, professors at state and community colleges are teaching sim-
ilar courses without the same level of recognition or the same amount of political pressure
from university curriculum committees.
The movement to make hip hop and rap music inclusive in English, Sociology, Political
Science, and Music courses may have been encouraged by publishers, who do not appear
to have agreed with Mac Donald and began to canonize rap lyrics. More specifically, in the
same year that Mac Donald disparaged hip hop curriculum, publisher Houghton Mifflin
released Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary
Tradition, which contains in its pages a wide range of texts, including lyrics by Public
Enemy. Primarily used as an undergraduate African American literature textbook, Call and
Response not only encouraged the inclusion of rap lyrics into the African American liter-
ary canon but also contributed to changing the perceived condition of hip hop culture from
one that was marginalized, and therefore, abject, to one of normalcy, albeit within the
“African American literary tradition,” a new condition that is open to debate because rap
music is produced across the globe within cultures that are often thought to have no con-
nection to the black experience in America. However, the text received widespread support
from students, faculty, and authors alike, and in the decade since its original publication,
Call and Response has come to be known as an affirmation of the relevance of hip hop in
a variety of courses ranging from American Popular Culture, American Literature, and
African American Literature, to Sociology, Composition, American History, and Music
History and Theory.
Hip hop courses are not only relevant but they are also becoming specialized. For
example, in the Fall 2007 semester, the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign’s
Latina/Latino Studies offered LLS 435, a 3–4 credit course that cross-listed with Africana
Studies and Gender/Women’s studies. Titled “Commodifying Difference,” the course’s
approach is described as “An interdisciplinary examination of how racial, ethnic and gen-
der difference is negotiated through media and popular culture, and how racial, ethnic and
gendered communities use cultural forms to express identity and difference” (University
of Illinois 2007). During the same semester at the Eissey location of Palm Beach Com-
munity College, three sections of English (ENC1101) were taught using hip hop culture
and conscious rap lyrics to discuss “resolutions (or revolutions) addressing America’s
social problems . . . [by] examining identity through historical, literary, and vernacular
lenses . . . further develop [students’] reading, writing and composition skills through self-
reflexivity and their (re)evaluation of identity” (Blaque.com 2007). In the Spring of 2008,
George Mason University offered an Art and Visual Technology course (2007, 372) on hip
hop described as one that “[s]urveys and assesses varieties of artistic expression emerging
from hip hop” while taking a “comprehensive look at the multilayered social, political, and
aesthetic aspects of hip hop” (George Mason 2007).
The variety of courses offered in multiple disciplines emphasizes the point that hip hop
culture is a discourse with which educators must reconcile in their understanding of the
elements that make up the culture, namely, rap music, specific style of dance, such as
 COLLEGE COURSES IN HIP HOP LITERATURE (1998–2007) 71

krumping and breaking, and visual art forms, such as graffiti. Although teaching hip hop
as a legitimate course across the university and college curricula has, since the 1980s, suf-
fered heavy criticism from both the academic and secular communities, some of the
schools that once embraced the courses have only done so as long as the professors and
graduate students facilitating the courses remained. Because the courses were not added to
the permanent curriculum, once those instructors moved on to other colleges, course offer-
ings in hip hop were allowed to lapse, or simply disappeared altogether.
For example, Eric Dyson was hired as an Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humani-
ties at UPenn from DePaul University in Chicago in the fall of 2002. Eric Dyson is known
for hip hop vernacular in his speech and rhetorical instruction. He described one of his
courses, Religious Studies 113, as one that would “look at Tupac Shakur as a cultural fig-
ure of enormous importance and to probe the ethical, moral, social, and political conse-
quences—and especially the religious dimensions—of his thought” (Frith 2007). In the
few short years that Eric Dyson taught at UPenn his continued inclusion of hip hop was
disdained by students and scholars alike. He is now at Georgetown University, and
UPenn’s RELS113 remains listed, but without a course description.
However, historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) have committed to offer-
ing hip hop courses to their students, not only as special topics offered intermittently but
also as permanent fixtures in the curriculum. For example, in 2006 A&T State University
added its first hip hop course, although it was not listed in the course catalog (Capers
2005). Internet, or hard copy, for the 2007–2008 academic year, the university added two
courses on hip hop to the school’s permanent hard copy course catalog. There Professor
Bryan Turman offers courses titled “Hip Hop Discourse” (ENGL316) and “History, Liter-
acy, Connections, and Social Relevance of Hip Hop” (ENGL209), both of which are taught
as writing intensive courses to a student body clamoring for entrance into his always-filled-
quickly classes. Howard University offers an Afro-American Studies (2007, 121) course
on hip hop as a special topics class, but they have also made a commitment to create and
permanently add such courses to their curriculum, a result of the 2006 Graduate School
Hip Hop and Higher Education Symposium, an effort geared “to offer a body of courses
and a minor in hip-hop from multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives including an analy-
sis of problems and solutions among youth” (Howard University 2007).
Hip hop culture has always been relevant to the African American community and is
rooted in African culture and music and the black response to American oppression.
Although it took thirty years of commercializing the culture to for the culture to be granted
permission to cross the collegiate threshold, rap music, rappers, and rap music fans, as well
as breakers, krumpers, and hip hop scholars have been educated at most universities and
colleges because of the widespread popularity of hip hop. In the 1980s, hip hop culture was
on the margins of American society and its institutions of higher learning. However, as hip
hoppers have acquired education, many question why hip hop struggles to be legitimized
as an intellectual discourse, and it is that group of scholars, many now in their mid-forties,
that are doing something to change not only the way hip hop is treated by society at large
but also the relevance it has on the college campus. African Americans who are professors
of sociology, history, and most especially African American Studies and English courses
appear to be determined to change the tides as they sit on curriculum committees, hiring
committees, and education boards. As students become aware of the results of the profes-
sors’ efforts to make the college curriculum inclusive of hip hop and all that the culture
entails, specifically, with course offerings in hip hop that are consistently available and
advertised to the student body, they are filling up classes quickly, attending such courses
72 COLLINS, PATRICIA HILL

regularly, and learning “more about history in a hip hop class than in all the American
history classes [taken] in high school.” Thus, rap music, graffiti artwork, and hip hop danc-
ing have become a part of the American cultural fabric and, as such, are also becoming an
integral part of American college life and learning.

FURTHER READING
Blaque.com. 12 July 2007. <http://www.ellesiablaque.com/enc1102-f2007.html>
Capers, Josh. “New Class Will Examine Music’s History and Influence.” The A&T Register, 30 Nov.
2005. <http://media.www.ncatregister.com/media/storage/paper277/news/2005/11/30/News/
Hip-Hop101-2649379.html>.
Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 2005.
Forman, Murray, and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New
York: Routledge, 2004.
Frith, Susan. “Make it Plain!” The Pennsylvania Gazette, March/April 2003.
George Mason University. 12 July 2007. <http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0303/frith.html>.
George, Nelson. Hip Hop America. New York: Viking, 1998.
Hill, Patricia Liggins, and Patricia Hill Collins, eds. Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of
the African American Literary Tradition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Hine, Darlene Clark, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. The African-American Odyssey. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Houston, Baker. Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press,
1995.
Howard University. 12 July 2007. <http://www.gs.howard.edu/hiphop/overview.htm.>.
Jones, Leroi. (Amiri Baraka). Black Music. 1st Ed. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998.
McKay, Nellie, and Henry Louis Gates. The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature. New
York: W.W. Norton, 2003.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH:
Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
University of Illinois. 12 July 2007. <http://courses.uiuc.edu/cis/catalog/urbana/2007/Fall/
LLS/435.html>.
Watkins, S. Craig. Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Move-
ment. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2006.

Ellesia A. Blaque

COLLINS, PATRICIA HILL (1948–). Leading social theorist whose critical

development of a Black feminist standpoint intersecting race, class, gender, and nation
revolutionized understandings of Black women’s intellectual traditions.
Wilson Elkins Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland and Charles Phelps
Taft Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati, Patricia
Hill Collins is a renowned social theorist with six books and over sixty articles, essays,
book and film reviews, and print media to her credit. Collins earned a B.A. and Ph.D. in
Sociology from Brandeis University in 1969 and 1984, respectively and an M.A.T. in
Social Science Education from Harvard University in 1970. In 1993 she received the pres-
tigious American Sociological Association’s Jessie Bernard Award for distinguished schol-
arship on gender.
Collins first gained national prominence for her 1990 book Black Feminist Thought:
Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, which was reprised in 2000.
 COLLINS, PATRICIA HILL 73

Noting the economic, political, and ideological systems that historically oppressed and
currently suppress U.S. black women, Collins theorizes a black feminist standpoint. She
argues that black women have their own self-defined intellectual tradition stemming from
an outsider-within positionality. Black women’s oppression has included exploitation in
the U.S. labor market, exclusion from political processes, and normalization of racist and
sexist ideologies through popular culture and media images. Black feminist thought as a
critical social theory aims to empower U.S. black women and others similarly oppressed
by identifying and resisting the power structures that constrain them, as well as illuminat-
ing black women’s intellectual traditions.
Collins’ most recent publication From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism,
and Feminism traces intersecting patterns of racism, nationalism, and feminism from the
end of the Black Power movement to the rise of hip hop. Through her critique of race,
nation, and gender, Collins theorizes the intersectionality of systems of power across pub-
lic policy and social changes. The overt racism of the segregation era, Collins purports, has
been replaced by a new racism that is colorblind and equally as oppressive.
The enduring legacy of racism has particular relevance for African Americans, espe-
cially Black youth of the Hip Hop Generation born between 1965 and 1984. These youth
grew up during the public policy changes that ushered in a shift from color-conscious
racism enforced by rigid segregation to colorblind racism maintained by promised but
unrealized opportunities for social mobility. As a result, black youth of the Hip Hop Gen-
eration have benefited from the Civil Rights Movement, union movements, Black
Nationalist-influenced social movements, the women’s movement, and sexual liberation
movements but as a group have been denied equal and adequate social, political and eco-
nomic agency. Therefore, although these youth share core American values, such as indi-
vidualism, freedom of expression, and material wealth, they live the harsh realities of high
unemployment rates, disproportionate incarceration rates, unsatisfactory schools and low
educational achievement, substandard living, drug infested neighborhoods, and broken
family structures—social inequalities that result not only from individual actions but also
from group-based racial discrimination. Collins asks how a critical social theory intersect-
ing race, gender, and nation can help African Americans, including Black youth of the Hip
Hop Generation, respond effectively to the new colorblind racism.
In the first section of From Black Power to Hip Hop, Collins explores the relationship
between peoples’ ideologies of American national identity and citizenship and a family
rhetoric embodied by the new racism and discriminatory nation-state policies that position
African American working class women as “unfit” mothers. The second section analyzes
Black solidarity, a core theme of Black Nationalist politics, in light of its contradictory
intersections with race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. The final section examines
contrary perspectives of black women’s political activism, offers global feminism as a new
framework for understanding black women’s community engagement, and concludes with
a critique of feminist politics among African American women of the Hip Hop Generation.

See also Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism

FURTHER READING
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of
Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000.
———. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. New York:
Routledge, 2004.
74 COMICS

———. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. Minneapolis: University of Min-
nesota Press, 1998.
Collins, Patricia Hill, and Margaret Andersen, eds. Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology, 6th edition.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2007.
The University of Maryland. Department of Sociology. Patricia Hill Collins. Curriculum Vitae. 3 Jan.
2008. <http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/People/Faculty/CV%2B%2B/pcollins_CV.pdf>.

Zandra L. Jordan

COMICS. Comics are images and narratives presented in a sequential format. They
are most recognizably manifested as comic strips and comic books.
Although there are many genres of comic strips and comic books, the hip hop phi-
losophy of love, peace, unity, and having fun safely enters the public sphere through
political strips and superhero books. Political comic strips comment on the political,
social, and/or cultural issues in a society. However, some strips are more specific than
others in their social/cultural commentary. For example, DILBERT and CATHY com-
ment on organizational life and single womanhood, whereas DOONESBURY and
PEANUTS comment on broader social concerns. Comic strips differ from comic books
in that strips make better use of humor and satire in their plot lines than comic books.
Comic books, on the other hand, comment on social and cultural issues through their
superhero archetypes.
Since the late 1950s, the comic book industry has been associated with the rise and evo-
lution of the superhero genre. It was during this time that comic book pulp fiction was
replaced with the heroic exploits of super powered men and women in masks and brightly
colored spandex uniforms. DC Comics led the way with superhero icons such as Batman,
Superman, and Wonder Woman until Marvel Comics emerged with its version of super
humans such as the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spiderman. Milestone Comics, a black
owned, comic book publishing company inspired by the spirit of street “entrepreneurial-
ism,” followed suit by creating black superheros such as Hardware and Icon.
Literary critics view comics in terms of what they do to audiences, however, communi-
cation scholars, like McLuhan, view these texts in terms of what people do with comics.
From the latter point of view, comics rhetorically create a discursive environment in which
some messages grow and flourish and other messages wither and die. Thus, hip hop comics
use the conventions of political strips and superhero books to promote positive action and
challenge mainstream perceptions of and assumptions about race, gender, class, and inner
city “family values.” In the end, audiences do not just read hip hop comic strips and books,
audiences use them to help make sense out of their world.
THE BOONDOCKS is an example of a political strip that puts hip hop and street knowl-
edge in the public sphere. The strip is about the adventures of two African American kids
from inner city Chicago adjusting to life with their grandfather in a predominantly white
suburb. The central characters are Huey, Riley, and Robert “Granddad” Freeman. Huey is
an intelligent and informed ten-year-old radical—a real hip hop “teacha.” Riley, on the
other hand, is an eight year old hustler—a true believer in the thug life. The tension
between the brothers and their interactions with their new environment provide a humor-
ous context for discussions about political and societal hypocrisy, censorship, United
States foreign and domestic policy, and media lunacy. The Raleigh, North Carolina, News
& Observer defends the satirical feature in the following way, “Granted, this humor is
 CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN 75

sometimes lost on those of us who aren’t African American or plugged into the hip hop
culture. But it doesn’t hurt us, and I would suggest that there is consciousness-raising value
if we pay close enough attention.” (Vaden 2005).
The strip’s “in your face” approach forces readers to think, pick a side, and defend a
world view. Sometimes its method of critique results in the strip being canceled for a
period of time or dropped from a newspaper’s comics page altogether. For example, the
News & Observer received complaints when the “Black Santa/Uncle Ruckus” storyline
appeared even though it gave audiences an opportunity to talk openly about uncomfort-
able ideas regarding American culture and stereotypes about African Americans. THE
BOONDOCKS raises questions such as, is natural, black hair beautiful? Does all infor-
mation worth knowing appear in a textbook? Do young people sufficiently value the
home-spun wisdom of their elders? Right or wrong, the purpose of a hip hop comic strip
is to provide audiences with an alternative, sometimes controversial, approach to inter-
preting their world.
STATIC is an example of a superhero book for the hip hop masses. The book is about a
fifteen-year-old African American kid named Virgil Hawkins who lives in a poor, crime-
infested, fictional town called Dakota City. His world consisted of eating junk food, think-
ing about sex, avoiding gang violence, and trying not to get beaten up at school everyday.
As a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Virgil was exposed to a deadly
radioactive gas thereby granting him command of the electromagnetic spectrum. As the
superhero Static, he battles super villains such as Joyride, Holocaust, and Virus, but he
does so with a flintiness that is upbeat and positive.
Virgil is not the stereotypic, angry black superhero, nor is he like the rich white vigi-
lantes determined to right a wrong. Static also confronts social issues such as gun violence
in schools, gay bashing, and drug dealing, but it rarely deters his optimism. Hip hop audi-
ences do not see Static as a victim of his circumstances because his world as Virgil has
remained the same; they see him as an inner city kid trying to do the right thing despite
difficult circumstances.

FURTHER READING
McDuffie, Dwayne, Robert L. Washington, John Paul Leon, and Shawn Martinbrough. Static Shock:
Trial by Fire. New York: DC Comics, 2000.
McGruder, Aaron. Public Enemy, Volume 2. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2005.
McLuhan, Marshall. “From The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man.” Arguing Comics:
Literary Masters on a Popular Medium. Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester, eds. Jackson, MS:
University Press of Mississippi, 2004, 102–106.
Vaden, Ted. “Hip-hop Comic Strip Shakes Up Readers.” The News and Observer. <http://www.news
observer.com/opinion/vaden/story/214747.html>.

Anita K. McDaniel

CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN (2005). The memoir of former video

dancer Karrine Steffans.
Considered the first major hip hop confessional, Confessions debuted at number seven
on the New York Times best seller list and remained on the list for twenty-two weeks after
peaking at number five. As a result of the book’s popularity, Warner/Hachette signed
Steffans to a lucrative two-book publishing contract.
76 CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN

Dubbed as part tell-all, part cautionary tale, Confessions of a Video Vixen recounts the
first twenty-five years of Steffans’s life, which include humble beginnings on the twenty-
eight-square-mile island of St. Thomas, a rise to the top as a video girl, a near drug overdose,
and redemption.
In the book’s introduction, Steffans explains that it is a warning to young women who
are trying to get into the music game. As Steffans recounts her encounters and relation-
ships with some of the biggest names in the music and professional sports industries, she
describes a world filled with sex, alcohol, and drugs.
Competition, physical and emotional abuse, and disconnection are recurring themes
throughout the text. From early on in her life, Karrine found herself in competition with
other women. She candidly states that it starts with her mother and continues throughout
her adult life (2005, 127).
Karrine’s, mother, Josephine, was the center of attention and admiration in St.
Thomas. Karrine bore a keen resemblance to her mother. As she grew up, she began to
usurp the praise and admiration to which her mother had become accustomed. Her
mother began to despise Karrine and the attention she received. As a result, she con-
stantly berated and ridiculed young Karrine. Steffans states that whenever someone
would compliment her, her mother would follow it with a snide comment or remark that
eclipsed the comment.
Steffans discloses that she experienced a similar competitive environment on video sets.
She describes the profession as extremely competitive and girls would go to great lengths
to eliminate those they perceived as a threat. She describes one particular instance when
another video girl tried to have her removed from a video set. After performing a sexual
favor for the video director, she in turn, had the young lady removed from the set and got
the lead role in the video.
In Confessions Steffans describes a life that is rife with emotional and physical abuse.
She first experienced abuse at the hands of her mother, whom she describes as quite bru-
tal. She says that her mother would beat her unmercifully for any act she perceived as dis-
obedient. She recounts how her mother once beat her until her body was swollen and
bloody because Karrine misplaced her sewing scissors. Her mother was equally emotion-
ally abusive. One Christmas, according to Karrine, her mother purchased forty-five pres-
ents for her sisters and nothing for her. Karrine’s mother continued to abuse her until she
ran away from home.
Several years after she escaped her abusive mother, Karrine found herself in another
abusive relationship. Although she initially perceived her son’s father, Kool G. Rap, as a
protector, she soon discovered his dark, abusive side. Very soon into their relationship he
began to verbally and physically abuse her. In Confessions she describes several instances
in which he belittled her in front of his other women and hit her. She even recounts sev-
eral instances in which he beat her while she was pregnant.
From all of the relationships Steffans describes in Confessions, one gets the impression
that none of them provided her with what she was in search of: a sense of connection.
When her mother moved her siblings and her to Tampa, she said that her mother purpose-
fully disconnected her from her roots (2005, 37). She never felt the connection that she has
with her grandmother with anyone else (other than maybe her son). Because of her con-
tentious relationship with her mother, she admits that she has always felt disconnected
from other women, and as a result has never had many friends of her gender. Although she
had sexual encounters with many men, she never felt a connection to them. Her relation-
ships, she admits, were the result of convenience and opportunity for them both.
 CRYSTELLE MOURNING: A NOVEL 77

Critical reception of Confessions has been mixed. Although some Internet sources
describe it as well written and laud it for providing a frank look into the life of the hip hop
world, others dismiss it as a tell all in which Steffans portrays herself as a delusional
opportunist who romanticizes the relationships she describes. Of particular interest is
Tayari Jones’s comparison of Confessions to Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl. In her blog Jones states that in both texts the author adopts a tone of pleading
for tolerance, and both women attempt to convince their audience that they are victims of
their circumstances.

See also Steffans, Karrine

FURTHER READING
Steffans, Karrine. Confessions of a Video Vixen. New York: Harper Collins/Amistad, 2005
———. The Vixen Diaries. New York: Warner Books/Hachette, 2007.

Yolanda Williams Page

CRYSTELLE MOURNING: A NOVEL (2006). Eisa Nefertari Ulen’s first hip

hop inspired novel.
Crystelle Mourning is the story of Crystelle Brown, a young black professional from
West Philly who seems to have a bright future. However, that future is threatened because
Crystelle has yet to move beyond mourning the death of her high school sweetheart,
Jimmie Johnson, whom she watched die before either of them even graduated from high
school. In going back to her old neighborhood, Crystelle is faced with the ghosts of her
past, both literal and figurative, and the challenge of deciding how she is going to live the
rest of her life.
Ulen’s novel is a significant cultural work because it presents themes of death and life,
remembrance, and rhythm, issues contemporary to hip hop audiences while simultane-
ously connecting those same issues to an historical yet timeless African American past.
The theme of death and life is perhaps the most prevalent in the book. At one point,
Crystelle’s grandfather tells her that she is walking heavy. He is unknowingly referring to
the weight of Crystelle’s grief, the grief she feels at the death of Jimmie. She is also
carrying Jimmie’s spirit because she is unable to let him go. Death enslaves her because
she will not forget.
Although Crystelle is unable to forget Jimmie, she is also called upon to remember her
childhood in West Philly and realize the impact that it had on her person. In a similar man-
ner, readers are asked to remember the lives and traditions of early African Americans as
they struggled for survival in the United States. For both Crystelle and the black race, these
acts of remembrance are key to maintaining balance in an unsteady world that can strip
you of your love, your life, and your freedom.
Remembrance is also necessary to help maintain the rhythm of life. Ulen is most
creative in illustrating that life is about its rhythm. There is a rhythm in the way Black
people live and love and a rhythm in Black men’s swagger; there is even a rhythm in the
way young Crystelle’s beads move when she wears braids. Crystelle’s grandfather tells her
boyfriend, “Ain’t nothing’ new, man. The old sounds just layer the new.” This wisdom
points to the evolution of hip hop music from jazz and blues rhythms. Moreover, it points
78 CRYSTELLE MOURNING: A NOVEL

to the steady beat of history’s march into the present. Crystelle’s childhood experiences are
highly influential in the way she lives her life as a grown woman. Similarly, the manner in
which African Americans live their present lives is due in large part to the experiences,
good and bad, that they had during the past of enslavement.
Although Ulen calls for audiences to remember the past and recognize the rhythms of
life, she is also calling for forward movement. Crystelle should not forget Jimmie, but
she—along with the black race—will only be able to stop mourning and move toward the
future if she is able to release the past.

See also Ulen, Eisa Nefertari

RaShell R. Smith-Spears
 D
DAUGHTER: A NOVEL (2003). Asha Bandele’s first novel detailing the dev-
astation of police brutality on ordinary people is important to a critique of the Hip Hop
Generation, for many of whom identity is irrevocably marked by violence.
Asha Bandele is a former editor for Essence magazine whose riveting memoir The
Prisoner’s Wife further propelled the issue of American’s incarceration system to the fore-
front. In Daughter, Bandele returns yet again to the subject of violence in the form of bru-
talization both physical and emotional. Miriam Rivers is the stoic and often frigid mother
of young Aya. In a series of flashbacks, Bandele tells of Miriam’s heartbreak at having to
choose the love of her life over her parents and then the further anguish of losing her Bird
to police brutality. As a result Miriam raises the daughter she and Bird shared with rules
and guidelines instead of love and affection.
The mother Aya has known is matter-of-fact and uses order and control to shield herself
from the pain of really expressing her love for her daughter. Frightened and still in grief at
the loss of Aya’s father, Miriam is unable to give her daughter the closeness the girl desires.
Still Aya is able to see that her mother does love her and the two work out an uneasy way
of living together. The book opens with Aya’s memories of a year in juvenile detention.
Aya avoids a near rape by stabbing her assailant in self-defense, but the judge sees this as
a crime and she is remanded to juvenile detention. The method Aya finds for surviving her
imprisonment is running, and she returns to her mother and her neighborhood with this one
outlet for her frustration and desire.
As is much too often the case in lives like Aya’s, she is shot by police who see a black girl
running and assume certain things. As Aya lies dying in the hospital the reader is privy to the
cracking and softening of her mother’s veneer as yet another of her loved ones—the only one
she has left—is taken from her at the hands of ineptitude, prejudice, or fate. Miriam deals with
the loss in the only way left to her as she has been consumed by the violence surrounding her.
Bandele’s novel is an important one to studies of hip hop culture. Although the novel
does not expressly deal with the foundation elements of hip hop, it does provide a set of
faces to the violence that surrounds the children who have been created and bred by hip
hop. As in The Prisoner’s Wife Bandele shows us the lives of the black and brown bodies
incarcerated in America, bringing them from merely caricature to humanity. Not only is
her critique of psychic and social pain, which often leads people to actions that kill or
imprison them, but it is also of a system that sees a brown girl running down a street and
assumes she is fleeing a crime scene and not out for exercise. Additionally, Bandele speaks
through the character of Bird about the war and the way in which it can claim even those
who make it back from the battle front. Overall it is a change of pace from the riveting crit-
ics of the generation because it slowly and wistfully further develops their stories.
80 DAVIS, ANTHONY C.

FURTHER READING
Bader, Eleanor J. “Daughter.” Library Journal, Vol. 128 Issue 13 (15 Aug. 2003): 127.
Rochman, Hazel. “Daughter.” Booklist, Vol. 100 Issue 1 (1 Sept. 2003): 52.

Tarshia L. Stanley

DAVIS, ANTHONY C. Author of the “Yo Little Brother” Series.

Anthony C. Davis obviously has a mission to provide comfort and guidance to young
people who don’t have anyone in their lives to inspire them. His titles, I Ain’t Lying and
“Yo Little Brother . . .” Basic Rules of Survival for Young African American Males and its
subsequent updated sequel co-written with Jeffrey Jackson all serve to give the second
Hip Hop Generation a source of purpose, strength and belief in their identity. The “Yo Little
Brother” books, as advice and conduct books for a new age, have some popularity even
across racial lines. In his work as a teacher in the Philadelphia public schools for twenty
years, Davis witnessed the hunger that young people felt for guidance and teamed with
Jackson to self-publish these advice and conduct books. The first book, published in 1998,
did so well that a publisher picked it up and published the second volume of “Yo Little
Brother” in 2007. The success of these advice books has started a trickle of other like-
minded books, such as Hill Harper’s Letters to A Young Brother, and have motivated young
men to a higher standard.
The success of his nonfiction books, the “Yo Little Brother” series, lead Davis to expand
his reach into the fiction arena. I Ain’t Lying: Stories from West Philly to West Africa is a book
of short stories centered in Philadelphia. Davis draws on his experience as a special education
teacher in the Philadelphia School District, and he describes his short stories as “battle tested”:
Forget about everything else you have read, and just check out these short stories. All of the
stories are true. They have been compiled into a collection called I Ain’t Lying: Stories from
West Philly to West Africa. These stories have been shared with many students and teachers in
the Philadelphia School District, and they are always well received. These stories have been
battle tested on friends, neighbors, strangers, and the editors of a couple of book-review mag-
azines. They all wanted to hear more, but I told them they would have to wait until the book
comes out. If these teachers, writers, educators and students can find something that they
actually want to read, then I say let’s give it to them. Chester Himes, John A. Williams, and
Langston Hughes, look out! There’s a new short-story writer on the block.

By aligning himself with other famous African American male short story writers such
as Himes, Hughes and Williams, Davis was motivated and justified in writing short stories
with a grittier street feel. Hopefully, readers will respond to Davis’s clarion call for more
people of this second wave in hip hop to read his material.

FURTHER READING
Davis, Anthony C. I Ain’t Lying: Stories from West Africa to West Philly. New York: PublishAmerica,
1998.
Davis, Anthony, and Jeffrey Jackson. “Yo Little Brother . . .” Basic Rules of Survival for Young
African American Males. Philadelphia: African American Images, 1998.
———. “Yo Little Brother . . .” Volume II: Basic Rules of Survival for Young African American
Males. Philadelphia, PA: African American Images, 2007.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
 DETECTIVE/MYSTERY FICTION 81

DECONSTRUCTING TYRONE: A NEW LOOK AT BLACK MAS-

CULINITY IN THE HIP-HOP GENERATION (2006). Natalie Hopkinson’s
and Natalie Y. Moore’s treatise on black masculinity as defined by hip hop.
There is no conversation about hip-hop that will not very quickly evolve into a conver-
sation about the conceptualizations of black masculinity, its constructions, and its conse-
quences. Within these conversations, the ever present and infamous characterizations of
black men are so prevalent that they often become mere cliché. Yet Hopkinson and Moore
explore the endless manifestations of the same narrow cast of characters to focus on a char-
acter type within the culture of hip hop who is invisible because he is so visible within the
culture of hip hop itself. They ask who Tyrone is and why he is such an integral aspect of
hip-hop culture.
Deconstructing Tyrone deals with more than uncovering that silent ever-present home-
boy in hip hop. As the authors point out, to get a true sense of Tyrone, one needs to care-
fully interrogate how Tyrone is introduced in the culture. In looking at Tyrone as a
character type, one must juxtapose the picture painted by Erika Badu’s 1997 hit single
“Tyrone” with that depicted by comedian Dave Chappelle in his skits that feature “Tyrone
Biggums.” As the eleven chapters in the text show, deconstructing Tyrone is more about
knowing who is there to pick up the pieces when constructions of black masculinity co-opted
within a maligned cultural and commercial script.
Tyrone is the friend who has access to the thug life and can, if pressed, exhibit gangsta
tendencies. However, his primary role in the culture is the best friend that unquestionably
helps in a time of need. However, as the song and Hopkinson and Moore point out, Tyrone
can also be a scrub type guy who enjoys the perks of being associated with his friend of a
higher social status. And even though Tyrone may not be the most visible of character
types, he does represent the complicated nature of being a black man in a culture domi-
nated by a certain aesthetic and a way to function in the larger mainstream community. Yet
Tyrone is also the societal scapegoat for all problems associated with the fallen black male.
Importantly, as the text shows, these dichotomies can be as wide as that exemplified
between “Hip Hop Mayor” Kwame Kilpatrick in Chapter One’s “Boy Born on Saturday”
and Kofi “Debo” Ajabu, the focus of Chapter Nine’s “Boy Born on Friday.” The two men
represent the extremes of “tyroninity,” which is a major accomplishment of Deconstruct-
ing Tyrone—the proof that Tyrone is a potential part of all black male experiences.
In the end, the text’s overall objective is to explore the ways hip hop culture is prevalent
in the various representations of black masculinity, whether positive or negative.

FURTHER READING
Jackson, Ronald L. II. Scripting the Black Masculine Body: Identity, Discourse, and Racial Politics
in Popular Media. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006.
Quinn, Eithne. Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2005.

Terry Bozeman

DETECTIVE/MYSTERY FICTION. Hip hop detective fiction is a form of hard-

boiled detective fiction which has both shaped and reflected hip hop culture.
Hard-boiled detective fiction is most often characterized by the “tough” attitude of its
protagonists, profuse depictions of violence, and the use of colloquial, sometimes obscene,
82 DETECTIVE/MYSTERY FICTION

language. Most of the detectives or private eyes in these books solve crimes by personally
confronting threatening situations, in contrast to “whodunit” stories, such as those of
Edgar Alan Poe or Agatha Christie, in which logic and available evidence are used to solve
a crime.
Hip hop detective fiction is distinct from other hard-boiled works in several ways. It
focuses on the urban black underclass and uses their language; it is often centered around
profit-motivated organized crime, rather than personally motivated acts; and the moral
ambiguity of its world is even more pronounced than that of other hard-boiled works. Tra-
ditional law enforcement is often depicted as corrupt, abusive, racist, and ineffective, and
the protagonists are either not themselves officers, or they are dealing with internal police
racism. The line between hero and villain is often intentionally blurred. Hip hop detective
fiction is characterized by a sense of momentum, aggression, and chaos.
The first detective fiction specifically presaging hip hop culture was 1957’s A Rage in
Harlem by Chester Himes, the first of a series featuring detectives Coffin Ed and Gravedigger
Jones. These books are heavily influenced by the style of Dashiell Hammet and Raymond
Chandler, as well as by Himes’s own deep cynicism about both American and African
American culture. These influences meet in the often surreal and near-constant violence
in Himes’s work, perpetrated by both criminals and the two heroes. In the later books of
the series, Himes began to provide less and less resolution to the crimes he depicted, until,
with “Blind Man With a Pistol,” the central mystery remains completely unsolved: as
Himes later explained, he couldn’t “name the white man who was guity . . . they were all
guilty” (McCann 2000, 103). Two films based on Himes’s work, Cotton Comes to Harlem
(1970) and Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972), were foundational for the emerging
blaxploitation/soul cinema genre of the 1970s, which in turn came to influence gangsta
rappers.
Better known within contemporary hip hop is Donald Goines, who, though a less
accomplished writer than Himes, was equally influenced by hard-boiled detective fiction.
Goines and his characters are frequently mentioned by name in the music of rappers such
as Nas, and his books have been turned into two films, including 2004’s Never Die Alone,
starring rapper DMX. Goines’s Crime Partners (1974) introduced both a pair of tradi-
tional detectives seeking to solve an individual crime and a black militant, Kenyatta, who
commits violent crimes in an attempt to rid his neighborhood of both drug dealers and
police officers. As in Himes’s books, cops and criminals are on nearly equal (and equally
dismal) moral footing, and individual crimes recede in importance before the subtler
crimes that structure the social system itself. Though not a detective story per se, Sam
Greenlee’s The Spook Who Say By the Door (1969) shows, in its protagonist’s passage
from CIA agent to Black Nationalist militant, a similar ambivalence about the supposed
forces of justice. Many of the “street lit” authors directly inspired by Goines have shared
his preoccupation with crime and punishment. These include Relentless Aaron, whose
Platinum Dolls (2004) is a murder mystery centered on the adult entertainment industry,
and Quentin Carter, whose Hoodwinked (2005) and In Cahootz (2006) address police cor-
ruption and complicity.
More mainstream black mystery authors—such as Walter Mosely, Barbara Neely, and
Valerie Wilson Wesley—tend to be focused on the Civil Rights era, rural or suburban set-
tings, and family life, placing them apart from hip hop culture. Two exceptions are Paula
Woods (Inner City Blues, 2002) and Gary Phillips (Bangers, 2007), whose serials are
notable for coverage of gang violence and hip hop culture, as well as unflinching depic-
tions of racism and corruption within police forces. Cultural critic Nelson George has
 DICKEY, ERIC JEROME 83

contributed his own series of books, featuring private security consultant D. Hunter, which
examine crime within the hip hop industry. These authors manage to maintain a hard-
boiled edge while distinguishing themselves from Goines and his followers with their
higher literary quality and greater focus on character development.

FURTHER READING
McCann, Sean. Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal
Liberalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
Woods, Paula E., ed. Spooks, Spies, and Private Eyes: Black Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Fiction
of the 20th Century. New York: Doubleday, 1995.

David Morris

DICKEY, ERIC JEROME (1961–). Novelist in the tradition of urban or hip

hop literature.
“Hiphoppas” a.k.a “hustlers,” “pioneers,” “sisters,” “brothers,” “teachas”—Eric Jerome
Dickey draws inspiration from many sources to create characters for his best-selling nov-
els and short stories about African American romantic relationships and culture. Born in
Memphis, Tennessee, and currently residing in Los Angeles, Dickey is the author of
16 novels (among them, Friends and Lovers, Drive Me Crazy, Naughty or Nice, Thieves’
Paradise, Genevieve, Sleeping With Strangers, and Waking With Enemies), several short
stories and poems (such as “Thirteen” and “Days Gone By”), and a number of other proj-
ects that include the graphic novel Storm, the screenplay Cappuccino, and edited antholo-
gies (i.e., Mothers and Sons and Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing).
Prior to his writing career, Dickey was a computer programmer, middle school teacher,
stand-up comedian, and an actor. He traveled the local and national comedy circuit from
Seattle, Washington, to San Antonio, Texas, and acted in nonunion projects and commu-
nity theater, off Hollywood Boulevard theater, and in local cable public access sitcoms and
soap operas. His acting credits include small parts in the movies Night Dreams (1990) and
Murder at Midnight (1994), and a recurring role on the TV show “Almost There!”
(1989–1992). On “Almost There!,” Dickey played Brother Akhim in fourteen episodes as
well as the choreographer and assistant director for a few episodes in 1988. He believes
that his experiences acting and doing comedy greatly contributed to his success as an
author. In a BookPage.com interview, Dickey says, “In comedy you learn to write with
flow—segue, set-up, and punch line—but in a way that people won’t see or notice. And in
theater you learn about character. . . . the understanding of the character you get from doing
your homework.”
The author does his literary homework by “keeping it real”—by infusing his plot lines
and characters with street “kulture” (i.e., street fashion, language, and knowledge). That is,
his writings embrace that which reflects and is a product of the inner city—that which val-
idates the experiences of those who exist outside of mainstream culture. For example, in
Cheaters, Dickey celebrates the beauty of black women when he accentuates the ethnic
hairstyles and clothing they wear to the trendiest night spots in Los Angeles. He peppers the
dialogue of characters such as Inda from Sister, Sister with urban slang that is flip but on
point. And, he uses the drama in Milk In My Coffee (a novel about an interracial relation-
ship) as a forum for the sometimes politically incorrect perspectives of those involved and
their family and friends rather than as a treatise on racial harmony. When BookPage.com
84 DIGGS, ANITA DOREEN

asked about his writing style, Dickey said, “Someone e-mailed me that she would read
mainstream writers who are either too politically correct or who just don’t write with that
edge that you get when you’re being honest. Not that my stories are gritty or filthy, but they
just seem more real to these readers. I’m trying to be honest and real.”
Dickey’s ability to connect with romance readers has led to nine best-selling novels on
the New York Times Best Sellers list. Six books ranked in the top ten—Genevieve (#9),
Between Lovers (#10), The Other Woman (#10), Sleeping With Strangers (#9), Chasing
Destiny (#6), and Liar’s Game (#10). His works have been favorably reviewed by Book-
list, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Mosaic, Essence, Wall Street
Journal, USA Today, and numerous other newspapers nationwide. The hip hop philosophy
of peace, love, unity, and having fun safely is evident in a review by the Sun Sentinel about
Friends and Lovers—“The language sings . . . it flows . . . fluid as a rap song. Dickey can
stand alone among modern novelists in capturing the flavor, rhythm and pace of Africa-
America-speak.” Dickey is the recipient of various literary honors and awards, including
2007 Glyph Comics Award for Storm, 2002 Blackboard Book of the Year award for
Cheaters, and 2004 “Author of the Year” by African American Literary Award Show.

FURTHER READING
Dickey, Eric Jerome. 15 June 2007. <http://www.ericjeromedickey.com>.

Anita K. McDaniel

DIGGS, ANITA DOREEN (1960–). Author and editor of hip hop literature.
Anita Diggs is a native New Yorker, and now lives in Harlem. She began her editorial
career in book publishing. In 1989, she first worked at the New American Library as a sec-
retary for the CEO of the company. Following that, she worked for three years as a Publi-
cist at Dutton Books, which is an imprint of the Penguin Group. She is also the former
Senior Editor at Random House’s African American imprint One World/Ballantine, Editor
for the Time Warner Book Group, and a Senior Editor at Thunder Mouth Press. In addi-
tion, she has served as a literary agent for the Literary Group and is the author of several
books.
As a top-performing editor and writer, Diggs has made a major contribution to the world
of hip-hop literature. While at Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, she assisted
with the development and editing of Back in The Day: My Life and Times with Tupac Shakur.
This work of nonfiction was written by Darrin Bastfield, friend and high school classmate of
Shakur. In the work, Bastfield writes of his experiences with Shakur during their senior year
of high school at the Baltimore School of Performing Arts. The work depicts Shakur’s life
before he was murdered and became one of the most prolific and controversial rappers to
ever pick up a microphone. While at Ballantine, Diggs also acquired and assisted with The
Lil’ Bow Wow Scrapbook, which is a book of photos of the child rap star, and Growing Up X
by Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X. At Thunder Mouth Press, some of Diggs’s hip-
hop works of literature include Dr. Dre by Ronin Ro and When Rap Had a Conscience: The
Golden Age of Hip Hop 1987–1996 by Tayannah Lee McQuillar.
As an author, Diggs’s noteworthy works include The Other Side of the Game, Denzel’s
Lips, and A Meeting in the Ladies Room. Diggs is also the author of A Mighty Love, which
was on the Essence magazine’s best sellers list. A Meeting in the Ladies Room and A
Mighty Love were also chosen for the Black Expressions Book Club.
 DOPEFIEND: STORY OF A BLACK JUNKIE 85

As an editor, author, and agent, Diggs has set the standard for publishing hip-hop liter-
ature. Hopefully, the seeds that Diggs has planted will help this genre to continue to grow.

FURTHER READING
Diggs, Anita Doreen. Barrier-Breaking Resumes and Interviews: Jumping the Hurdle of Unemploy-
ment and Getting a Job. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 1999.
———. Denzel’s Lips. New York: Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2007.
———. A Meeting in the Ladies Room. New York: Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2005.
———. A Mighty Love. New York: Thorndike Press, 2003.
———. The Other Side of the Game. New York: Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2005.
———. Success at work: A Guide for African Americans. New Jersey: Barricade Books, 1993.
Diggs, Anita Doreen and Vera S. Paster. Staying Married: A Guide for African American Couples.
New York: Kensington Publishing Corporation, 1998.
Reid, Calvin. “Diggs Building at Thunder’s Mouth.” Publishers Weekly (12 Feb. 2007): 16.

Ava Williams

DOPEFIEND: STORY OF A BLACK JUNKIE (1971). The second of

16 novels written by “street literature” author Donald Goines (1937–1974).
Born into a middle class family, Donald Goines became addicted to heroin while sta-
tioned in Japan during the Korean War. After being discharged from service in the armed
forces, Goines returned to his hometown, Detroit, and supported his heroin habit by engag-
ing in several of the activities he vividly describes in his novels. His efforts to support his
addiction to heroin caused Goines to spend time in prison; in fact, biographers report that
Goines was heroin-free only while he was incarcerated.
Although Goines initially tried his hand at writing westerns, in 1965 while incarcerated
in Jackson State Prison, located in Michigan, he was introduced to the work of Robert
Beck and subsequently began to produce novels in the black experience genre. Dopefiend,
conceptualized and written during one of Goines’s stays at Jackson State Prison, was one
of the more successful of those novels; its publisher, Holloway House, posits the text as a
realistic portrayal of the black experience.
Although his first seven novels were written under his name, the nine remaining novels
penned by Goines were written under the pseudonym, Al C. Clark. And although his first
novel, Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp, is generally recognized as an autobio-
graphical work, the semiautobiographical Dopefiend may well be identified as bildungsro-
man, a novelistic form in which the life of the protagonist is traced and in which loss,
discontent, and alienation are major themes. However, Dopefiend swerves from the novel-
istic form in its conclusion: unlike the protagonist in the bildungsroman, the characters in
this novel do not resolve the major conflicts that have resulted in clashes between them and
the society of which they are part.
In Dopefiend, Goines explores the dysfunctional relationships between the drug dealer,
his clientele, and the local community. Heroin drives the economy of the community; how-
ever, only the sadistic character Porky financially benefits from the wealth generated by his
drug sales. Porky commands respect, and he takes what he wants. Neither women nor men
who seek his product are exempt from the drug dealer’s sadism: he gleefully taunts the
junkie who pleads for credit; he fastidiously and cruelly manages the shooting gallery, a
dilapidated, vermin-infested building where customers inject his product. Once their
money is gone, the junkies are forced to give up their space, to move on, most of them to
86 THE DYING GROUND: A HIP-HOP NOIR NOVEL

commit crimes in the community and to bring the money gained from their efforts to
Porky, repeating the stages of the vicious cycle in which they are trapped.
Goines’s work humanizes the heroin addict in part by depicting the drug dealer who sets
up shop in urban neighborhoods as a coward who preys on not only the junkie but on the
community as well. However, although readers of Dopefiend may feel sympathetic toward
the heroin addict whose tale is the subject of the novel, they will miss the point of Goines’s
narrative should they interpret the novel as the author’s justification of drug addiction by a
disenfranchised populace as the only means of dealing with life in the ghetto. For Goines
goes to great lengths to demonstrate the repulsiveness of drug addiction; he clearly depicts
such addiction as the last bastion of the damned and successfully avoids glamorizing the life
of either addict or dealer. And in that regard, it may be that the one strength of Dopefiend
lies in its value as a cautionary tale for urban youth who may become enamored of the fast
life and its promise of fame and fortune at the expense of others.

See also Goines, Donald; Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Donald Goines

FURTHER READING
Allen, Eddie B., Jr. Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Donald Goines. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
2004.
Klein, Kathleen Gregory, Jay P. Pederson, and Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf, eds. Guide to Crime and
Mystery Writers. 4th ed. Farmington Hill, MI: St. James Press, 1996.
Leseur, Geta J. Ten is the Age of Darkness: The Black Bildungsroman. Columbia, MO: University of
Missouri Press, 1995.
Stone, Eddie. Donald Writes No More: A Biography of Donald Goines. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway
House, 1988.

Mary Loving Blanchard

THE DYING GROUND: A HIP-HOP NOIR NOVEL (2001). A socially

important hip hop novel that recalls the violence and drugs plaguing the Bay area in Cal-
ifornia during the 1980s.
Nichelle D. Tramble’s debut novel, The Dying Ground, centers on the life choices of for-
mer college athlete, Maceo Redfield. Although The Dying Ground is certainly a coming-
of-age story about Maceo, this novel also reveals the coming of an age—the rise of the
illegal narcotics trade and heightened urban violence in Oakland, California, during the
early to mid 1980s.
Maceo is plagued by chronic grief over great loss and his dreams are haunted by heavy
unanswered questions. We find that these haunting losses include the death of his mother
at the hands of his father, the loss of the love of his life, Felicia, to another man, and the
murder of that man, Billy, who was also Maceo’s dear childhood friend. Equally impor-
tant, Maceo constantly struggles with the loss of self-respect. In order to reclaim a sense
of self-respect and in order to alleviate his grief, Maceo teams up with surrogate brother
Holly in order to uncover the mysteries behind Billy’s murder and the simultaneous dis-
appearance of his love, Felicia. In the end, Maceo’s vigilante decisions come at an insur-
mountable cost and bring further loss, yet there is no turning back.
African American history and culture are infused in this keen portrayal of Oakland,
California, which includes linkages to the Great Migration, Louisiana, Blues, Huey P.
 DYSON, MICHAEL ERIC 87

Newton, and even hip hop music and culture as Tramble subtly weaves multivalent social
commentary into the text. In so doing, The Dying Ground may be understood as much
more than simply a popular “urban” fiction. In keeping with African American literary and
oral traditions, Tramble tells a socially important story in this work, a story that must pass
on to present and future generations.
For several reasons The Dying Ground will undoubtedly pass on because it carries its
own significant publication history in that it was the launch title for Random House’s
Striver’s Row publication division, which focuses on the proliferation of African American
literature. Further, The Dying Ground effectively resonates with a wide and diverse read-
ership and functions in multiple academic environments that range from high schools to
colleges. As such the text offers potential for meaningful conversations about and ways to
rethink social dynamics of the 1980s on the West Coast.
In The Dying Ground Tramble counters popular public misconceptions about how and
why African American youth become involved in illicit, destructive behaviors sometimes
associated with “underground” street culture while maintaining a sophisticated and objec-
tive tone throughout this work. The text also challenges ways in which justice is under-
stood and served. In the midst of all the gritty and painful truth captured in this work of
fiction, Tramble reveals the beauty of Oakland, California, as well as the heart and soul of
the African American people who live there.

FURTHER READING
Tramble, Nichelle. The Last King: A Maceo Redfield Novel. New York: Random House, 2004.

Christin M. Taylor

DYSON, MICHAEL ERIC (1958–). One of the foremost hip-hop intellectuals and
cultural critics.
Michael Eric Dyson is Professor of African American Studies, English, and Theology at
Georgetown University. He received his doctoral degree in Religion from Princeton
University in 1993. He engages actively in courses that afford students the opportunity to
ascertain the importance of hip-hop culture to American culture. In his scholarly writings,
Dyson makes a salient effort to elucidate the complexity and beauty of hip-hop culture. His
oeuvre dedicates a tremendous focus on one of the most vital and conspicuous elements of
hip-hop culture: rap music. Dr. Dyson has written three books that strive to demonstrate
the contributions of rap music and hip-hop artists to American culture: Holler If You Hear
Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur (2001), Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness
to Black Culture (1996), and Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop (2007).
In Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur, Dyson seeks to evince how the
lyrics and public persona of Tupac Shakur have contributed significantly to elevating the
scholarly discourse on such issues as religion, race, class, violence, and family in America.
Through investigating the aforementioned issues, Dr. Dyson demonstrates how Tupac was
able to offer salient social, economic, political, and cultural critiques that not only resonate
with and benefit African American culture but American culture as well. In Dyson’s narra-
tive, he also reveals that Tupac sought to expose the dominant culture’s hypocrisy in attack-
ing rap artists’ music for being responsible for much of the unbridled violence in America
by elucidating that the epistemological provenance of gangster ideas do not originate with
rap artists but have their epistemological genesis in classic films starring famous violent
88 DYSON, MICHAEL ERIC

white male stars. He illuminates that Tupac was able to resonate tremendously with many
young African Americans because his lyrics and life experiences were able to imbue their
psyches with such a spirit of hope about the future possibilities of life in America; this spirit
of hope enabled them to combat the oppressive dimensions of their social realities.
Furthermore, in Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture,
Dyson explores the significance of rap music to American culture, particularly gangsta rap
music. In this work, although Dyson is willing to agree with some of the negative criti-
cisms that specific dimensions of gangsta rap have elicited from many diverse public fig-
ures, he finds it immensely problematic that many critics are using gangsta rap artists as
“scapegoats” (1996, 176) for problems that have permeated American culture long before
gangsta rap emerged and achieved widespread prominence. He contends that gangsta rap
has played a momentous role in exposing economic and social inequities—possibly more
so than “countless sermons or political speeches” (1996, 186). Dyson does not endorse
some hip-hop artists’ “glamorization of violence” (1996, 179), but he posits that hip-hop
music should not be simply reduced to its negative components.
In Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop, Michael Dyson responds to the fun-
damental question of whether or not listening to rap music has a negative impact on the
individuals who listen to it. Although Dyson is willing to admit that he does not champion
the homophobic, misogynistic, nihilistic, and materialistic themes in rap music lyrics, he
argues that these themes that are ostensible in the lyrics of rap artists are difficult to avoid,
considering that the capitalist motivations and pressures of the major corporations that own
the record labels that produce rap artists’ music continue to insist that they employ these
themes in their art. Dr. Dyson’s work engages in a careful examination of how specifically
the homophobic, misogynistic, nihilistic, and materialistic themes in hip-hop lyrics have a
negative impact on African American people. He argues that the way in which rap music
employs misogynistic language places women in a nuanced dilemma of whether to enjoy
this great art form, or allow unresistingly this art form to characterize them in demeaning
ways. Dyson also argues that rap music has a history analogous to jazz music. Dyson con-
tends that during the early beginnings of jazz music, jazz music was scurrilously demo-
nized in a similar manner to the way rap music is demonized.

See also Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture; Know What I
Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop

FURTHER READING
Dyson, Michael E. Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1996.
———. Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2001.
———. Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2007.
———. The Michael Eric Dyson Reader. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

 E
E.A.R.L.: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DMX (2002). Autobiography of
rapper DMX.
E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX, as told to Smokey D. Fontane, chronicles the
entertainer’s life as a burgeoning poet, thief, and rapper. Earl Simmons was born in
Norfolk, Virginia, on December 18, 1970, but grew up in the projects in Yonkers, New
York. The book is Simmons’s account of the way poetry helped him cope with the turbu-
lent life of the streets. Included in the tale is how he polished his skills as a beatbox artist
and took the name of the classic drum machine, Oberheim DMX, originally used by the
trailblazers of hip hop, such as Run DMC, as an alias.
In order to jump-start his career Simmons frequented local night clubs, performing at
live shows around Yonkers until Columbia records took notice and extended him his first
contract in 1992. However, soon after the release of his first single, “Get at me Dog,” which
went gold, Columbia released him. Simmons’s second contract was a deal with Def Jam
in 1997. Upon the release of his second album in 1998, Simmons became the first artist to
debut two albums at number one.
Much of the book details Simmons’s violent upbringing and frequent brushes with the
law. In the end it follows the course of most coming-of-age novels in that the audience is
at last privy to Simmons’s demons as he navigates his way to manhood amidst trying cir-
cumstances. The voice of Earl Simmons comes through in the text as strong and insight-
ful, yet his struggle with grief and depression are also apparent. From being diagnosed
with biopolar disorder to losing friends he still maintains the support and admiration of his
family, and E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX takes its place among the literary mem-
oirs detailing the difficulty of overcoming street life.
In addition to numerous disks and his book, Simmons has complemented his music career
with a number of film roles. These films include Romeo Must Die (2000), Exit Wounds
(2001), and Never Die Alone (2004). In 2006 he was the subject of a reality show on Black
Entertainment Television called DMX: Soul of a Man. His anticipated forthcoming album
The Resurrection of Hip Hop will, among other things, address the fate of the genre.

Delicia Daniels

8 MILE (UNIVERSAL PICTURES, USA, 2002). This film is important to

the Hip Hop Generation because of its function as a docu-drama and its subject matter.
This semi-autobiographical narrative is evidence of rapper Eminem’s status as a working
class urbanite who has a legitimate link to and love for the genre of hip hop.
The film 8 Mile, directed by Curtis Hansen, stars rapper Eminem (Marshall Mathers) in
his acting debut. In addition to playing the main character, Jimmy “Rabbit” Smith Jr., a white
90 EXPLICIT CONTENT

working-class rapper and factory worker, Eminem also provided the song “Lose Yourself,”
which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the inspiration for the storyline
of the movie, which was loosely based on his own life. Alongside Eminem, rappers Proof,
Obie Trice, and Xzibit have cameos. The film takes place in Detroit, Michigan, in 1995 and
follows Rabbit’s attempts to use his talent as a rapper to escape his life pressing car bumpers
at New Detroit Stamping and living with his mother (Kim Basinger), her boyfriend (Michael
Shannon), and his sister (Cloe Greenfield) in a trailer park. Circumstances force Rabbit to
return to his family after breaking up with his girlfriend Janeane (Taryn Manning).
The title of 8 Mile refers to the dilapidated area of downtown Detroit that went into
decline, along with the auto industry, during the Reagan era, leaving behind abandoned
buildings, unemployment, and few opportunities. The film focuses less on race and
racism and more on class and economic alienation, shared by both African Americans
and working-class whites in Detroit. Rabbit is a symbol of this shared condition, eco-
nomically and geographically as well as socially and culturally. Thus, he crosses over
racial boundaries as a white rapper and a member of a multiracial group of friends, the
3–1–3 Posse, including David “Future” Porter, a fictionalized version of rapper Proof
(Mekhi Pfiffer), “Cheddar” Bob (Evan Jones), Sol George (Omar Benson Miller), and
DJ Iz (De’Angelo Wilson).
The film opens in the restroom of The Shelter, a hip hop club on the 8 Mile, where Rabbit
is preparing for a battle with other rappers. On stage against Papa Doc (Anthony Mackie) of
the Leaders of the Free Word (LFW), Rabbit freezes. Despite his fit of nerves, Rabbit finds both
Future and Wink (Eugene Byrd), manager of LFW, championing his career. However, he is torn
between his need to keep his job at the factory and his career as a rapper. As the film progresses,
Rabbit gets a new girlfriend, Alex (Brittany Murphy), focuses on his job, and seems, in gen-
eral, to progress. This moment is soon followed by estrangement from his mother and mem-
bers of the 3–1–3 Posse and Alex’s betrayal. In the final scene, Rabbit faces Papa Doc again
and defeats him by revealing Papa Doc’s middle-class status during their rap battle. This time
it is Papa Doc who is speechless, and consequently the film comes full circle.
Although Rabbit’s racial subject position is displaced onto a shared class and cultural
position with African Americans, his success as a rapper beating all the African Americans
he encounters suggests a hip hop version of Rocky or The Great White Hope. Despite his
success, in the final scene Rabbit chooses to return to his shift at work, rendering his suc-
cess at The Shelter a personal as opposed to a racial or class redemption, or a way out of
his life on the 8 Mile.
FURTHER READING
“8 Mile.” Internet Movie Database. 15 June 2007. <http://imdb.com/title/tt0298203/>.
Als, Hilton, and Darryl Turner, eds. White Noise: The Eminem Collection. New York: Thunder’s
Mouth Press, 2003.
Kitwana, Bakari. Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Real-
ity of Race in America. New York: Perseus Books, 2006.
Toure. “The Family Man.” In Never Drank the Kool-Aid. New York: Picador, 2006: 21–33.

Aaron Winter

EXPLICIT CONTENT (2004). Debut novel of hip hop literature novelist Black
Artemis.
Determined to write entertaining yet clever novels for “women who love hip-hop even
when hip-hop doesn’t always love them in return,” Sofia Quintero wrote her debut novel
 EXPLICIT CONTENT 91

Explicit Content (2004). It is the first work of fiction featuring a female MC as the pro-
tagonist in the genre and was published by the New American Library/Penguin Press.
The pen name Black Artemis has several meanings. Quintero wanted to write novels under
an alias (many hip-hop artists use aliases), she liked the Greek goddess Artemis’s legacy for
defending women, and she also wanted to make it clear that she identifies as a black woman;
thus “Black Artemis” was born. A well-known writer, activist, educator, producer, speaker,
and entrepreneur, she was born into a working-class Puerto Rican-Dominican family in the
Bronx, where she still resides. The self-proclaimed “Ivy League homegirl” has contributed
immensely to hip hop culture as a pioneer in the field of hip hop literature.
Explicit Content follows the story of two young women, one African American
(Cassandra) and one Latina (Leila), in present-day New York City. The story chronicles
their ups and downs as they navigate a male-dominated hip-hop scene that is anything but
welcoming to them as they pursue their dream, which is to make it as MCs.
Cassandra Rivers and Leila Aponte are seemingly opposites. But from their first fateful
meeting they discover they are actually more similar than different, connected by their love
for hip-hop music and culture and their dream of becoming successful MCs. Yet the two
have different priorities in the music game. Leila seemingly wants the freedom to be sex-
ually liberated in her MC persona, arguing in favor of Lil’ Kim in the great hip-hop femi-
nist debate over the impact of sexually explicit women artists on the music industry;
whereas Cassandra values her creative expression and lyrical skills. However, the pair of
“Fatal Beauty” and “Sabrina Steelo” makes a commitment to produce their own demo and
show the world what they are all about. That is, until rap impresario Gregory “G Double D”
Downs comes along and splits them apart by coercing Leila into leaving Cassandra and
joining his label Explicit Content. Crushed by the infidelity of her best friend, Cassandra
struggles to persevere as a solo artist.
However, as fickle as the music industry can be, Leila’s career soon begins to cool down
fast, and music mogul G Double D coerces Cassandra to join his dysfunctional dynasty.
Reminiscent of a Murder Inc. case study, rumors begin to circulate that Explicit Content is
in dire need of a leadership change; dubious and unscrupulous business maneuvers are
becoming commonplace. Cassandra finds herself enticed into an offer with Explicit Content
that seems too good to be true. As Cassandra is attempting to reconcile her values with her
desire to become successful and not forget who she is and where she comes from, she begins
to see behind the smoke and mirrors of the Explicit Content operation and realizes there are
life and death choices to be made and she is in the unique position to do something about it.
Reviews of the debut novel are stellar. The New York Daily News wrote, “An excellent look
at hip-hop history and culture without the weight of academic draping, Explicit Content com-
bines multi-racial and cultural roots, witty language, absorbing plot and exciting characters
gives this book its depth while providing a quick read and lots of entertaining moments.”

See also Burn: A Novel; Quintero, Sofia

FURTHER READING
Artemis, Black. 1 December 2007. <www.blackartemis.com.>.
———. Explicit Content. New York: New American Library/Penguin, 2004.

Marcella Runell Hall

 F
FABULOSITY: WHAT IT IS & HOW TO GET IT (2006). A colloquial-
ism and the title of the step-by-step guide written by Kimora Lee Simmons meant to show
young women how to embody power, independence, confidence, positivism, physical
aesthetics, and a fulfilling lifestyle.
Fabulosity: What It Is & How To Get It is the first book from author Kimora Lee
Simmons, president and creative director of Baby Phat and the KLS makeup line. Pack-
aged in glittering gold and featuring Simmons as the cover model dressed in shiny gold
herself, the step-by-step guide is meant to show all women how to embody power, inde-
pendence, confidence, a positive outlook, physical aesthetics, and a fulfilling lifestyle.
Like many other trendsetters, Fabulosity is Simmons’s attempt to coin her own addition
to the urban dictionary. In an interview with the New York Post, Simmons described the term
as a summation of her desires for “all women to feel fabulous,” with her own spin of being
over the top, loud, and fashion forward. The -osity addition is her attempt to emphasize the
magnitude of the term. “It’s a lot of fabulousness,” says Simmons in that same interview.
The official definition on the back cover of the book defines fabulosity as “a state of every-
thing that is fabulous [and] a quality ascribed to that which expresses glamour, style charisma,
power, and heart.” Many consider Simmons’s fabulosity contagious. A recent New York Post
article called Fabulosity a diva cult, exemplifying the influence Simmons has on her fans.
Fabulosity, pegged as a self-help book, is sprinkled with tons of autobiographical infor-
mation about Simmons, she even uses herself as an example of obstacles and success.
Fabulosity takes the reader through the awkwardness of Simmons’s childhood, growing
up in Saint Louis with her rare facial features and mixed ethnicity, and ultimately how she
used her uniqueness to get to the top of the modeling world, eventually becoming the muse
for Karl Lagerfeld at age 13. Simmons also uses herself as an example in almost every
chapter, showing how her over-the-top demeanor often helped propel her to varying levels
of success. In each chapter, she includes tips for the aspiring model as well as personal
action items that the reader can begin trying right away.
Simmons kicks off the book with the concepts of creative visualization and aspiration
for more out of life in the first section, Self-Belief & Confidence. In the remaining
sections—Work & Power, Independence, Image & Body, Romance & Lifestyle, and Pos-
itivity & Sustainability—Simmons continues to outline her 16 laws of success for all
women. The overarching theme is that women don’t have to follow the traditional, stereo-
typical path in order to make it to the top.
Simmons has no additional works, although her husband and business partner, Russell
Simmons, authored his own inspirational book entitled, Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the
Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success, released in April 2007.
 FANZINES 93

FURTHER READING
Garza, Xazmin. “Fabulosity.” Las Vegas Review-Journal (23 Feb. 2007): 8CC.
Mirchandani, Raakhee. “Fans Crave Mora Kimora—Pushing Her Diva Cult of ‘Fabulosity.’” The
New York Post (5 Dec. 2006): 43.

Tyeese Gaines Reid

FANZINES. With the creation and rising popularity of R&B and hip hop in the United
States, publishers of “teenybopper” magazines found a new audience. Following in the tra-
dition of fanzines such as Tiger Beat and Bop, which had, since the 1960s, been aimed at a
white, middle-class audience of pre-teen and teenaged girls who idolized popular music,
movie, and television stars, in 1970 Laufer Publishing Co. debuted a new title, Right On!
(currently published by Dorchester Media, LLC) . This was eventually followed by a hand-
ful of similar titles from different publishers, including Word Up! (1987) and Black Beat
(currently published by Enoble Media/Magna Publishing Group) and the now-defunct
Fresh! (1985) and Yo! (1987; both previously published by Ashley Communications, Inc.).
Throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, fanzines were a dominant presence
among the small but growing body of literature that was being produced around and within
the hip-hop community. Prior to the days of widespread Internet access, these fanzines
provided adolescent fans with photos, information, gossip, and interviews with their
favorite celebrities. Although there was substantial crossover of people involved in the pro-
duction of both genres of fanzine, in contrast to their “white” bubblegum counterparts,
which typically gushed about the cuteness of male celebrities, hip-hop fanzines tended to
be far less gender specific and appealed to a broader age range of readers.
Taking their titles from big-city street slang of the day, fanzines were created purely as
light, entertaining reading, but they also provided a semi-interactive social platform for
their readers. The easy-to-read, brief, and generally upbeat articles that characterized their
writing style helped make them accessible to a young, urban, and sometimes low-income
audience. This format also makes such magazines quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive
to produce by a small team of people—one editor might do all the writing and one graphic
artist all the layout. Any fanzine’s key selling point, however, was the number and appeal
of its color pin-ups—full-page color photos of celebrities, whose production requires lit-
tle beyond selection and purchasing of rights to a photograph. The more of these pin-ups,
the better, and they were generally promoted on the cover as one of many blurbs within a
busy and garish layout.
The demand for pin-ups also paved the way for a newer, even more quickly produced
format, the “posterbook”—a set of four or five reversible four-page posters folded up and
bound inside a magazine-sized cover. They featured minimal (if any) writing but could be
sold at the same price as their fanzine counterparts.
The majority of these magazines featured very few or no advertisements and were thus
sustained by their reader base—subscribers and customers who purchased titles from
newsstands or convenience stores or directly from the publisher as back issues. This also
meant a feeling of intimacy (as much as a nationally distributed magazine would allow)
among readers and between readers and the magazine staff. Fanzines regularly run con-
tests that allow readers to enter to win promotional trinkets from their favorite celebrities,
such as tapes/CDs, T-shirts, buttons, and so on, or even more spectacular prizes, such as
photos autographed by celebrities or clothing worn by the stars themselves. Additionally,
94 FLAKE, SHARON G.

they also ran reader surveys, ran advice and gossip columns, and published pen pal list-
ings, creating a platform by which readers of similar interests across the country could
develop pen pal relationships with one another—a relatively rare opportunity during the
heyday of fanzines, prior to the Internet era.
This interactive aspect meant that editors and writers played the role of columnists dis-
pensing celebrity gossip, advice, or simply the friendly editor who readers could relate to
and hear from every month. However, these assumed personas did not always coincide
with reality in terms of stated race, age, implied social class, or even gender, for example,
an advice column allegedly written by a young black woman very well could have actu-
ally been written by a middle-aged white man who did not face the same experiences or
concerns as the readers he was advising. Representation of the black community in the his-
torically white-owned publishing industry, where large conglomerates own the bulk of
titles, has been disproportionately low.
Due to fanzines’ reliance on celebrities’ waxing and waning popularity, many of these
types of magazines had relatively short life spans; and none has solidly established itself
as a mainstream, household name. Likely the most significant reference to any of these
magazines is in the Notorious B.I.G.’s 1994 single “Juicy,” in which the rapper pays hom-
age to Word Up! magazine.
And although these magazines were marketed and, to this day, described with terms
such as “urban” and “hip hop,” sales were driven as much, if not more so, by “heartthrob”
bands and singers—originally with the Jackson 5 in the 1970s, Michael Jackson in the
early 1980s, Bobbi Brown and L.L. Cool J in the latter half of the decade, and teens
Immature, Brandy, Monica, and Aaliyah in the early 1990s—as they were by their more
hard-edged contemporaries in rap. But with such fanzines having paved the way, and rap
and hip-hop music’s rise in popularity, a new crop of magazines—The Source, Vibe, and
Rap Sheet—sprang up and throughout the 1990s went on to establish themselves in the
mainstream magazine market as more intellectual, “serious” publications. Today, with a
good percentage of hip-hop artists leading music sales and radio airplay, traditionally rock-
oriented magazines, such as Rolling Stone and Spin, regularly feature hip-hop artists.
In more recent years, with increasing availability of Internet access in homes, schools, and
public libraries, most publishers worried that print media would suffer. But even after the turn
of the millennium, the Web sites for the two major, active titles in the genre, Right On! and
Word Up!, are relatively bare bones, offering little beyond an online subscription form. Fur-
thermore, references to any of these titles online are still sparse, indicating that even as late as
2007, there still existed a large stratum between those with Internet access and those without.

Jennifer Ashley

FLAKE, SHARON G. (1955–). Author of urban adolescent literature with a

focus on African American life and experiences.
Born in inner-city Philadelphia and a long-time resident of Pittsburgh, Sharon Flake
acknowledges that writing has not always come easily for her. While she was in college,
she received significant criticism from some of her professors because her writing style did
not align itself with their expectations of what “good writing” was. She persevered, how-
ever, because she felt that she had been called to be a writer by a higher power. Although
she held several day jobs throughout her career, she began developing her writing career
by freelancing for local and national magazines.
 FLYY GIRL 95

Flake’s first and most well-known book, The Skin I’m In, was completed over the course
of two years and was written to give voice to dark-skinned girls, such as her then seven-
year-old daughter. The Skin I’m In tells the story of Maleeka Madison, a young girl who
struggles against teasing from classmates about her dark skin and ragged clothing, ulti-
mately finding refuge in her own writing and through the encouragement of her new
teacher, Miss Saunders.
Money Hungry and Begging for Change tell the story of Raspberry Hill as she and her
mother try to make a better life for themselves. When her mother is hospitalized after being
attacked by a neighbor, Raspberry steals from one of her best friends and begins to ques-
tion just how different she is—or is not—from her drug-abusing, stealing father.
These and subsequent books have centered on several key themes, including valuing
oneself and validating the experiences of inner-city African American youths. Many of her
pre-teen characters struggle with self-acceptance, and their growth process usually
involves coming to terms with their own role within their communities. According to Flake
in her biography at Hyperion Books for Children, this is an intentional move; she writes
for pre-teens because “when you hit middle school, you internalize everything and your
emotions seem far too intense. You judge yourself far too harshly and too often.” Her drive
to produce texts that represent the authentic lives of this population has led to wide
recognition from critics, teachers, and young readers alike.
Flake’s first six books were published by Hyperion’s Jump at the Sun imprint. Since that
time, she has been given numerous awards, including the Coretta Scott King Honor Award,
the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults and Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, and
Booklist Editor’s Choice Award, among others.

FURTHER READING
Flake, Sharon. Bang! New York: Jump at the Sun, 2005.
———. Begging for Change. New York: Jump at the Sun, 2003.
———. The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street. New York: Jump at the Sun, 2007
———. Money Hungry. New York: Jump at the Sun, 2001.
———. “Sharon Flake.” Hyperion Books for Children. <www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com/data/
authors/doc/Flake57.doc>.
———. The Skin I’m In. New York: Jump at the Sun, 2000.
———. Who Am I without Him?: Short Stories about Girls and the Boys in Their Lives. New York:
Jump at the Sun, 2004.

Carey Applegate

FLYY GIRL. Flyy Girl, by Omar Tyree, is one of the novels that is credited with the
emergence of the most recent wave of hip hop literature.
Flyy Girl was self-published by Tyree in 1993 but achieved such widespread popularity
that Simon and Schuster picked it up for publication again in 1996, and it has not been out
of print since.
Flyy Girl’s main protagonist, Tracy Ellison, embodies the idea of “sass” as constructed
by Joanne Braxton. Her quick quips and comebacks are a survival mechanism as she nav-
igates her world. The novel covers Tracy’s life from six to seventeen and can be seen as
Tyree’s reimagining of how the concept of a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel,
works in the life of an African American girl. Tracy’s middle-class origins form an
96 FROM TOTEMS TO HIP-HOP

important part of her character. As the product of a dark-skinned man and a light-skinned
woman, Tracy is caught in the crosshairs of the tension of her parents’ relationship as they
make their way toward a divorce. Their constant wavering in their relationship contributes
to her need to find love elsewhere. Even though her parents eventually work things out, by
that point, Tracy has turned to the street to find approval.
As is typical of a bildungsroman, Tracy’s process of education takes several interesting
twists. As an African American young woman, her education cannot be considered com-
plete just in the classroom. She receives another kind of education in the streets with sex,
violence, and encounters with drug dealers. These interfaces with danger and her love
affair with a drug dealer that ends with his incarceration convince her to take a more con-
ventional path toward education and she does enroll in college eventually, reflective of her
intelligence and capability.
Flyy Girl includes other engaging subplots with her friends, such as Raheema and
Mercedes, who must also find their way in the world. Critics have thought of Tracy as the
character who was less mature and more stubborn about coming to an understanding
about her life, but if Tyree did not construct the novel in this way, Tracy might not have
had so many adventures. Several people have admired Flyy Girl’s use of real dialogue,
language, and descriptions of the early 1980s, which give the novel a harder edge in its
depiction of street life.
Tyree’s reputation rests on Flyy Girl. He has recognized this with the crafting of two
sequels. For the Love of Money, which features Tracy as a married, successful author of
the book Flyy Girl, who is coping with her success and grappling with the conflict that she
feels between her current life and her former street life. She has encounters with her for-
mer jailed boyfriend, Victor, and her other girlfriends to show how far she’s come in life.
Boss Lady: A Novel features Tracy as a mentor to the protagonist, her cousin Vanessa, who
she brings out to California as her personal assistant as they both navigate the thorny
process of turning Tracy’s successful novel into a movie. Both sequels have been roundly
critiqued as less successful than Flyy Girl, but that is to be expected. It is clear that Flyy
Girl has inspired a number of authors, including Vickie Stringer and Carl Weber, to write
their own versions of life on the streets, which, in turn, has influenced many more people
to read and purchase more books.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

FROM TOTEMS TO HIP-HOP: A MULTICULTURAL ANTHOLOGY

OF POETRY ACROSS THE AMERICAS, 1900–2002 (2003).
Ishmael Reed’s text denoting the progression of poetry from some little beginnings to cur-
rent manifestations in hip hop.
From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas,
1900–2002 (2003), edited by Ishmael Reed, foregrounds the historicity and multicultural
amalgamation of American poetry by tracing its manifold origins back to as early as the
totem poles of the Alaskan Tlingit Indians and by embracing its diversity of forms (formal,
vers libre, prose, performance, jazz, blues, hip-hop, and sound poetry) as well as content
(African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American experiences). Inspired
by his own method for teaching poetry at Berkeley, where he mixed poems written by
established poets with students’ poems, Reed presents American poetry as a unitary whole
traversing two centuries and bridging cultures and languages. In his introduction, Reed
 FROM TOTEMS TO HIP-HOP 97

contests the limited and outdated canon of American literature. By limited, he means the
mindset of tokenism with which mainstream editors approach works written by ethnic
minorities, women, and controversial and experimental poets. By outdated, he critiques
their reluctance to change and envisions instead a canon ceaselessly confronting and
incorporating the changes and challenges of a world in flux.
Reed, who espouses a transcultural multiculturalism, chose poems that treat universal
themes and are approachable to readers of dissimilar backgrounds. The poems were then
grouped into five theme-based sections. In the first section, “Nature & Place,” nature and
other variables—memory, rumors, history, and discrimination—come to define places,
whereas in the second section, “Men & Women,” relationships between the sexes are
inflected by immigration and rendered in songs. The next section, entitled “Family,”
explores the concept of “family” from diverse vantage points, including folk medicine,
cuisine, chauvinism, business and street violence, and immigration laws. The ensuing
“Politics” section probes topics including prison, discrimination, cultural theft, imperial-
ism, the Vietnam War, and religions. The “Heroes & Sheroes, Anti & Otherwise” section
comprises poems portraying deities, heroes and anti-heroes in folklore, fairy tales,
literature, popular culture, and politics.
In addition, selected poetics are ensconced in a final part called “Manifestos.” Ranging
from the Black Aesthetic Movement and the Asian American aesthetic to feminist, lan-
guage, and hip-hop poetics, most of these poetics herein gravitate toward a joint view of
poetry’s referentiality. Moreover, the poets’ biographies and publications are helpfully
encapsulated in a list of contributors at the end of the volume. Though as Duriel E. Harris
suggests, the anthology features a more than usual number of works by California-based
poets, the majority of critics responded favorably to this anthology’s forum of diversity and
its excavation of lesser known poets. Following his earlier endeavors, Calafia: The
California Poetry (1979) and The Before Columbus Poetry Anthology (1992), From Totems
to Hip-Hop, reflecting Reed’s vision, seeks to restore to the canon of American poetry its
veritable and inherent multicultural constitution.

FURTHER READING
Guillory, Daniel L. “Review of From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry across
the Americas, 1900–2002.” Library Journal, Vol. 128 Issue 6 (April 1, 2003): 104.
Harris, Duriel E. “Review of From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry across
the Americas, 1900–2002.” Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 5 Issue 3 (May/June 2003): 59.

Yi-Hsuan Tso
 G
GEORGE, NELSON (1957–). Professional writer, cultural critic, and filmmaker
whose work spans over 25 years. One of the first writers to seriously document, study, and
critique hip hop culture.
Nelson George began establishing his career as a writer for the New York-based black
paper The Amsterdam News and Billboard magazine. In addition to being an independent
film critic, George served as the black music editor of Billboard magazine during part of
his tenure from 1982–1989. His 1985 piece, which appeared in the Village Voice, “Rappin
with Russell: Eddie Murphying the Flak-Catchers,” was cautiously optimistic about an up-
and-coming producer/manager Russell Simmons of Rush Management and the emergent
rap music. The relationship with Simmons has resulted in a lifelong collaboration of films,
books, and cable television programs including Cold Chillin in the Hot Spot, Life and Def:
Sex, Drugs, Money, and God, and producing 2004–2008 VH1’s Hip Hop Honors series
(George, 87). George’s criticism foreshadowed the budding industry of not only hip hop
music but also hip hop journalism and cultural criticism.
Also during this period George published significant volumes, Where Did Our Love Go:
The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound (1986) and The Death of Rhythm & Blues (1988). The
text of Where Did Our Love Go detailed the highs and lows of Motown Records with a spe-
cific focus on the role of self-motivated Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. and his unique
method of finding and grooming talent. The Death of Rhythm & Blues chronicles the trans-
formation of race music to R&B and the role black expressive culture plays in the political
and social landscape beyond music. The themes in these works would merge with the subject
of hip hop in his Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture (1992).
Although George continued to write both fiction and nonfiction works, his film produc-
tion increased during the 1990s. Beginning with investing in his then neighbor’s (Spike
Lee) film, She’s Gotta Have It (1985), he produced and or co-wrote for the films Just
Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1993), Strictly Business (1991), and the Chris Rock vehicle,
CB4 (1993). George’s work in film continues with more recent programs, such as consult-
ing producer of the Chris Rock Show, directing and producing the HBO film Life Support
(2007), and another more recent project, To Be A Black Man (2004), starring Samuel
Jackson. One of his documentary pieces, A Great Day in Hip Hop (2004), revisits the con-
cept of A Great Day in Harlem. Hip hop magazine XXL had a photo shoot on the same
block and in front of the same building as the famous A Great Day in Harlem jazz photo.
The short film captures a timeline from the old to the new of hip hop emcees. Pioneering
filmmaker and photographer Gordon Parks, the shoots photographer, is also featured.
George’s beginning film work participated in an important aspect of hip hop cinema.
The early films of the 1990s are part of the post civil rights, typically urban black youth
 GIOVANNI, NIKKI 99

coming-of-age film genre known as “hood” films. The hood films are marked by certain
production and artistic similarities: they are predominately made by young, African
American men working with minimalist budgets and deal with related narrative content—
African American men trying to stay alive despite the trappings of the hood (crimes, drugs,
racism)—and they illustrate a different language of cinematic techniques, relying on
African American cultural clues to move the story. Also during this period, though prima-
rily known as a provocative, insightful nonfiction writer, George began to produce more
urban romance fiction volumes, including Seduced: Life & Times of a One Hit Wonder,
One Woman Short, and more recently, Night Work.

See also And It Don’t Stop!: The Best American Hip Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years;
Detective/Mystery Fiction; Hip Hop America; Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and God

FURTHER READING
George, Nelson. Blackface: Reflections on African-Americans and the Movies, 1st edition. New
York: HarperCollins, 1994.
———. Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture, 1st edition. New York:
Harper Collins Publishers, 1992.
———. The Death of Rhythm & Blues. New York: Plume, 1988.
———. Fresh, Hip Hop Don’t Stop. 1st Ed. New York: Random House, 1985.
———. Hip Hop America. New York: Viking, 1998.
———. The Michael Jackson Story. New York: Dell, 1984.
———. Post-Soul Nation : The Explosive, Contradictory, Triumphant, and Tragic 1980s as Experi-
enced by African Americans (Previously Known as Blacks and before that Negroes). New York:
Viking, 2004.
———. Where Did Our Love Go?: The Rise & Fall of the Motown Sound. 1st Ed. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1987.

Akil Houston

GIOVANNI, NIKKI (1943–). Nikki Giovanni is a world renowned author,

speaker, poet, social activist, and educator who is considered one of the leaders of the
black poetry movement.
Giovanni was born as Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr. on June 7, 1943, in Knoxville,
Tennessee, to Jones “Gus” and Yolande Cornelia. Giovanni’s older sister, Gary Ann, began
calling her “Nikki” and the name stayed. Shortly after Giovanni was born, the family
moved to Lincoln Heights, a predominantly black suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. Both her
parents accepted low-paying teaching positions at different schools. In 1958 her father
accepted a job in a correctional facility and her mother worked in the local welfare office.
Even though the family was making more money, the family still experienced the tensions
of financial problems, so Giovanni moved back to Knoxville to live with her grandmother.
Her grandmother, who was involved in many charities and political groups, was very influ-
ential on the young Giovanni, who would later participate in these same groups and take
on many of the social injustices she witnessed.
In 1960 Giovanni enrolled at Fisk University but was later expelled because she
voiced her dissatisfaction with many of the university’s rules. Later, in 1967, she was
reaccepted and graduated with a B.A. in history. While at Fisk, Giovanni was involved
100 GIOVANNI, NIKKI

in the Black Arts Movement and helped organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee.
In college, Giovanni attended several writing workshops but never considered writing as
her career until her grandmother died in 1967. Giovanni began writing poetry, much of
which appeared in Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968). In her early poems, she tried to raise
African American’s awareness about their rights and to show them that they needed to rec-
ognize their own identities, not to try to imitate or emulate another culture. During this
time, people thought of her as a revolutionary Black Rights poet and gave her the nick-
name the “Princess of Black Poetry.” Inspired to do even more, Giovanni decided to move
to Wilmington, Delaware, and attend the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social
Work. She soon left college to fight against social injustices. She attended Martin Luther
King Jr.’s funeral in Atlanta and was so moved by the experience that she wanted to share
her experiences and the experiences of African Americans with others. She decided that
one way she could achieve this goal was through writing. She moved to New York City and
attended a Master of Fine Arts program at Columbia University.
In 1969 her son Thomas Watson Giovanni was born. While spending time with her
infant son, Giovanni edited and published one of the first anthologies of black females’
poetry, Night Comes Softly (1970). At this time she also published her autobiography,
Gemini (1971), and Spin a Soft Black Song (1971), a collection of poetry for children. She
spent the next several years speaking, traveling, and writing until 1978, when she moved
back to Cincinnati when her father had a stroke and was diagnosed with cancer. After her
father’s death, she taught at several colleges and universities and finally accepted a per-
manent tenured English professor position at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.
In January 1995, Giovanni was diagnosed with lung cancer but continued to write. Her
poetry, even today, describes racial issues and social injustices, but many of her poems also
display her strong religious upbringing and her sense of family. She completed several col-
lections of children’s poetry despite suffering great losses. Both her mother and sister died
in 2005 from lung cancer, which led Giovanni to try to make people aware that there is a
high rate of lung cancer for African Americans. Even today, Giovanni believes in standing
up for what she believes. In 2007, Giovanni found herself being interviewed after the
shootings that killed 32 people at Virginia Tech. She stated that she had Cho Sueng Hui,
the killer, removed from her classroom because he was exhibiting behavior that was intim-
idating, and if the school hadn’t removed him, she would have resigned.
Giovanni has received over 70 awards, including the first Rosa Parks Woman of Courage
Award in 2002, keys to many of the major cities in the United States, and over 20 honorary
degrees. In 2004 Robert Baker, a biologist, named a new species of bat in her honor.
She will be remembered as one of the greatest American poets. Her poetry touches peo-
ple because it is “real”; she writes about events, historical and personal. She is a person
who writes about life as she experienced it—even sharing her “thug life” tattoo that she
got in memory of Tupac Shakur.

See also Black Poetry

FURTHER READING
Giovanni, Nikki. Black Feeling, Black Talk. New York: William Morrow, 1968.
———. Dialogue: Conversations with James Baldwin. New York: William Morrow, 1973.
———. Ego Tripping and Other Poems for Young People. New York: William Morrow, 1973.
 GIRLS FROM DA HOOD 101

———. Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being

a Black Poet. New York: William Morrow, 1971.
———. Love Poems. New York: William Morrow, 1997.
———. Racism 101. New York: Quill, 1994.

Candace A. Henry

GIRLS FROM DA HOOD. Books series edited by Nikki Turner, hip hop literature
novelist and publisher.
Nikki Turner, the “Queen of Hip Hop Fiction,” began as the lead writer for the Girls
From Da Hood (2004) book series, which is issued by Urban Books, a Kensington Press
imprint. As part of the growing phenomenon of urban fiction, sometimes referred to as
“street,” “ghetto,” or “hip hop” fiction, the Girls From Da Hood series earns its distinction
as a venue to introduce new writers into the urban fiction fold. The series originally paired
a novella-length story written by Turner with two novellas written by two relatively
unknown urban writers. The pairing delivered Turner’s well-established reading audience
to these new writers, while providing them a space to develop their own voices and story-
lines. The success of the original Girls From Da Hood spawned three more installments in
the series, and Turner, after lending one more novella to the Girls From Da Hood series,
branched out to produce her own series-based projects published by Random House: Street
Chronicles Volume I and II and another novella series listed under the rubric of “Nikki
Turner Presents.” Thus, the Girls From Da Hood series has the distinction of introducing
this author presentation format to the publishing world of urban fiction.
The first installment of Girls From Da Hood was published in 2004 and has been
followed by two more installments, with the fourth book in the series to be published in
2008. Authors of the novellas include Chunichi, Roy Glenn, Joy, Kashamba Williams,
Mark Anthony, and MadameK, many of whom have gone on to have fruitful careers pub-
lishing solo novels for the Urban Books imprint. Girls From Da Hood, while serving as
a training ground for these artists, features protagonists whose ages and racial identities
mirror those of the intended audience of the series: young, black women between 15 and
25 years of age. Like much urban fiction, the young protagonists of this series are urban
dwelling and find themselves caught up in various scenarios that may combine one or
more of the following plot lines: embarking on an ill-fated love affair with a drug dealer
or hustler, becoming a drug dealer, developing a self-destructive drug habit, entering the
world of stripping and/or prostitution, committing murder, and, finally, doing a bid in the
state penitentiary.
Although the original book in the series featured three novellas set in the Richmond area
of Virginia, later books in the series feature urban settings ranging from Brooklyn, New
York, to Miami, Florida. All of the novellas are complete within themselves; however, over
the course of the series, locations, events, and even characters are cross-referenced to cre-
ate intertextuality between the stories. For instance, Turner reprised her character, Unique,
for the second issue of the series, offering readers a more comprehensive story of charac-
ter progress. There is an open-endedness to all the stories in the series, which allows char-
acters to be reintroduced in future issues. Thus, each story has the potential to become a
serial, rather than a finished product.
Like most urban fiction, the Girls From Da Hood series makes use of sex and violence
to propel forward the storylines of its novellas. This coupling is done to not only delight
102 GOINES, DONALD

but also instruct its young readers in the vices of a life lived as indiscreetly as the protag-
onists of these stories. As Nikki Turner notes, she’s interested not only in entertaining her
readership but also in showing them how destructive a life riddled with crime, sex, and
drugs can be. Turner has said that a book such as A Hustler’s Wife is “not just about
drugs—it’s about a girl and her struggle. I wanted to warn young girls about street life.
They never know the risks that come with it. They listen to the music and see the bling-
bling. But nobody ever says what can happen to you—that you can go to jail. . . . I try not
to reinforce stereotypes, I try to show a different light.” Although the Girls From Da Hood
series may do little to deconstruct notions of black sexual ferocity or innate black violence,
it does attempt to create a rich and dynamic imaginary space for new and more established
writers of urban fiction to co-create.

See also Triple Crown Publications; Turner, Nikki

FURTHER READING
Kilgonnon, Corey. “Street Lit with Publishing Cred: From Prison to a Four-Book Deal.” The New
York Times, 14 Feb. 2006, 1.
Venable, Malcolm, Tayannah McQuillar, and Yvette Mingo. “It’s Urban, It’s Real, but Is This Liter-
ature? Controversy Rages Over a New Genre Whose Sales Are Headed Off the Charts.” Black
Issues Book Review (Sept.–Oct.2004).
Weeks, Linton. “New Books in the Hood: Street Lit Makes Inroads with Readers and Publishers.”
Washington Post, 31 July 2004, C01.

Eve Dunbar

GOINES, DONALD (1937–1974). One of the first writers of African American

urban fiction.
Donald Goines penned 16 novels that helped define the seminal themes of the genre: the
tragic allure of the black criminal underworld, racism and classism in the American justice
system, and insurgent black revolt against white oppression. All of Goines’s books were
originally published between 1971 and 1975, but his work has never gone out of print and
remains popular among African American readers.
Donald Joseph Goines was born in Detroit on December 15, 1937, to Joseph and Myrtle
(née Baugh) Goines. His parents met in 1929 after their families relocated to Michigan
during the Great Migration, a development that saw thousands of southern blacks move to
urban centers in the North to escape racist violence and pursue industrial employment. Fol-
lowing a brief stint in Chicago, Joseph and Myrtle settled in Detroit and started their own
dry cleaning business. Their company’s modest success allowed their three children—
Donald, his older sister Marie, and his younger sister Joan—to enjoy a relatively stable
middle class upbringing.
Goines spent his early years at Sacred Heart, a Catholic school, and helped his parents
with the dry cleaning business in his free time. In his teens, however, he attended public
schools and was drawn to the young hustlers who populated Detroit’s poor black neigh-
borhoods. Goines’s rebellious streak came to a head when, at the age of fifteen, he passed
Marie’s birth certificate off as his own and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Goines served in
Japan during the Korean War, and though he eventually became a military police officer,
the time he spent overseas also saw him indulge in whoring and heavy drug use.
 GOINES, DONALD 103

Goines was only seventeen when the war ended in 1953. He returned to Detroit and
resumed living with his family but was unable to hold down a steady job. Soon Goines
turned to pimping and petty crime to feed the heroin habit he had developed in the mili-
tary. Supporting his drug addiction with income from criminal activity became Goines’s
primary pursuit. Over the next fifteen years, he established himself in Detroit’s black
underworld and racked up prison sentences for, among other things, attempted larceny,
armed robbery, and bootlegging. It was during his final stint as an inmate, in Michigan’s
Jackson State Prison, that Goines was inspired to write novels about life in the ghetto.
The source of Goines’s inspiration was an author whose recently published paperback
books were in demand among black inmates. Iceberg Slim’s fictional autobiography Pimp
(1967) and novel Trick Baby (1967) struck a chord with these readers because they artic-
ulated first-hand knowledge of the ghetto underworld. Goines embraced Slim as a literary
model, recognizing that he too had an archive of experiences that would make for enter-
taining reading. With the encouragement of other inmates, he produced the manuscript that
would become Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp (1972). Goines’s fictional autobi-
ography transports the reader into the cold, calculating mind of Whoreson Jones, a young
man who figures pimping is his surest path to success in the ghetto. In the course of the
narrative, Whoreson learns how to control women through emotional manipulation, phys-
ical abuse, and sexual gratification. This storyline has much in common with Slim’s Pimp,
but Whoreson bears what would come to be Goines’s literary mark: graphic, almost
unbearable, depictions of sexual and physical violence.
By the time Goines was released from prison in December 1970, he had already secured
a contract for Whoreson from Slim’s Los Angeles-based publisher, Holloway House.
Although the manuscript for that novel was held up in the editorial process, Holloway
House offered Goines a contract for another manuscript. This novel, Dopefiend: Story of a
Black Junkie (1971), would appear before Whoreson, and its repertoire of characters and
themes are drawn from Goines’s experiences as a heroin addict. Mirroring Goines’s path
to addiction, Teddy and his girlfriend Terry leave the comfort and security provided by
their middle class families when a pusher named Porky gets them hooked on heroin. Fore-
going their dreams and laying waste to their potential, Teddy and Terry take to hustling on
the streets as a means of funding their habit. In addition to the tragic power of this story-
line, the detailed descriptions of shadowy drug houses and needle-ravaged bodies make
Dopefiend one of Goines’s most memorable works.
In 1972 Holloway House also published Black Gangster. Both an engaging crime story
and a satire of African American social protest, this novel relates how Melvin “Prince”
Walker starts a revolutionary organization, the Freedom Now Liberation Movement
(FNLM), to use as a front for his fledgling criminal operation. Prince’s nod toward political
struggle is calculated to serve his material interests, but it also reveals the extent to which
protest sloganeering has supplanted genuine political change in the black community. Black
Gangster’s cynical vision of social justice in a post civil rights world signaled that Goines
was beginning to distinguish himself from Slim, who was his senior by almost twenty years.
Following the success of his first three titles, Goines and his common-law wife, Shirley
Sailor, moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his publisher and the Hollywood scene. It was
here that Goines sustained a frantic and productive period of writing. With an eye toward
adapting his novels for film, particularly in the flourishing blaxploitation genre, Goines
published Street Players, Black Girl Lost, and White Man’s Justice, Black Man’s Grief in
1973. In these books Goines honed his ability to describe the abject conditions of poverty
and incarceration in graphic, almost visual, detail. Street Players tells the story of a pimp
104 GOINES, DONALD

and drug dealer, Earl the Black Pearl, whose ruin follows the brutal murder of a prostitute
he came to love. Black Girl Lost features a young female heroine, Sandra, whose inno-
cence is a target for economic and sexual exploitation in the black criminal underworld;
the only positive relationship in her life, with her boyfriend Chink, ends in tragedy. Finally,
White Man’s Justice is Goines’s scathing indictment of the American justice system, in
which black men are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement and black inmates are
subject to bigotry, harassment, and psychosexual depravity. The novel’s depiction of
homosexuality is phobic and reactionary, but it reflects Goines’s belief that the racial
inequities of prison life are largely expressed through symbolic emasculation.
In 1974 Goines continued his breakneck pace of writing, in part because he needed
advances and royalty payments to fund his heroin habit. No fewer than eight books of his
were published that year; these included Eldorado Red, Swamp Man, Never Die Alone, and
Daddy Cool. Eldorado Red is based on Goines’s knowledge of the “numbers” game, a
popular form of illegal gambling in urban black communities. The novel turns on a son
rebelling against his father by robbing his profitable numbers houses, where the daily
“take” is counted. Goines himself served time for attempting to rob a numbers house in
Detroit; his depictions of bloodlust in Eldorado Red reveal the lengths to which people are
willing to go to claim their stake in the ghetto’s most lucrative underground venture.
Swamp Man is the only one of Goines’s novels to be set outside of the city and in the
South. It reflects Goines’s attempt to come to terms with the racist violence from which
his parents’ families fled during the Great Migration. George Jackson and his sister
Henrietta witness the brutal lynching of their father by a group of white men; these men
later kidnap and rape Henrietta upon her return from college. Recognizing there is no jus-
tice to be had for such crimes in the South, George becomes the novel’s eponymous hero
and hunts down his family’s torturers through the swamps.
Never Die Alone advances Goines’s most uncompromising vision of the black crime
lord. Struggling writer Paul Pawlowski discovers the diary of King David, a fearsome
gangster and cocaine pusher who has just been assassinated, and recounts the events that
led to his rise and fall. King David is revealed to have been a narcissistic and wildly vio-
lent man, a criminal who sought to make the ghetto his personal sphere of power and
exploitation. Goines’s unflinching descriptions of King David’s viciousness and greed
eventually convince Paul that “[this] man needed killing.”
Finally, Daddy Cool consciously builds on themes laid out in Black Girl Lost. Whereas
Sandra is the savior of Chink’s, or “Daddy’s,” soul at the end of Black Girl Lost, Daddy
Cool sees professional hit man Larry Jackson struggling to keep his daughter Janet off the
streets. In some ways Janet is a more well-rounded character than Sandra: she is openly
rebellious of her father yet always searching for fatherly protection, desirous of a better life
yet drawn to the criminal underworld. Goines’s narrative plays on these contradictions to
great effect, setting up a final showdown between Larry and Janet that is at once cruel and
bittersweet.
Goines attached the pseudonym “Al C. Clark”—the name of a friend—to the four other
novels that appeared in 1974. His publisher recommended this strategy in view of the sheer
number of books that had been circulating with his name on them. To mute the impression
that Holloway House was saturating the African American literary market with Goines’s fic-
tion, some books needed to come out under a pseudonym. Excepting Cry Revenge!, a tale
of black-Chicano interracial conflict in New Mexico, the resulting novels—Crime Partners,
Death List, and Kenyatta’s Escape, along with Kenyatta’s Last Hit (1975)—constitute a
series about a militant black leader’s efforts to rid the streets of drugs, prostitutes, and
 GOINES, DONALD 105

racist white cops. That leader’s name is Kenyatta, and over the course of four books, his
organization expands from a collectivist militia in Detroit to a 2,000-strong following in
Los Angeles. In contrast to Black Gangster, these late novels reveal Goines’s deadly seri-
ous attitude toward the question of black self-determination. Facing racist law enforcement
and government indifference to their plight, Kenyatta calls on denizens of the ghetto to
take matters into their own hands and police the streets themselves. Although Kenyatta is
slain in a shootout with a white drug kingpin in the last book in the series, his vision of
insurrectionary violence as the only means of eradicating drug addiction and intraracial
exploitation in the ghetto is Goines’s most explicitly political response to the injustices that
pervade poor black people’s lives.
The novels of 1974 solidified Goines’s reputation as the most widely read author of
African American pulp fiction. Yet, even at the peak of his literary career, Goines’s per-
sonal life was in shambles: he was broke, strung out on heroin, and fraught with anxiety
about his writing and his professional relationship with Holloway House. Eventually
Goines decided that a move back to Detroit would help put these demons behind him. The
decision proved to be unfortunate, however, for it was in his hometown that Goines met a
grisly end. On October 21, 1974, he and Sailor were shot dead in their home in an appar-
ent robbery. Detroit police speculated that the slayings were drug-related, but friends and
family members thought Goines was targeted for whatever royalties he might have col-
lected as an author. The murders remain unsolved.
Along with the final installment of the Kenyatta series, Goines’s novel Inner City
Hoodlum was completed in Detroit and published posthumously, in 1975. Appearing
almost immediately after Goines’s death was Eddie Stone’s Donald Writes No More
(1974), an in-house biography that highlights the ways in which Holloway House offered
the struggling addict the opportunity to pursue his dreams of becoming a writer. Journal-
ist Eddie B. Allen Jr.’s recent biography Low Road (2004) is more even-handed in its treat-
ment of Goines’s literary career, drawing on unpublished notes and letters to reveal the
editorial pressure under which the author was contractually obliged to work.
Despite his untimely death, Goines lives on through his books’ influence on African
American popular culture. Characters such as Kenyatta and Larry Jackson have become
icons of urban black masculinity, celebrated for their unflinching confrontation with white
racism and street violence. This representation of black masculinity has been central to the
formation of hip hop culture, where a generation of artists and producers grew up under-
standing the plight of poor black communities through Goines’s novels. Among the rap-
pers who cite Goines in their lyrics are Tupac Shakur, Nas (Nasir Jones), and Ludacris
(Christopher Bridges).
In recent years Holloway House has pursued opportunities to market its flagship author
beyond the pulp fiction sphere. In 1997 W. W. Norton’s imprint Old School Books repub-
lished Daddy Cool in a trade paperback edition. As a review in Entertainment Weekly put
it, this stylistically “cool” edition marked Goines’s introduction to the mainstream liter-
ary market. Hollywood, too, has been an attractive source of revenue for Holloway
House. Rights to Goines’s work were sold in the midst of the burgeoning market for
African American-oriented films in the 1990s and early 2000s. The unremarkable,
straight-to-video Crime Partners (2001) was a major disappointment for Goines fans, but
Never Die Alone (2004), directed by Ernest R. Dickerson and starring rapper DMX as
King David, was considered a moderate success. Less noticed in the mainstream was the
independent documentary Donnie’s Story, which was released in 2004. Director Kelvin
Williams’s film reconstructed Goines’s life through interviews with surviving family
106 GRAPHIC NOVELS

members and gave testament to his legacy through interviews with rap stars such as
DMX, Ice Cube, and Fab 5 Freddy.
Still, Goines’s most enduring contribution to black popular culture remains the best-
selling novels on which he built his reputation. Along with Iceberg Slim’s oeuvre, Goines’s
16 books were responsible for establishing the predominant themes of African American
pulp fiction. He did this not only by writing so many novels in such a short period of time
but also by drawing on personal experiences that, for his readers, captured the essence of
life on the street. The authenticity of Goines’s language, plotlines, and character portraits
has served as an aesthetic benchmark for authors of urban fiction and hip hop literature
more generally.

See also Dopefiend: The Story of a Black Junkie; Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Donald
Goines; Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp

FURTHER READING
Allen, Eddie B., Jr. Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Donald Goines. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
2004.
Goines, Donald. Black Gangster. Los Angles, CA: Holloway House, 1972.
———. Black Girl Lost. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1973.
——— (as Al C. Clark). Crime Partners. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.
——— (as Al C. Clark). Cry Revenge! Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.
———. Daddy Cool. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.
——— (as Al C. Clark). Death List. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.
———. Dopefiend: The Story of a Black Junkie. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1971.
———. Eldorado Red. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.
———. Inner City Hoodlum. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1975.
——— (as Al C. Clark). Kenyatta’s Escape. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.
——— (as Al C. Clark). Kenyatta’s Last Hit. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1975.
———. Never Die Alone. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.
———. Street Players. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1973.
———. Swamp Man. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.
———. White Man’s Justice, Black Man’s Grief. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1973.
———. Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1972.
Goode, Greg. “From Dopefiend to Kenyatta’s Last Hit: The Angry Black Crime Novels of Donald
Goines.” MELUS, Vol. 11 Issue 3 (1984): 41–48.
Grant, Tracy. “Why Hip-Hop Heads Love Donald Goines.” Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 3 Issue 5
(2001): 53.
Ruta, Suzanne. “Review of Daddy Cool by Donald Goines.” Entertainment Weekly (25 Jul. 1997): 66.
Stallings, L. H. “‘I’m Goin Pimp Whores!’ The Goines Factor and the Theory of a Hip Hop
Neo-Slave Narrative.” CR: The New Centennial Review, Vol. 3 Issue 3 (2003): 175–203.
Stone, Eddie. Donald Writes No More. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.

Kinohi Nishikawa

GRAPHIC NOVELS. Serialized, drawn narratives with hip hop themes.

Despite their resemblance to serial comic books in both form and design, graphic nov-
els are works of narrative art that typically avoid the otherworldly exploits and improba-
ble scenarios of superhero comics. Instead, many graphic novels render the lives of their
characters with an attention to the drama, conflict, and intensity that is already inherent
 GRAPHIC NOVELS 107

in the world we know. Graphic novels are still comic books, however, and they often
adopt many of the same conventions, including the juxtaposition of word and image, the
use of frames and panels, and the movement away from realistic models of artistic repre-
sentation. In many respects, it is by working within these conventions that graphic novels
are able to assert their distinct rhetorical force; they tell stories for which words alone
cannot suffice. For example, Will Eisner’s 1978 graphic novel, A Contract With God—
largely regarded as the first major work to use the term “graphic novel”—stages the harsh
reality of life in New York tenements with simple, black-and-white drawings that are at
once whimsical and haunting.
Given the singular importance of visual presentation and representation in hip hop
culture—from the guerilla aesthetics of graffiti to the iconic images of rappers such as
50 Cent and MF Doom—it is no surprise that a number of key texts may be character-
ized as hip hop graphic novels. First, there are those graphic novels in which the culture
and music of hip hop is a principal theme. The series of three novels that comprise Ahmed
Hoke’s @Large combine the art of both hip hop culture and Japanese manga to tell the
story of an L.A. crew of rappers, graf artists, and thugs who become tangled in a terrorist
conspiracy. Negotiating tragedy and comedy, @Large uses the medium of comics to cre-
ate an ironic portrait of a world in which image itself is everything; Hoke’s artistry uses
cartoon and caricature to interrogate the distortion of identity on the streets. Similarly, the
first collected volume of Blokhedz—produced by the “MadTwiinz,” Mark and Mike
Davis—follows a talented young MC, Blak, as he wrestles with temptations of fame, vio-
lence, and vengeance on the streets of the fictional Empire City. Illustrated with rich and
often luminous colors, Blokhedz balances a sense of the supernatural and the innate; Blak
discovers that he is the recipient of mystical superpowers, but he also realizes that his
prowess as an MC allows for battles that are purely verbal.
The term graphic novel is also often used to describe books that are not works of fiction
at all but memoirs that use images and illustrations to reveal one’s personal history. Per-
haps the most emblematic hip hop graphic novel of this type is Sentences: The Life of MF
Grimm, which was written by Percy Carey—better known as the rapper and producer MF
Grimm—and illustrated by Ronald Wimberly. In Sentences, Carey tells the story of his life
as the story of hip hop itself, from his early infatuation with block parties and sound sys-
tems to his years as a drug dealer and gangsta. Carey characterizes himself as someone
simply unable to stay out of trouble, and the memoir contrasts scenes of stark violence and
aggression with more reflective and thoughtful moments—especially during the years in
which he was both in prison and paralyzed after a shooting. Above all, though, it is hip hop
that is framed as the dominant presence in his life, and the music is something to which
Carey and his narrative consistently return. For Carey, the spirit and soul of the music is
the principal reason for looking beyond the immediate reality of the streets.
There are also a number of graphic novels that invoke the tenets and tropes of hip hop
as a model for storytelling, even if the music is not the apparent subject of the novel.
Aaron McGruder, celebrated creator of The Boondocks comic strip, worked with Regi-
nald Hudlin and illustrator Kyle Baker to write Birth of a Nation—the title of which sig-
nifies D. W. Griffith’s notorious 1915 film about the Ku Klux Klan. Drawn in a colorful
style that is oddly reminiscent of The Proud Family television cartoon, this graphic novel
presents an ironic tale of independence and hubris; after East St. Louis, Illinois, is disen-
franchised in a national election, its mayor is coerced into seceding from the United
States and forming the sovereign Republic of Blackland. Another graphic novel of this
type is Ho Che Anderson’s masterful King, a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that
108 GRAPHIC NOVELS

occasionally sacrifices journalistic veracity for pure style and storytelling. In some ways,
Anderson’s art conveys the rhythmic connotations of a beat; King is marked by an inter-
locking collage of drawings, text, photographs, and colors that alternately achieve differ-
ent cadences and accents in their juxtaposition. Finally, the four issues that are collected
in Jim Mahfood’s Grrl Scouts trace the path of three drug-dealing young women who
aspire to old school authenticity in a world of commercialized culture and organized
crime. Mahfood’s distinctive style—as with the other artists noted here—communicates
the fluidity and immediacy of hip hop within a purely visual medium.

See also Comics

FURTHER READING
Anderson, Ho Che. King: A Comic Book Biography. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics, 2005.
Carey, Percy, and Ronald Wimberly. Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm. New York: Vertigo, 2007.
Davis, Mark, Mike Davis, and Brandon Schultz. Blokhedz: Genesis. Vol. 1. New York: Pocket
Books, 2007.
Hoke, Ahmed. @Large. 3 vols. Los Angeles, CA: Tokyopop, 2003–2005.
Mahfood, Jim. Grrl Scouts. Portland, OR: Oni Press, 2000.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperPerennial, 2004.
McGruder, Aaron, Reginald Hudlin, and Kyle Baker. Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel. New York:
Crown, 2004.
Stromberg, Fredrik. Black Images in Comics: A Visual History. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics, 2003.

David B. Olsen
 H
HARRIS, E. LYNN (1957–). One of the most commercially successful black
authors in history, his work addresses issues of color consciousness, class mobility, and
male homosexuality/bisexuality in black communities.
Harris spent his childhood in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the integrationist 1960s. He
attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he earned a degree in journal-
ism. After working as a computer salesman for thirteen years, he quit that job so he could
dedicate all his time to writing his first book. Three years after self-publishing Invisible
Life (1991) and selling it through African American bookstores and salons, Anchor Books
republished and mass-marketed the novel.
With Invisible Life Harris succeeded in producing a book that brought the often-unseen
lives of gay and bisexual black men into the public view. Harris implicitly links Ralph
Ellison’s metaphor, developed in Invisible Man, of the “invisibility” of blacks in America
to the existence of gay black men. Invisible Life speaks to how many of these men hide
their gay activities from black and white communities and from heterosexual women with
whom they have intercourse, a practice known as being on the “down low.” A female char-
acter tells the narrator, Raymond Tyler, that his gay affair is invisible to all except him and
his lover. Raymond’s longing for a deep and lasting relationship, as well as his concerns
about the spread of AIDS among both gay men and heterosexual women, refute simple
caricatures of gay figures as hedonistic and promiscuous.
The struggle of gay and bisexual black men to reconcile their sexualities with Christianity
and to find acceptance in their faith communities figures prominently in two novels by
Harris. His third novel, And This Too Shall Pass (1997), depicts black men and women at
various levels of comfort and disaffection with organized religion. Through several clever
narrative devices, Harris explains many of the diverse views about homosexuality held by
religious African Americans. The grandmother character of MamaCee provides one of the
more enlightened perspectives and makes a call, grounded in religious faith and family his-
tory, for loving treatment of gay black men. Whereas And This Too Shall Pass (2006) focuses
on the personal spiritualities of gay Christian men, I Say a Little Prayer, Harris’s ninth novel,
interrogates the institution of the black church itself and its openness to homosexuals. When
it is learned that a homophobic speaker with an anti-gay agenda will take part in a church
revival, the gay members of the church decide not to attend the revival to demonstrate their
presence in the church.
Not until What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir (2003) did Harris make a
deliberate turn away from fiction in order to write the story of his life. With a narrative
prose style similar to that used in his novels, Harris relates the story of his life from a less
than financially secure childhood to his success as an author. He reveals the difficulties of
110 THE HAUNTING OF HIP HOP

growing up in a home with a father who hated whatever was not masculine in his son and
describes how he eventually came to accept his sexuality.
Interested not only in adding his own voice to the American canon Harris has also tried
to bring greater attention to the vibrant work of black gay writers. As the editor for the
anthology Freedom in this Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men’s Writing, 1979
to the Present (2005), Harris collected work by gay black authors writing in novel, short
story, and poem forms with varied styles and subjects represented. In his introduction,
Harris situated these authors in a living tradition of writing that investigates issues and
desires black communities have been reluctant to acknowledge or embrace.
More broadly, certain concerns and practices run throughout Harris’s body of work. The
vast majority of his fiction centers on the lives of middle class black Americans who have
achieved some degree of social security and success. Most of Harris’s novels contain
moments of revelation when surprising secrets, often pertaining to characters’ sexual his-
tories, are made public. Benevolent, wise mentors occasionally appear in the form of older
family members to one of the central characters. Also, many of Harris’s novels build on
the stories of characters from previous books so that readers become invested in various
characters over time.

T. J. Geiger

THE HAUNTING OF HIP HOP (2002). In her novel The Haunting of Hip
Hop, Bertice Berry offers a modern ghost story that emphasizes the importance of chang-
ing one’s future by connecting with the past through music.
A hip hop producer in high demand, the main character Freedom is interested in pur-
chasing a supposedly haunted house in Harlem. The spirits gathered there are waiting to
tell their stories to Freedom’s generation before they are forgotten and today’s generation
is lost forever. Despite his friend Ava’s first-hand experience with the spirits and her insis-
tence he not buy the house, Freedom doesn’t listen and sneaks into the house, where a
malevolent spirit pushes him down the stairs, killing him. After this, he hears the story of
Ngozi, the spirit of his ancestor, which helps Freedom reconnect to his past and culture and
recognize the need to create music with a positive message. After Freedom’s death, Ava
also experiences the strength of connecting with one’s culture when she visits his family.
Even Charles, who resists anything to do with his old neighborhood, reconnects with his
roots when his grandmother comes to lay the spirits to rest.
Berry stresses that this generation, particularly musicians in the hip hop industry, have
lost the connection with their past and culture. Although their music has the same alluring
beat as that of the drum used by their ancestors to unite one another, it has no message, no
truth in it. In the novel, the lyrics of the rapper Elum N Nation are used as a typical example
and are referred to as “misogynistic, violent, and not at all pro-black” (2002, 29). Instead
of promoting positive change in people, the songs discuss acquiring material wealth,
performing acts of violence, and having sex.
Before his death, Freedom gets caught up in this hip hop lifestyle, even though he gets
more joy out of creating his own form of music. Because of this contradiction in his life,
Freedom illustrates another of Berry’s points. Ngozi states that whereas his people were
forced into slavery by others, many in Freedom’s generation have enslaved themselves.
They believe that happiness and security come from the accumulation of material wealth
and try their best to gain this. Even Freedom feels the need to produce hip hop music like
 HIP HOP: BEYOND BEATS AND RHYMES 111

that of Elum N Nation in order to have the “economic independence to do what he really
wanted to do artistically” (2002, 16). Ngozi recognizes this separation and sense of empti-
ness, stating “It comes from our inability to connect with one another in spirit and in life,
from past to present” (2002, 166).
Berry illustrates that there is hope for those in today’s hip hop industry, and for those
who listen to them, if they break this cycle of self-enslavement and reconnect to their
history. The only way to find peace and happiness is to remember the past but forgive, to
move on. Through the characters in her narrative, Berry urges these musicians to be a pos-
itive change in this world.

Nicole Staub

HIP HOP: BEYOND BEATS AND RHYMES (INDEPENDENT LENS,

USA, 2006). Written, produced, and directed by Byron Hurt, this documentary looks
at the construction of masculinity in hip hop culture and music.
Structured in traditional documentary style, this film uses a series of interviews with rap
artists, intellectuals, and consumers to frame the ways in which male identity is formed
quite often in ways that are violent, sexist, and homophobic. Hurt styles himself as a lover
of the genre who has the right and the responsibility to open up dialogue and critique.
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes conducts interviews with industry insiders such as
Chuck D, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes, Doug E. Fresh, and Russell Simmons;
activist Kevin Powell; and artist Sarah Jones. Most notable among the responses were
Busta Rhymes’s refusal to discuss homophobia, Russell Simmons’s skirting of the issue
when it came to misogyny in rap, and Chuck D’s declaration that BET had proved
cancerous to the minds and hearts of black males.
Hurt visited the campus of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, to talk to some of the
women at the forefront of the controversy with rapper Nelly. Nelly’s foundation proposed
to hold a bone marrow drive on Spelman’s campus in 2004. Several Spelman students
wanted to have a dialogue with Nelly regarding the presentation of women in the music
video for his song “Tip Drill.” Rather than speak with the women, Nelly canceled the bone
marrow drive. Also responding to the issues in the film are Spelman Professor William
Jelani Cobb, author of To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (2008),
and popular culture pundit Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor of Sociology at
Georgetown University.
In order to bring a fully balanced perspective to the film Hurt embarks upon what may be
the most interesting aspect of his documentary. Hurt takes his camera to a BET “spring fling”
in Florida. As scarcely clad women walk the beat, young men point cameras and fingers at
what they presume are female bodies at their disposal. When Hurt asks the young men why
they assume the women are “bitches” and “hos,” one young man tries to make a distinction
between “hos” and “sisters.” Many of the men are burgeoning rappers, who spit violent,
misogynistic, homophobic lyrics with incredible speed and dexterity. The would-be rappers
are even able to provide a critique about the popularity of such lyrics. They seem anxious to
pontificate that major record labels aren’t interested in lyrics and platforms that uplift the
constituency. It is quite disheartening that none of them offer a critique of art, entertainment,
or technology that proposes ways to build audiences that do not involve major corporations.
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes is a significant contribution to the growing body of
work that asks hip hop to grow up, engage in self-reflection, and be responsible for its
112 HIP HOP AMERICA

actions. Although the film is a brief introduction to some incredibly complex issues in hip
hop and popular culture, it opens the door in a way that encourages open discourse.

FURTHER READING
Berg, S. M. “Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip-Hop
Culture.” Off Our Backs, Vol. 37 Issue 1 (2007): 53.

Tarshia L. Stanley

HIP HOP AMERICA (1998). Nelson George’s 1998 publication Hip Hop America
is a critical analysis of hip hop’s development and position as both an American art form
and African American cultural expression.
The intersection of hip hop’s two identities, American art form and African American
cultural expression, according to George, simultaneously accounts for hip hop’s ingenuity,
derivativeness, and contradictions as a music form. Continuing with the critical authorial
voice he established in his 1988 publication The Death of Rhythm and Blues, George deftly
traces the evolution of hip hop from its infancy to its current status in a manner equally
appealing to the casual fan of the music and the most critical hip hop scholar.
George’s analysis starts with the claim that the development of hip hop as a cultural
influence can be linked to its shared parentage within American and African American cul-
ture. As George points out, the identification of hip hop as an art form that comes out of
the African American experience is undeniable. But many of the values that have come to
define hip hop culture including an obsession with avarice and violence are certainly not
new in the pantheon of wider American culture. The seemingly entirely negative linkage
between American and African American culture that George appears to be saying is
embodied in hip hop is not the entire story of this music, nor is it George’s entire analysis
of it.
Beginning his analysis of hip hop with what seems to be such a grim correlation serves
to lead George into his larger commentaries concerning hip hop’s position as an artistic
and cultural force worthy of as in-depth a consideration as he offers with Hip Hop
America. What George highlights in drawing such a correlation is the uneasiness of hip
hop’s cultural identity in that its history as black American counterculture runs parallel to
its emergence as one of the leading purveyors of American cultural capitalism and deca-
dence. This circumstance leads George to refer to hip hop as “contested ground” when it
comes to issues of race, generation, class, gender, and sexuality.
George points out that several contradictions exist in hip hop as a result of its contestable
position within African American and American culture. A few of note are the following:
hip hop’s position as a music form of undeniable ingenuity, when a great deal of hip hop
structure and performance is borrowed from older music; hip hop’s supposed attention to
social justice and equality when it largely commodifies women and discriminates against
non-blacks and homosexuals; the authenticity of hip hop as being of and belonging to the
black urban experience, when its popularity and survival is largely fueled by its millions
of white customers; and the upholding of hip hop’s lyricism as its prominent feature, when
most popular hip hop is driven by the catchiness of its beats.
George attributes hip hop’s complex identity and resulting contradictions to its being a
“product of schizophrenic, post civil rights America.” In detailing these contradictions and
the evolutionary stages of hip hop—“post soul” to “old school” to “new school” to “gangsta
 HIP HOP; HIPHOP; HIP-HOP; HIP HOP; HIP-HOP CULTURE 113

rap” to today—and contextualizing each stage with discussion of the social climate that
accompanied it, George illuminates the pressure hip hop is burdened with as the entire cul-
ture struggles to maintain its integrity as the reminding voice for the strife of the countless
black urban forgotten, while needing to acknowledge the white masses not only for the
money they spend, but also because their realities have contributed to and are shaped by all
that hip hop culture embodies.
Not lost in all of this is that much of hip hop’s appeal as an art form is the fact that it is
just fun. George makes sure to keep sight of this simple fact with personal stories and
experiences that celebrate hip hop’s whimsicality as much as they deconstruct all of its
social and cultural implications. This fun nature of hip hop has resulted in its only recently
receiving serious critical attention. The interplay between hip hop’s cultural weight and
sheer fun that George is able to represent demonstrates why Hip Hop America was writ-
ten, and why contemporary America is “hip hop America.”

See also And It Don’t Stop!: The Best American Hip Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years;
Detective/Mystery Fiction; Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and God; George, Nelson

FURTHER READINGS
Dyson, Michael Eric. Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop. New York: Basic Civitas Books,
2007.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH:
Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Gil Cook

Hip Hop; Hiphop; Hip-hop; hip hop; hip-hop Culture. Hiphop is a sub-
culture with origins in the Bronx, New York, circa 1965. Hiphop is a means of empowerment
and the expression of oppressed creative intelligence. Hiphop practitioners, hipphoppas or
hip hop heads refer to hiphop as a culture and way of life. Its immediate precursors and
influences include the Black Arts Movement, Black Power Movement, and Civil Rights
Movement. Though its influences can be traced further back to African oral and performa-
tive traditions, hiphop is a combination of the spread of African cultural practices across
the African Diaspora from Africa to the Caribbean and into the Americas.
Referring to the HipHop Generation Bakari Kitwana writes, “Young Blacks born
between 1965 [and] 1984 are the first to have grown up in a post-segregation [United
States]” (Kitwana 2002, xiii). Hiphop is further the product of Africana and Latino youth
and according to Tricia Rose,

a cultural form that attempts to negotiate the experiences of marginalization, brutally truncated
opportunity, and oppression within the cultural imperatives of African-American and
Caribbean history, identity, and community. [It is] the tension between the cultural fractures
produced by postindustrial oppression and the binding ties of black cultural expressivity that
sets the critical frame for the development of Hip Hop. (Rose 1994, 21)

Hiphop is made up of nine expressive elements: the DJ, Emcee (rappers), B-girl/B-boy
(popularly known as break dancers), writers (also known as graffiti artists), knowledge,
fashion, language, beatboxing, and entrepreneurs. These elements represent a youth culture
114 HIP HOP; HIPHOP; HIP-HOP; HIP HOP; HIP-HOP CULTURE

working-class response to the end of the initiatives outlined by President Lyndon B.

Johnson’s Great Society agenda and de-facto discrimination based on race and class. Jeff
Chang in Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation writes that job loss
and the destruction of residential neighborhoods helped to create hip hop:

The South Bronx lost 600,000 manufacturing jobs; 40% of the work force and average per
capita income dropped to 2,430, just half of the New York City average and 40% of the national
average. Youth unemployment was 60% although Youth Advocates sources estimate the actual
number around 80%. (2005, 13)

The Bronx was fractured by a loss of jobs and the building of the Cross Bronx Express-
way eliminated 60,000 residents’ homes—all of which provided the context for a culture
of necessity known as hiphop.
Graffiti is widely recognized as the first element of hiphop culture, although scholars
and writers often disagree on exact dates. Graffiti as it functions within hiphop is a means
of political expression and street gang territorial markers. Although graffiti movements
outside of New York predate the 1960s, writing during this period defines the hip hop style.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the 1960s began the tradition of bombing—a term for
getting one’s name up and noticed on walls. The writers who are credited with beginning
bombing are CORNBREAD and COOL EARL. There is no consensus about graffiti mak-
ing a formal transition to New York, although the New York scene began to develop after
the first Philadelphia writers. TAKI 183 serves as a marker of the start of the New York
period. In 1971 The New York Times published a piece on graffiti about Demetrius, also
known as TAKI 183. TAKI was the nickname for the Greek-American writer Demetrius
and 183 was the number of the street where he lived. TAKI was not the first writer or even
the first king, but he was the first to be recognized outside the newly formed subculture—
Graffiti Art.
The underground culture of writing migrated to all five boroughs. As time progressed writ-
ing became more intricate and moved from streets to include subways. The writing environ-
ment was highly competitive. The period of 1975–1977 is generally regarded as the end of
the first phase of graffiti writing. During this period many foundations had been established,
providing a platform for new writers to add new perspectives and further advance technique.
After 1985 the writing culture changed dramatically with many writers opting for the gallery
and international art shows instead of train yards. Additionally, New York began to crack
down on graffiti writing with anti-graffiti legislation, graffiti proof trains, and tighter Mass
Transit security. Writing continues to remain an integral part of hiphop culture, although it is
not as frequent in train yards. Many contemporary writers opt for commissioned pieces or
walls to display their work. Some writers continue to work in the underground scene or as
part of hiphop shows performing live pieces during musical sets.
DJ Kool Herc is recognized as the father of hiphop, although there were other notable
DJs, such as DJ Hollywood and Eddie Cheba, around at the time. Herc is the originator for
the unique sound that would become the hiphop sound. Herc’s mixing of various music
albums to create a new sound began the very early stages of sampling, a common practice
in rap music production. The father of hiphop culture was born in West Kingston, Jamaica,
and immigrated to the Bronx in 1967 at the age of 12. DJ Kool Herc called his unique
blend of playing music with two turntables, the Merry-Go-Round. It is important to note
there are many individuals who contributed to the culture of hiphop whose names may not
be known to history books. The people who attended the first jams in the parks and who
 HIP HOP; HIPHOP; HIP-HOP; HIP HOP; HIP-HOP CULTURE 115

helped to spread mix tapes from borough to borough and by word of mouth are as essential
to hiphop’s start as the pioneers.
Afrika Bambaataa is considered to be the godfather of hiphop culture because his pres-
ence serves as a spiritual force within the culture. Bam, as he is affectionately referred to,
grew up in the South Bronx in the late 1960s and early 1970s, once called Little Vietnam
for its gang and drug infested streets. Bam lived in the Bronx River Projects and rose to
divisional gang leader of the Black Spades. A series of events would impact Bam’s think-
ing. After winning an essay contest, Bambaataa took a life-changing trip to South Africa.
During his trip he was inspired by the story of visionary leader Shaka Zulu.
Shaka Zulu is most known for his role in the Dingiswayo army where he became its
highest commander. Though Shaka Zulu’s history is one marked by his fierceness in bat-
tle and his take-no-prisoners approach to expanding the Zulu territory, Bam was most
impressed by his strong resistance to the British in their attempts to colonize the Zulu
Nation, as represented in the film Zulu starring Michael Cain. Shaka Zulu was able to
expand the Zulu Nation, and at the peak of his power he was considered to be one of the
most powerful leaders in southern Africa.
Bam decided to revolutionize the Black Spades. After fellow Black Spades member
Black Benji was killed, Bam transformed the Spades into the organization that later
became the Universal Zulu Nation, a group of socially conscious people of various
ethnicities interested in the development of hiphop culture. Bam’s work continues to
be focused on spreading hiphop culture and challenging the one-dimensional notion
that hiphop is solely rap and exclusive to one racial group and negative subject mat-
ter. His name, Bambaataa, translates to “affectionate leader.” In addition to his cultural
contributions Bam is also known as the “Master of Records,” a title given to him for
his ability to find obscure albums across all genres and make them palatable to hiphop
sensibilities.
By 1977 Bambaataa had begun organizing block parties around the South Bronx and
had established himself as one of the trinity in hiphop’s foundation. His genre bending
appreciation for music introduced electro-funk in rap records. In 1982 he released the
timeless classic Planet Rock on Tommy Boy records with the song “Soul Sonic Force.”
This song is the foundation for drum and bass, electro-hop, and a host of subgenres
within rap music. Using Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express Bam introduced a new realm
of possibility in beat production. Many pioneers suggest Bam gave the world hiphop
because he was responsible for organizing the first hiphop tour. Although Rappers
Delight (1979) was the first single that caught mainstream attention, Bam represented
the core of hiphop.
The third person in the trinity of hiphop pioneers is Grandmaster Flash. Flash, of Bajan
descent, was raised in the Bronx, New York. Flash studied top DJs of the day, in particu-
lar Kool DJ Herc, and pioneered the use of the turntable as an instrument. Flash developed
a series of innovations still in use. The quick mix theory includes the technique of “cut-
ting,” manually moving a record back and forth, which laid the foundation for DJ Grand-
wizard Theodore to create “scratching.” Cutting and scratching are now staples in
turntablism, a term coined by DJ Babu of the Beat Junkies to encompass the art of DJing.
Flash created the first beat machine, a modified homemade mixer that could produce sound
effects. In addition Flash created a “Peak-a-Boo” switch, which allowed the DJ to hear the
mix before audiences.
In addition to his popularity as a DJ, his collaboration with the Furious Five (Melle Mel,
Kid Creole, Cowboy, Mr Ness, and Rahiem), set the benchmark for excellence in rapper/DJ
116 HIP HOP; HIPHOP; HIP-HOP; HIP HOP; HIP-HOP CULTURE

crews. In 1981 The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel was the first
record to feature complex cuts and scratches, creating a collage of different songs to make
a new composition. This record is considered the beginning of sampling, which is the use
of previously recorded material mixed with vocals to create a new song.
Although often mistaken as interchangeable for hiphop, rap music is an element within
hiphop culture. Many historians look to the poetic prose of The Black Arts Movement,
which includes Amiri Baraka, Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets, and The Watts Prophets,
who used socially charged lyrics as the first forms of rap music. The first emcees (rappers)
were Coke La Rock and Clark Kent, who provided the framework and early stages of con-
temporary rap. Sha-rock emerged as an early female emcee in 1977—she took the micro-
phone and joined the formerly all male group The Funky Four (Plus one). With emceeing
being a heavily male space, she did something truly groundbreaking. Sha-rock was not the
“good for a female emcee,” the space that sexism grants in a male-dominated arena, she was
talented, period. Sha-rock, who was known for her smooth delivery, battled head to head
with Melle Mel and The Furious Five, considered one of the best of the early rap groups.
Sha-rock was also a part of the historic episode of Saturday Night Live on February 14,
1981, when hiphop appeared on national television for the first time; she and The Funky
Four (Plus one) performed the single “That’s the Joint” with punk band sensation Blondie.
Emceeing or rapping consists of spoken words rhythmically set to music. Since the
inception of rap music from emcees such as Grandmaster Caz, Starkski, Kool Moe Dee,
and Busy Bee, rap music has developed into various styles and patterns. Early forms were
similar to the Motown style. Groups such as the Cold Crush Brothers and Crash Crew
delivered lyrics that were similar to a quartet’s lyrics. The Furious Five styled their deliv-
ery as one voice with five distinct sounds. These early forms laid the foundation for
contemporary rap music.
Contemporary patterns are a reflection of geographic similarities, style of narrative, sub-
ject matter, as well as the technique of the accompanying musical production. Some of the
classification of rap includes old school, true school, west coast, southern rap, chopped, and
screwed, in addition to categories such as Christian rap and conscious rap.
B-Boy/b-girls, also known as breakdancers, represent the dance aspect of hiphop culture.
B-boying began when Kool Herc noticed groups of dancers who would dance at the break
section of albums he played during parities. Recreating a call and response dynamic the
break in the music consisted of heavy instrumentation, which provided space for improvi-
sation for both the DJ and dancer with each relying on the other for energy in the total per-
formance. These dancers began to be known as “break girls/boys.”
This form of dance consists of moves such as top-rock, power moves, freezes, and sui-
cides. These moves vary from standing positions to using hands and various forms of gym-
nastic styled kicks, sweeps, and back spins. Though no formal ties have been established,
scholars and students of the dance cite Capoeira Angola as an artistic influence of b-
girl/boying. Capoeria de Angola is an African Brazilian form of martial arts—a style cre-
ated by enslaved Africans who, without weapons, would defend themselves with their
hands and feet. Capoeiras was the name of the brush woods where the fugitives entrenched
themselves, and it is believed that the first group of slaves that arrived in Brazil was from
Angola. To better disguise its resistance origins from enslavers, capoeira was performed in
a circle with songs and musical instruments. Capoeira was outlawed in Brazil in 1890 until
1928.
“Breakin” in popular slang during the mid to late 1970s described behavior beyond the
norm to a breaking point or disrespect, such as “Why is he breakin’ on me?” The organized
 HIP HOP; HIPHOP; HIP-HOP; HIP HOP; HIP-HOP CULTURE 117

form of dancing within a circle that is typically associated with b-girls/boys developed as
a strategy for rivals to settle disagreements. These battles are based on routine dances both
conscious and unrehearsed. The winning crews, members of the same group, are deter-
mined by factors such as overall showcase of skill, mastery of style, depth of artistry, and
crowd response, and the successful ability to outperform the opponent. Though
mainstream fascination with b-girl/boy culture declined in the late 1980s, The Rock Steady
Crew remains as one of the oldest and most recognized crews. The Rock Steady Crew was
formed in 1977 by Bronx b-boys Jimmy D and Jojo. Both east and west coast styles influ-
enced the art form of b-girl/boying. During the 1980s, with the rise in commercial rap
music, hiphop culture began to decline in significance.
Afrika Bambaataa added the fifth element, knowledge as a way to center the positive
aspects of hiphop culture. KRS One and the Temple of HipHop, an organization dedicated
to the preservation of hiphop culture, recognized the other expressive themes within
hiphop and the other elements began to be recognized as part of hiphop’s expressive tra-
dition. Hiphop activists and scholars have begun to critique and comment on the split of
hip hop and the rap industry, suggesting a demarcation between the culture of hip hop and
the commercial industry of rap music. Though all core expressive elements are still viable
parts of hiphop, rap is the most widely known and often misunderstood as synonymous
with hiphop culture.

FURTHER READING
Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 2005.
D, Chuck, and Yusuf Jah. Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality. New York: Delacorte Press, 1997.
Forman, Murray. The ‘Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop. Middletown,
CT.: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.
Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme. Dir. Fitzgerald, Kevin. Prod. White, Michelle, Ann Berger, and Tiare
White. DVD. Palm Pictures, 2004.
The Freshest Kids. Dir. Israel. Prod. Israel. DVD. QD3 Entertainment, 2002.
George, Nelson. Hip Hop America. New York: Viking, 1998.
Graffiti Art. 15 June 2007. <http://www.graffiti-art.co.uk/history.htm>.
Gwendolyn, D. Pough. Check It While I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Pub-
lic Sphere. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 2004.
Hip-Hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes. Dir. Hurt, Byron. Prod. Media Education Foundation. Perf. Mos
Def, Jadakiss, and Busta Rhymes. DVD. 2006.
Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Cul-
ture. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002.
Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down. New
York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2000.
Nobody Knows My Name. Dir. Raimist, Rachel, Unleashed Entertainment, and Women Make
Movies. Distributed by Women Make Movies, 1999.
Parker, Kris. Ruminations. New York: Welcome Rain, 2003.
Perkins, William Eric. Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1996.
Perry, Imani. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 2004.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH:
Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
Scratch. Dir. Blondheim, Brad, Ernest Meza, Doug Pray, et al. Palm Pictures, 2002.
118 THE HIP-HOP EDUCATION GUIDEBOOK: VOLUME I

Style Wars. Dir. Silver, Tony. Prod. Chalfant Henry. VHS. 1982.
Wild Style. Dir. Ahearn, Charles. Prod. Wild Style Productions, LTD. VHS. 1983.

Akil Houston

THE HIP-HOP EDUCATION GUIDEBOOK: VOLUME I. Created by Mar-

cella Runell and Martha Diaz and edited by Tatiana Forero Roy, the H2Ed Guidebook
(2007) combines theory and practice to offer a solid introduction to hip hop pedagogy in
5th through 12th-grade classrooms.
The first section of the book frames the issues involved in hip-hop pedagogy, touch-
ing on the need for culturally responsive teaching models; the connections between
hip-hop, adolescence, and consumerism; and hip-hop and social justice. The authors
argue that one of the best ways to engage contemporary students in the materials being
presented is to draw on their own interests and values. Hip-hop’s presence in the lives
of adolescents, as evidenced by even a cursory glance at magazine racks and billboard
charts, is strong, and growing stronger, both within the United States and
internationally.
Part two of the guidebook offers an extensive collection of lesson plans that cover a wide
range of subjects: literacy and English language arts; history, global studies, and geography;
music, math and science; leadership and peer mediation; media and technology; and social
justice, tolerance, and diversity. Each lesson plan indicates the appropriate grade range and
national standards, the required materials and time allowance, activities/procedures, evalu-
ation, and extension activities. Although some lesson plans incorporate theory and author
biographies, the focus remains on putting theory into practice through the classroom activ-
ities. Many of the lesson plans include related lyrics, articles, and handouts to use during
the class.
Contributors to the book are primarily K–12 teachers, graduate students, and univer-
sity professors with an investment in the hip-hop community and culture. The Hip-Hop
Education Guidebook concludes with a list of valuable resources for hip-hop scholars
and practitioners. This book joins the work of authors such as H. Samy Alim, Alastair
Pennycook, and Michael Nelson in developing scholarship within the field of hip-hop
pedagogy.

FURTHER READING
Alim, H. Samy. “Critical Hip-Hop Language Pedagogies: Combat, Consciousness, and the Cultural
Politics of Communication.” Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, Vol. 6, Issue 2
(2007): 161–176.
———. Rock the Mic Right: The Language of Hip-Hop Culture. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Hall, Marcella Runell, Martha Diaz, and Tatiana Forero Roy. The Hip-Hop Education Guidebook:
Volume I. New York: Hip-Hop Association, Inc., 2007.
Low, Bronwen. “Hip-Hop, Language, and Difference: The N-Word as a Pedagogical Limit-Case.”
Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, Vol. 6, Issue 2 (2007): 147–160.
Newman, Michael. “Rap as Literacy: A Genre Analysis of Hip-Hop Ciphers.” An Interdisciplinary
Journal for the Study of Discourse, Vol. 25 Issue 3 (2005): 399–436.
Pennycook, Alastair. “Language, Localization, and the Real: Hip-Hop and the Global Spread of
Authenticity.” Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, Vol. 6, Issue 2 (2007): 101–115.
Richardson, Elaine. Hip Hop Literacies. New York: Routledge, 2006.
 THE HIP HOP GENERATION 119

Stovall, David. “We Can Relate: Hip-Hop Culture, Critical Pedagogy, and the Secondary Class-
room.” Urban Education, Vol. 41, Issue 6 (2006): 585–602.

Carey Applegate

THE HIP HOP GENERATION: YOUNG BLACKS AND THE CRISIS

IN AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE (2002). Bakari Kitwana’s 2002 book
identifies the many social and historical problems facing the generation of black Americans
born between 1965 and 1984, after the advances of the civil rights era and unified by hip
hop culture.
A historically unprecedented visibility of black youth in popular culture allows this gen-
eration the potential to address significant social problems. Kitwana describes these criti-
cal challenges for young African Americans as underemployment, criminal justice
disparities from racial profiling to the increasing incarceration of black men, lack of trust
between black men and women, and a general nihilism in black masculine representation,
particularly in gangsta rap and the ‘hood films of the 1990s. He argues that the national
popularity of hip hop culture provides this generation with the means to seize the political
power to solve these social problems.
The author’s background is as a journalist and magazine editor, and he coined the term
“Hip Hop Generation” while heading The Source: The Magazine of Hip-Hop Culture and
Politics during the 1990s. He points out that the first generation of African Americans born
after desegregation faces less visible but nevertheless daunting forms of racism. Whereas
the book cites rap lyrics, ’hood films, and other features of hip hop culture, the author’s
primary effort is to draw attention to broader sociological phenomena that popular culture
represents and to whom it appeals, and to discuss the lived experience of urban black men
and women in their teens, twenties, and thirties during the 1990s. This Hip Hop Genera-
tion is thus a large, economically and politically significant but insufficiently organized
group different from but connected to the generations before and after it.
Kitwana draws from sociology, statistics, history, historiography, and interviews with
prominent black leaders with the intent of both documenting problems facing the Hip Hop
Generation and demonstrating the organization necessary for solving them. He describes
the primary political topics for young African Americans as education, employment, repa-
rations, the economic health of urban neighborhoods, youth poverty and disease, the crim-
inalization of young black men, and foreign policy. He cites Russell Simmons’s Rap the
Vote 2000 as a failed effort to politicize the Hip Hop Generation. Instead, a new group of
existing grassroots organizations must emerge and grow together, coalescing into a strong
voting block not dependent on the previous generation’s Democratic or Republican rela-
tionships and antipathies but seeking leadership from within. Hip hop’s longstanding asso-
ciation with youth produces a second Hip Hop Generation, those born after 1984, integral
to recognizing and solving social problems from inside the African American community.

See also And It Don’t Stop!: The Best American Hip Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years;
That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader; Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas,
Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America
FURTHER READING
Cepeda, Raquel, ed. And It Don’t Stop!: The Best American Hip Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years.
New York: Faber and Faber, 2004.
120 HIP-HOP, INC.: SUCCESS STRATEGIES OF THE RAP MOGULS

Forman, Murray, and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New
York: Routledge, 2004.
Kitwana, Bakari. Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Real-
ity of Race in America. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2005.

Peter Caster

HIP-HOP, INC.: SUCCESS STRATEGIES OF THE RAP MOGULS

(2006). A collaboration between business school professor Richard Oliver and jour-
nalist Tim Leffel—two self-described “middle-aged white guys”—Hip-Hop, Inc. focuses
exclusively on the business aspects of the hip-hop music industry.
The authors make a point to differentiate “rap” (a style of music) from “hip-hop,”
which they describe as a larger lifestyle characterized by choices in consumption. The
book traces the development of hip-hop “from Africa to Africa Bombaataa” and notes
that rap represents the first time in the history of the music industry where African
American performers, by and large, have moved beyond working on a for-hire basis and
retained ownership of their music and lyrics. Possession of this intellectual property has
enabled many to become “serial entrepreneurs,” parlaying initial gains in the music
industry into a number of brands and business ventures and using cross-promotion to
achieve wider success across a range of products. The book focuses heavily on five of
hip-hop’s most successful moguls: Russell Simmons, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Percy
“Master P” Miller, Damon Dash, and Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. These five moguls share a
number of successful traits: they all work hard, stay close to the streets, have a strong
belief in their own abilities, are willing to move beyond their failures, and understand
the importance of ownership.
The authors make a point to acknowledge the excesses of gangsta rap, but they also
credit it for giving hip-hop a harder edge and for establishing the genre’s core identity of
the poor street hustler made good. The real danger is when business practices mirror
gangsta rap’s image and lyrics. They present the rise and fall of Death Row Records’s Suge
Knight as the case study of a failed mogul. In addition to his poor business choices—
including over-reliance on one brand, failure to branch out into other markets, and poor
money management—Knight’s use of threats and violence to get ahead led to long prison
sentences and eventual bankruptcy. The authors note that the criminal element is not
unique to hip-hop, but has always been present in other industries including finance, man-
ufacturing, and technology.
The central thesis of the book is that hip hop is one industry among many in the busi-
ness world, one that has been overlooked by the business establishment despite its enor-
mous success. At the heart of this success is the inversion of the conventional wisdom
that states that products must differentiate themselves from their competitors to estab-
lish a unique selling position. Instead, moguls sell the hip-hop lifestyle first and the indi-
vidual brand second. By putting the category before the product, moguls have been able
to stretch the category to include an ever expanding assortment of products and services.
These moguls have created a hip-hop “total consumer experience” that has moved from
music into movies, clothing, video games, soft drinks, fashion, car accessories, technology,
and more.

Paul Falzone
 HOCH, DANNY 121

HIP HOP MATTERS: POLITICS, POP CULTURE, AND THE

STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF A MOVEMENT (2006). S. Craig
Watkins writes about hip hop’s influence on politics and economics as well as culture.
In his second contribution to the growing body of critical work on hip hop culture, S. Craig
Watkins brings a unique understanding of the nuances and intricacies of hip hop as a cultural
phenomenon. He is one of the few theorists to give credit for the commercialization of hip
hop to a woman—Sylvia Robinson. Robinson’s Sugar Hill Records launched “Rapper’s
Delight,” which was the first hip hop song to reach top 40 status. Also, Sugar Hill initiated
the careers of The Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, and Melle Mel. Watkins is care-
ful to point out that pivotal moment between hip hop as an underground culture and its
exposure to the mainstream (2006, 10–11).
The book continues to explore the shifts in culture initiated by hip hop with an inim-
itable look at the rapper wars—from the first rap war between Tupac and the Notorius
B.I.G. in the 1990s through the trouble between JaRule and 50 Cent. Watkins points to the
fight for market share by industry magazines such as The Source, Vibe, and XXL as one
reason the rifts between rappers and the idea of street credibility were pushed with such
passion. Hip hop had become not only a producer of culture but also an entity whose cul-
ture could be manipulated by corporate infrastructures. This multi-faceted dynamic of hip
hop went on to produce gangsta rap and hypersexual presentations of women hand in hand
with activism and social consciousness in a new generation of participants.
According to Watkins, both popular culture and politics are in a battle to own hip hop. Hip
hop as a culture force has permeated virtually every social space where digital technology is
available. Hip hop has the ability to unite people from the most varied backgrounds and as
such is extremely important to global corporate interests. The same way hip hop is able to
reach across barriers and unite people struggling with socioeconomic inequity, injustice, and
marginalization in general, it is also able to sell shoes or jeans or identity.
In the end the title of the book is more a declaration than a moniker. Hip hop does
matter. Whether one is a willing participant in the genre or not, hip hop culture has had an
extraordinary impact on the social, political, and economic structures of our world.

FURTHER READING
Morgan, Jo-Ann. “Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Move-
ment by S. Craig Watkins.” American Culture, Vol. 29 Issue 3 (Sept. 2006):78–379.
Watkins, S. Craig. Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Move-
ment. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2006.

Tarshia L. Stanley

HOCH, DANNY (1970–). One of the first actors/playwrights to actively repre-

sent hip-hop culture in theater.
Danny Hoch is as multifaceted as hip-hop itself, assuming roles as actor, writer, lecturer,
filmmaker, and director. Born in 1970 in New York City, his work in theater highlights and
captures the life experiences of American immigrants, specifically the diverse soundscapes
of New York City. He grew up in a neighborhood in Queens where no particular ethnic
group dominated. As Hoch has noted, this cultural diversity greatly affected his sense of
identity and community, as well as his work as an actor and writer. Early on he asked
himself two questions: Which community do I belong to and what does it mean to be white
122 HOLMES, SHANNON

(Sengupta 1999, B1)? He has brought these questions of identity and community into his
work as a playwright.
His plays frequently consist of a series of monologues, peopled by seemingly disparate
characters, from a Havana youth using hip-hop lyrics and Americanisms in an attempt to
engage an American tourist, to a Queens teenager, who, born as a crack baby, thanks his
departing speech therapist. What unites them thematically is the notion that hip-hop rep-
resents the current generation’s dominant form of cultural and linguistic expression and
crosses all ethnic and racial boundaries (Sengupta 1999, B1).
Hoch promotes his aesthetic and plays as “hip-hop theater.” For him, “there is a theater
in hip-hop itself whether it’s the theater of b-boying—break dancing—or the theater of
monologue of the rapper. There’s a whole generation of hip-hop kids that has gone to
theater school. And a lot of us, we don’t want to do Shakespeare anymore. Our stories that
are really about us are not really being told unless we tell them. So we are telling them”
(McKinley 2001, E1–E2). Not surprisingly, his efforts to educate audiences and bring
theater to the inexperienced led to his founding in 2000 of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival,
which has presented over 75 “Hip-Hop Generation plays” globally and in New York,
Chicago, Washington, DC, and San Francisco.
In addition to promoting hip-hop as a viable genre of theatre and music, Hoch has written
and acted in several television shows and films, including Washington Heights, Bamboozled,
Prison Song, Subway Stories, The Thin Red Line, White Boyz, Blackhawk Down, and his
original HBO show, Some People. His plays Pot Melting, Some People, and Jails, Hospitals
and Hip-Hop have won numerous awards including two OBIES, an NEA Solo Theatre Fel-
lowship, a Sundance Writers Fellowship, a CalArts/Alpert Award in Theatre, and a Tennessee
Williams Fellowship. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics,
New York University.

FURTHER READING
“Danny Hoch.” 11 Dec. 2007 <http://www.dannyhoch.com>.
Hoch, Danny. “Film: Straining to Live Black.” New York Times, 10 October 1999, 13.
———. Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop and Some People. New York: Villard Press, 1998.
McKinley, Jesse. “On Stage and Off.” The New York Times, 8 June 2001, E1–E2.
Sengupta, Somini. “A Multicultural Chameleon: Actor’s Experience Spawns Polyglot Cast of Char-
acters.” The New York Times, 9 October 1999, B1.
Takahashi, Corey. “Minority of One.” New York Newsday, 11 October 2001, B3.
Weber, Bruce. “Employing Broken English for Community Repair.” The New York Times, 2 November
1993, C15.

Robert Torre

HOLMES, SHANNON. Shannon Holmes, as the self-proclaimed “King of Hip-

Hop Literature,” used his life experiences to craft some of the most popular hip hop
literature on the shelves today.
With a high school education completed with a GED from prison, Holmes has used his
previous experiences with various drug offenses, as well as his five years in prison, to lend a
gritty real feel to his books that readers of the second wave of hip hop literature want to read.
Holmes signed his contract from prison for his first book, B-More Careful, which focuses
on the adventures of Netty and the P*ssy Pound as they steal, cheat, and revel in obtaining
illegal money. His even-handed and careful treatment of the female characters in the book
 HOME GIRLS MAKE SOME NOISE: HIP HOP FEMINISM ANTHOLOGY 123

made many readers believe that Holmes was female—not an easy feat. The success of B-More
Careful got attention from Simon and Schuster and he signed a contract with them.
He then wrote the very successful Bad Girlz, set in Philadelphia, which followed the lives of
a group of young women who were into drugs and stripped for a living. The exploits of Tender,
Goldie, and Kat were so popular with audiences that a sequel, Bad Girlz 4 Life, followed a year
later in 2008. In between, Holmes continued to write short story collections and novels that built
up his popularity and sales: Dirty Game, Hood2Hood, and The Game. Holmes’s sales have been
so attractive that he signed a new publishing deal with St. Martin’s Press.
Holmes explains his own popularity in the foreword to his novel Never Go Home Again:

The experience and quality that I bring to my writing can’t be faked. I know what I know.
Through my novels, I invite readers to journey with me into the streets. Come see what I’ve
seen. Let me show the gritty and grimy undercarriage of society, the “flip side” of the game.
(2005, 3–4)

These are the reasons why a writer like Holmes is so popular in the hip hop literary
world. Readers are looking for those gritty details, and because Holmes lived that life, he
is able to convey that sensibility in his fiction. However, it should be remembered that his
success was confirmed when he was able to write stories from a strong, realistic female
perspective. That is not an easy skill for a male writer to acquire, and Holmes should be
accorded appropriate respect for his accomplishment.

FURTHER READING
Holmes, Shannon. Bad Girlz. New York: Atria, 2003.
———. Bad Girlz 4 Life. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008.
———. B-More Careful. New York: Teri Woods Publishing, 2001.
———. Dirty Game. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007.
———. Hood2Hood. New York: Shannon Holmes Communications, 2005.
———. Never Go Home Again. New York: Atria, 2005.
———. The Game: Short Stories about Life. New York: Triple Crown Publishing, 2003.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

HOME GIRLS MAKE SOME NOISE: HIP HOP FEMINISM ANTHO-

LOGY (2007). A collection of critical essays on hip hop feminism.
Known for her first book, Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Cul-
ture, and the Public Sphere (2004), Gwendolyn D. Pough edits Home Girls along with
Elaine B. Richardson, Rachel Raimist, and Aisha S. Durham. The volume collects essays
by women artists, activists, journalists, historians, and scholars who seek to expand the
concepts of women in hip hop. Rather than accepting the popular view that hip hop is a
male-centered space, this collection documents women’s participation in creating and
sustaining a hip hop aesthetic that does not relegate them to marginal status.
Ranging from essays that document Cuban women’s presence in hip hop culture to poetry,
art, and memoir, the wealth of information in Home Girls is pertinent to the understanding
of hip hop as an expression of political and social ideologies. Just as hip hop has been billed
as the war cries of young black and Latino males, Pough, Richardson, Raimist, and Durham
124 HONEY MAGAZINE

pull together the laments and call to arms of women all over the globe who understand hip
hop as being birthed by and belonging to them as well.
In “Hip Hop at the Political Crossroads: Organizing for Reproductive Justice and
Beyond,” Kamal Price points to the politics that affect women of the Hip Hop Generation,
particularly reproductive rights, which opens into the wider discussions of economic and
social rights. Rachel Raimist expands the discussion of commercial hip hop and its devas-
tating ability to exclude the perspectives of women and the feminist sensibilities they pro-
mote. Unfortunately, many people who have only been exposed to mainstream,
commodified hip hop do not know the history of women’s involvement, nor do they under-
stand the role women continue to play globally. Raimist writes “We must resist and
counter the limited views of women in hip hop. Thus, we need to reify that there are many
agents of hip-hop and it is the sum of all our parts to make this a living, breathing and
active culture and, for many of us, a movement” (2007, 2).
In “They’re Not Talking About Me” Eisa Nefertari Ulen creates a moment to reflect on the
inner anguish that women can experience in hip hop culture as young girls confused by the
mixed message sent to them in rap music and videos adopt a passive attitude toward misogyny
or become enamored with hypersexual representations of particularly black womanhood. Many
women choose to negotiate the difficult spaces by refusing to acknowledge that they exist.
Home Girls Make Some Noise asks its audience to do just that. It encourages an under-
standing of hip hop that makes room for and pays homage to the passion, participation, and
presence of women. It asks the audience to move beyond a simple and gendered under-
standing of the culture to see the many facets of hip hop’s personality and to acknowledge
that many of those facets are female.

See also Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere

FURTHER READING
Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Cul-
ture. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002.
Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down. New
York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2000.
Pough, Gwendolyn D. Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Pub-
lic Sphere. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 2004.
Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women. New
York: New York University Press, 2007.

Tarshia L. Stanley

HONEY MAGAZINE. Honey magazine promoted itself as “a fashion and enter-

tainment magazine aimed at stylish urban women.”
Initially begun as a monthly glossy that once boasted a circulation of 400,000, Honey
features a range of multicultural entertainers as cover models, including popular stars LL
Cool J, Beyonce, Boris Kodjoe, Lauryn Hill, Lil’ Kim, Tyra Banks, Jennifer Lopez, Pink,
Mary J. Blige, Gabrielle Union, Jada Pinkett Smith, and the late entertainers Lisa “Left
Eye” Lopes and Aaliyah.
In 2007 Honey was relaunched in a new online format. The magazine’s home at www.
honeymag.com, the self-proclaimed “ultimate urbanista spot,” specifically targets urban
 THE HOOD COMES FIRST: RACE, SPACE, AND PLACE IN RAP AND HIP-HOP 125

females aged 18–34, by providing an online presence that speaks to their fashion and enter-
tainment interests, as well as their career and relationship concerns. Honey is a uniquely
structured online platform that encourages its readers to submit stories and share their expe-
riences. In keeping with that spirit, honeymag.com includes the “Honey of the Week,” which
features everyday women from the magazine’s cyberspace audience. The “Honey Career
Center” provides job postings, internship opportunities, and articles about important work-
place issues, such as discrimination, and tips for getting ahead in the corporate world. The
career center also allows users to search diversity opportunities from leading corporations.
The “Fresh Out The Pack” portion of the site showcases artists such as R&B newcomer J
Holiday. “Sweet Spot” highlights trendy, of-the-moment beauty and fashion products, pro-
viding pictures, commentary, and links to external retailers. “Taste of Honey” offers candid
photographs of random people, places, and things, to spotlight current fashion trends and to
give users the opportunity to post comments and feedback. The “Hot Spot” allows for a one-
on-one interview with an up-and-coming designer, artist, or entrepreneur making moves in
the world of pop culture. The “Love & Sex” portion of the site offers numerous articles about
love and relationship issues facing many women in the key 18–34 demographic.
Articles about finding happiness in being single, tell-tale signs of being in a dead-end
relationship, and dealing with the break-up of a relationship are submitted by contributors
who have real-life experience with the situations they then share with honeymag.com vis-
itors. The “Beehive Blogs” allows users from across the United States and Canada to post
their own writings about what’s happening in their lives and in their cities. Contributors
from major cities, such as Toronto, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, share their home-
town perspectives with honeymag.com visitors. Honey, once under the umbrella of
Vanguarde Media, is currently owned and operated by Sahara Entertainment in conjunc-
tion with Black Book Media Corporation.

See also Vibe Vixen

FURTHER READING
“Honey Magazine Launches New Website Honeymag.Com: the True Voice of the Urban Female.”
PR Web. 26 June 2007. Accessed 11 Nov. 2007. <http://www.prwebdirect.com/releases/2007/
6/prweb536117.htm>.
“New Publisher to Restart Honey.” Richard Prince’s Journal-Isms. 21 May 2004. Robert C.
Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. 11 Nov. 2007. <http://www.maynardije.org/
columns/dickprince/040521_prince/>.
Shirer, Tamara. “Shattering the Double Standard: How One Sister is Learning to Love the Single
Life.” Honeymag.com. 11 Nov. 2007. <http://www.honeymag.com/smartsection.item.109/
shattering-the-double-standard.html>.

Nneka Nnolim

THE HOOD COMES FIRST: RACE, SPACE, AND PLACE IN RAP

AND HIP-HOP (2002). Murray Forman’s exploration of the development of hip-
hop through the organizing logics of race, space, and place.
In this text, Forman demonstrates how minority youth—he looks at African
American and Latinos mostly—mobilize and deploy race, space (ideological and
126 THE HOOD COMES FIRST: RACE, SPACE, AND PLACE IN RAP AND HIP-HOP

political arena mobilized through discursive exchange), and place (distinct, intimate geog-
raphies) in discourses of hip-hop to express and celebrate oppositional individual and col-
lective identities. The affiliations with localized places, or what Forman describes as
“extreme locals,” reflect hip-hop artists’ awareness of how their racialized and class expe-
riences are products of historically and spatially structured patterns of power (2002, xviii).
Forman, however, urges a more nuanced analysis of the music industry in also aiding the
facilitation of hip-hop’s development internationally. He argues that a dialectical tension
of artists’ geocultural priorities and the economic exigencies of the music industry have
shaped the contours of hip-hop as it is today.
Forman situates the presence of urban tropes in hip-hop within the political and eco-
nomic mechanisms of post-industrial America and hip-hop artists’ responses to these par-
ticular encroaching and destructive forces. Forman challenges dominant narratives of
decaying inner cities as “natural” by demonstrating how “[social] spaces are [social] prod-
ucts.” That is, policy cutbacks for youth and family services coupled with a restructured
economy and loss of a livable wage produced the destruction and evacuation of inner cities
(2002, chapter 1). Yet, according to Forman, dominant scripts of inner-city cultural pathol-
ogy in public discourse hide these histories of structural abandonment. Rappers, however,
“flip the script” of this dominant discourse of spatial and racial devaluation by asserting
what Tricia Rose refers to as “prestige from below” through hip-hop practices (i.e., polit-
ical raps, community park parties) of self-definitions, creativity, and recuperation of their
hood (2002, 36)
However, Forman emphasizes how the ideological spaces of the music industry (2002,
chapters 4–9) have also shaped the spatial imaginary in rap music. For example, Forman
traces the subgenres of conscious or political raps as a trend born out of the popularity
and financial marketability of “The Message” by Grand Master Flash and the Furious
Five. Carbon copies later proliferated lacking the depth of the original as corporations
learned to exploit these conventions (2002, chapter 3). Forman sees this trend in the
beefs between hardcore east coast rappers and west coast gangsta rappers where corpo-
rations transformed localized narratives and identifications into larger national dramas
over market turf (2002, chapter 5). Yet artists learned to navigate through the exploita-
tive industry, working within capitalist mechanisms to simultaneously create a subver-
sive “Black public sphere”; from 1987–1994, artists created their own labels as a way
of circumventing industry control, simultaneously expanding the cartographies of rap
music, and black solidarity locally and nationally amidst increasingly debilitating social
conditions (2002, chapter 6).
In the final chapter, Forman documents the emergence of regional styles, such as the
south, midwest, and global developments, further demonstrating how racial formations
and local places are socially constructed through competing spatial ideologies and discur-
sive practices.

See also That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader

FURTHER READING
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Back Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown, CT:
Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Brian Su-Jen Chung

 HOOKS, BELL 127

HOOKS, BELL (GLORIA WATKINS) (1952–). A prolific African American

feminist scholar and social critic, bell hooks uses a variety of theoretical approaches in her
books to discuss and critique race, gender, and class issues.
hooks rose to prominence as a feminist theorist in the early 1980s. She was born in
Kentucky to a working-class family and first attended school during the Civil Rights era,
which shaped her worldview, as hooks says in her books. During her work on her Ph.D. at
the University of California at Santa Cruz, hooks noticed that few feminist theory books
that focused on the issues surrounding black feminism existed, so she wrote Ain’t I A
Woman: Black Women and Feminism. In this text, hooks examined how racism and sexism
shaped the image and role of black women in America. hooks also criticized white femi-
nists (such as Gloria Steinem) for ignoring black women’s plights and neglecting to
acknowledge the role black women played in the earliest stages of women’s liberation
(1981, 122). She says that most heterosexual white feminists were participants in the
“white supremacist capitalist patriarchy,” because they wanted all the things that white
men had and did not want to liberate their black sisters.
According to hooks, a “white supremacist capitalist patriarchal” system exists in the
West—particularly in America—that shapes African Americans’ concepts of gender roles,
selfhood, success, and relationships. This system normalizes and idealizes whiteness and
makes everything else into the “Other,” or deviations from the ideal. It also privileges
white manhood over all other groups, as she asserts in We Real Cool: Black Men and
Masculinity. In this system, success is defined by capitalism and how close one can come
to having the social capital that white men have. Being able to support one’s family on
one’s income, owning expensive material possessions, and being of the managerial class
are three “white” markers of success that many black men aspire to and often fail to
achieve because of how racism has shaped American cultural structures, as hooks suggests
in We Real Cool. Hooks urges the marginalized to question whiteness as a norm and to
question the capitalist version of success.
Perhaps the most immediately apparent feature of bell hooks’s critical work that distin-
guishes her style from other academics’ style is her frequent use of an unpretentious, often
conversational writing style and the lack of adherence to academic citation styles. This writ-
ing style, according to hooks in Talking Back, is a political act that challenges the primacy of
exclusionary language in academic writing and asserts that participants in the struggle to lib-
erate need to use an “oppositional discourse” to resist oppression (1989, 29). In “Postmod-
ern Blackness,” an essay in Yearning, hooks says that many oppressed people want to be part
of a critical dialogue about “Otherness,” race, class, and gender but are intimidated or turned
off by elitist, jargon-filled language. Therefore, she often uses language that appeals to
groups outside of academia, paving the way for social transformation and revolution.
hooks frequently uses autobiography as a critical mode, using her experiences to illus-
trate her authenticity and authority when she discusses race, gender, and especially class,
as she does in Class Matters. This follows in the African American autobiographical tra-
dition, of which Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth were seminal members. In Ain’t
I A Woman, Hooks says that Sojourner was one of the first feminists to advocate for the
rights of all women and explains how Sojourner’s personal experiences lent authority to
her statements about the nature of women (1981, 160). Her assertions that liberated
African Americans have a responsibility to help their brethren to become liberated echoes
W.E.B. DuBois’s and Malcolm X’s work.
Hooks asserts that her existence on the fringes of multiple marginalized groups gives her
a unique position from which she may critique all three, using a variety of theoretical
128 HUNT, LA JILL

approaches as well as her insider knowledge. Hooks says that the margins are “location[s]
for the production of a counter-hegemonic discourse that is not just found in words but in
habits of being and the way one lives” (1990, 149). Therefore, those who exist on the
fringes of groups should recognize their position and work on decolonizing themselves.
The intersection of African American studies and postmodern theory is one that hooks
particularly focuses on in her work. In “Postmodern Blackness,” she discusses how post-
modern nihilism (stemming from the lack of inherent meaning and the breakdown of
industry in America) is similar to the nihilism many young African Americans are cur-
rently experiencing (1990, 1–15). hooks uses metaphors from postcolonial cultural theo-
rists, such as Paul Gilroy, when she urges African Americans to “decolonize” their minds
and to locate or develop a true subjective self not defined by oppressive forces, as she does
in “The Politics of Radical Black Subjectivity” (1990, 15–16). hooks criticizes the patri-
archy inherent in Jacques Derrida’s and Michel Foucault’s works but makes use of their
terms “Other” and “difference” in her criticism, though she redefines them.
In Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life, she and fellow social critic Cornel
West have a dialogue about the crises facing black America in the postmodern age. One of
the crises affecting African American youth lies in education as oppression, which hooks
addresses in Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, her book influ-
enced by Paulo Freire’s pedagogical theories. In both these books, hooks addresses actual
problems affecting the African American community and suggests ways in which the com-
munity may heal itself.
In Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, hooks critiques hip-hop films and music,
asserting that they are products of the American “patriarchal framework” in which they
were produced (1994, 113). She provides cogent, serious analysis of Menace II Society,
Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, Ice Cube’s lyrics, and Madonna’s reinforcement of sexist and
racist stereotypes, asserting that all these cultural productions are predicated on “larger
structures of domination” that “maintain and perpetuate these values that uphold these
exploitative and oppressive systems” (1994, 117).
As she continues to teach and write, hooks continues to influence feminists and students
of cultural studies in America and all over the world.

FURTHER READING
hooks, bell. Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1981.
———. Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations. New York: Routledge, 1994.
———. “Postmodern Blackness.” Postmodern Culture, Vol. 1 Issue 1 (Sept. 1990).
———. Talking Back: Thinking Black, Thinking Feminist. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1989.
———. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. New York: Routledge, 1994.
———. Where We Stand: Class Matters. New York: Routledge, 2000.
———. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1990.

Angelle Scott

HUNT, LA JILL (1972–). La Jill Hunt became an Essence best-selling author

because of her novels published by Carl Weber’s Urban Books: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda;
Drama Queen; No More Drama; Old Habits Die Hard; and Another Sad Love Song.
She is known for bringing “the drama,” which is why she is so popular. She doesn’t
“come corny” but finds original ways to end her stories and challenge her readers. Her
 HUSTLE AND FLOW 129

most popular titles are Drama Queen and its sequel, No More Drama, which are all about
the adventures of Kayla Hopkins and how drama seeks her, starting with her love for one
man while pregnant with another man’s child.
The Around the Way Girls series is an extension, or riff, off of the part of the LL Cool J
rhyme dedicated to the “around the way girl,” a beautiful young woman who thinks that
she knows it all but is about to learn some hard lessons in life. This is the general theme
of the series, which consists of four wildly popular books thus far. Hunt has contributed to
three of the four volumes and has been cited repeatedly on message boards as the one who
writes the best submissions. She is obviously talented and knows her literary backgrounds
and presents them in fresh ways to a new audience who may not be so educated.
Hunt’s work has provided some interesting twists on standard literary themes. In Around
the Way Girls 4, for instance, Hunt incorporates elements of the Kűnsterrínroman, the story
of a talented artist, by telling the story of Jovia Grant, a young artist who is torn between
two worlds when she falls for the wrong kind of man in “Thug Passion.” Hunt cleverly
exposes the audience to these literary themes and creates a story that is fresh and appeal-
ing to a new generation of readers.
She incorporates elements of female friendship plots as well as writing an engaging
love story in Around the Way Girls 2 when she introduces two girlfriends, Lyric and
Alicia. At the start, Lyric is the cynic about men and Alicia is the idealist. Lyric then
falls for Alicia’s brother and becomes a romantic, and Alicia becomes the cynical one
when her man begins to disappoint her. This plot twist represents another fresh take on
a standard literary conceit. As a practitioner of the short story/novella form, as well as
a popular novelist, La Jill Hunt has garnered great respect for her contributions to the
second wave of hip hop literature.

FURTHER READING
Hunt, La Jill. Another Sad Love Song. New York: Urban Books, 2006.
———. Drama Queen. New York: Urban Books, 2003.
———. “Lyric & Alicia.” Around the Way Girls 3. New York: Urban Books, 2007.
———. No More Drama. New York: Urban Books, 2004.
———. Old Habits Die Hard. New York: Urban Books, 2007.
———. Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda. New York: Urban, 2005.
———. “Southern Comfort.” In Around the Way Girls. New York: Urban Books, 2007.
———. “Thug Passion.” In Around the Way Girls 4. New York: Urban Books, 2007.
———. Too Close For Comfort. New York: Urban Books, 2006.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

HUSTLE AND FLOW (PARAMOUNT CLASSICS, USA, 2005).

Fictional rap narrative whose theme song won an academy award.
Set in the slums of Memphis, Tennessee, Hustle and Flow, produced by John Singleton,
written and directed by Craig Brewer, presents the tale of protagonist DJay (Terrance
Howard), a small scale pimp and drug dealer managing to scrape out a living through his
motley band of prostitutes, including Nola (Taryn Manning), Lexus (Paula Jai Parker), and
Shug (Taraji Henson), who represents DJay’s love interest.
Being trapped in a stagnant existence, bartering with a drug addict, and exchanging
marijuana for an electronic keyboard, stimulates DJay’s memories from his high school
130 HUSTLE AND FLOW

days of freestyle rapping over his school’s public announcement system and at local par-
ties. The keyboard, coupled with the opportunity to exclusively provide Skinny Black
(Ludacris), the local Memphis rapper turned superstar, with marijuana during his Fourth
of July return to Memphis, triggers DJay’s imagination as he both considers and desires
the perceived wealth, lifestyle improvement, and status that rapping has yielded Black.
A chance encounter with an old high school classmate, Key (Anthony Anderson), who
has been producing gospel music recordings since graduating from high school, presents
DJay with the technological ability to transform his musings of rapping into real possibil-
ities. Key invites Shelby (D.J. Quall), a white piano player and amateur beat maker who
appreciates the artistic and blueslike quality of southern rap music and its democracy of
voice, to join in the production of DJay’s demo. A make-shift recording studio in a back
room of DJay’s house serves as the site of production. DJay relies on the exploitation of
Nola to finance the production of the demo audiotape, and Shug’s raw and sultry voice is
used to supplement the choruses of the songs they create.
The climax of the movie becomes DJay’s Fourth of July encounter with Skinny Black,
where he plots to use his psychological manipulation ability to persuade Black to listen to
his demo tape and open the door to his new future. Tragically, when DJay realizes that
Black’s acceptance of his tape is insincere, he challenges Black regarding his intentions of
listening. A physical confrontation erupts between DJay, Black, and his cohort that results
in DJay’s shooting one individual and his subsequent incarceration. After his imprison-
ment DJay places the reins of his demo project and rap dream in Nola’s hands as she suc-
cessfully gets his music air time on local radio. Ironically, DJay’s imprisonment and
confrontation with Skinny Black fuel his song’s popularity.
The film, with a production budget near $2.8 million, opened in theaters July 22, 2005.
Its opening weekend, in over 1,000 theaters across the United States, grossed approxi-
mately $8 million. Over the course of the film’s sixteen week box office run, the film
grossed over $22.2 million domestically and over $23.5 million internationally before
closing on November 28th of that same year.
Terrance Howard won an academy award nomination for “best actor” for his portrayal
of DJay, and Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman, and Paul Beauregard, members of rap
group Three 6 Mafia, won an academy award for “original song,” marking the first time in
history that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized hip-hop music.

FURTHER READING
Staples, Jeanine M., “Hustle & Flow: A Critical Student and Teacher-Generated Framework for Re-
Authoring a Representation of Black masculinity.” Educational Action Research, Vol. 16 Issue 3
(Sep 2008): 377–390.

Nicholas Gaffney
 I
I MAKE MY OWN RULES (1998). LL Cool J (aka James Todd Smith) is
recognized in the entertainment industry as a popular actor and Grammy Award-winning
hip hop artist. Smith discusses his longevity in the hip hop music industry and the dark side
of celebrity status in his autobiography I Make My Own Rules.
Published in 1998 by St. Martin’s Press, Smith’s autobiography reveals in-depth details
about his childhood, substance abuse, and rise to fame. The national bestseller is
coauthored with Karen Hunter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and editor. Hunter, the
coauthor of many notable hip hop texts, cowrote additional bestseller titles such as
Confessions of a Video Vixen (2005), Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman (1998),
and Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip Hop Superstar (2007).
I Make My Own Rules provides readers with access into Smith’s life prior to hip hop
stardom. Assuring readers that he is in fact a “healing victim of abuse,” Smith speaks freely
about the domestic violence that occurred between his parents James and Ondrea Smith.
The abuse in the Smith household continued well into his mother’s ninth month of preg-
nancy, which may have contributed to the paralysis in Smith’s right arm at birth.
Smith witnessed his own father’s rage when James Smith opened fire on Smith’s
mother, Ondrea, and her father. Although both his mother and grandfather survived the
assault, Smith’s life soon turned violent again when his mother became involved with
another abusive man who became his stepfather. Years of enduring abuse from a father
and stepfather led Smith to seek an outlet to subvert the pain and frustration in his
domestic life.
At age sixteen, Smith embarked on his professional hip hop career, believing that he had
escaped the domestic trauma that had plagued his developmental years. While achieving
success as a hip hop artist, Smith began one of the most difficult battles of his lifetime. In
I Make My Own Rules, Smith admits to drug use that began out of his desire to be
accepted. As a mature adult, Smith reflects on this stage of his life by telling readers that
his use of drugs and alcohol spiraled out of control, barely escaping the point of addiction.
In addition to his struggle with drugs and alcohol, Smith discusses his addiction to sex and
pornography. Smith makes it clear that casual sex is commonplace within the industry, but
his addiction was driven by an emotional void that controlled his actions.
Smith notes in his autobiography that the fame and glamour of the hip hop industry
failed to provide an adequate environment for finding self. The artist’s ability to end the
dangerous cycle of drugs, sex, and alcohol is attributed to his determination to acquire a
new love and respect for himself. Smith also acknowledges his wife, Simone, for her con-
tinual support throughout their relationship. Now married with three children, Smith has
made peace with his past and is optimistic about the future. His triumphs are rooted in his
132 ICEBERG SLIM

relationship with God and his desire to maintain strong familial ties. As intended, Smith’s
“emotional and spiritual cleansing” is eye opening and real.

Chaunda A. McDavis

ICEBERG SLIM (1918–1992). African American writer whose literary works

focused primarily on his experiences as a pimp.
Born Robert Lee Maupin and also known as Robert Beck, Iceberg Slim was an impor-
tant influence on hip-hop artists and rappers such as Ice-T and Ice Cube who adopted their
names because of their affinity with his writings. Iceberg possibly got his name by keep-
ing “ice-cold” in a shoot-out, where he did not allow a bullet puncturing his hat to make
him afraid. He tells this account at the end of his first work Pimp in Chapter l3. According
to Tosh Berman, Iceberg got his name because he never showed any emotion to the pros-
titutes whom he pimped. Regardless of the origin of his name, his lasting impression on
hip hop artists and rappers is seen even in the works of Too Short and Snoop Dogg. Even
highly successful rapper and businessman Jay-Z has also referred to himself as “Iceberg
Slim” when he has discussed his encounters with women, and Comedian Dave Chappelle
has often discussed Iceberg during his stand-up routines. Tosh Berman also comments that
Iceberg is the “godfather of blaxploitation. Without him, there would be no Superfly or
Shaft” (2007).
Born in Chicago, he spent much of his childhood in Milwaukee and Rockford, Illinois,
but returned to Chicago as a teenager. His father abandoned him and his mother, and she
supported her family as a domestic and also operated a beauty salon. Although many men
exploited his mother, drifting in and out of her life, she was able to provide her son with a
good life, and he allegedly stated that his mother’s pampering him paved the way for his
life as a pimp.
Seeing the pimps in his Chicago neighborhood with nice clothes, fancy automobiles,
and very attractive prostitutes, he knew early on that this was the life that he wanted for
himself. Leaving Chicago briefly to attend Tuskegee Institute (at the same time when
Ralph Ellison was there), before dropping out in 1937, he began to engage in criminal
activity. At age eighteen, he started to pimp in Chicago’s brutal street life and became very
wealthy and successful. Iceberg, in his writing, said that he used as a motive for his pimp-
ing women American slavery, when slaves noticed their white owners’ physical attraction
to and sexual exploitation of black women. Iceberg pimped women in Chicago but also
extended his business to other cities in the Midwest.
Iceberg Slim served seven years in jail for different crimes, with time at Leavenworth
Federal Penitentiary, the Cook County House of Corrections, and Waupun State Prison.
During one of his prison sentences, he escaped and pimped for thirteen more years before
he was recaptured and placed in solitary confinement at Cook County House of Correc-
tions. At age forty-two, Iceberg quit pimping, and Monroe Anderson of the National
Observer quoted him as stating about his life as a pimp, “I realized I had been stupid . . .
I had the revelation that pimping, after all, was not the most magnificent profession. I had
a feeling that I had wasted myself.” This statement was quite compelling coming from a
man who reportedly had an I.Q. of 162.
Upon his release from prison, Iceberg retired from the streets and moved to Los Angeles,
California, to care for his mother who was dying of complications from diabetes. His mother’s
death was so traumatic for him that he quit his use of drugs, which he had continued from his
 ICEBERG SLIM: THE LIFE AS ART 133

days in prison. In 1962 he began selling insecticide for $75 a week and sold it for four years,
during which time he met and married a woman who was twenty years younger. While trying
to make a sale to a college professor, he confided in the man that he had been a pimp. The pro-
fessor offered to work with Iceberg on publishing his book, but Iceberg later discovered that
the professor would receive a higher percentage of pay from the book royalties. Slim procured
the services of Bentley Morris of Holloway House Publishers, which published his book in
1967. Iceberg, seeking to pursue a normal life, changed his name to Robert Beck, using the
surname of a man to whom his mother was once married.
Writing his controversial book, Pimp: The Story of My Life (l969), Iceberg examines the
business of prostituting women, using language that one would associate with ghetto or
urban street life. Although reviews of his book were varied, Pimp was categorized as an
African American work that highlighted his personal experiences as a criminal and as an
exploiter of women. Pimp was considered a revolutionary work that was often shelved in
the same category as autobiographical works by Eldridge Cleaver and Malcolm X. Iceberg
Slim died in l992 at the age of 73.

See also Iceberg Slim: The Life as Art

FURTHER READING
Berman, Tosh. “Iceberg Slim.” 22 April 2007. Accessed 2 September 2008. <http://tamtambooks-tosh.
blogspot.com/2007/04/iceberg-slim-by-tosh-berman.html>.
Muckley, Peter A. Iceberg Slim: The Life As Art. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing, 2003.
Slim, Iceberg. Airtight Willie and Me: The Story of Six Incredible Players. Los Angeles, CA:
Holloway House, 1979.
———. Death Wish: A Story of The Mafia. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1977.
———. Doom Fox. New York: Grove Press, 1998.
———. Long White Con: The Biggest Score in His Life! Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1977.
———. Mama Black Widow: A Story of the South’s Back Underworld. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway
House, 1969.
———. The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim: Robert Beck’s Real Story. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway
House, 1971.
———. Trick Baby: The Story of a White Negro. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1967.

Timothy Askew

ICEBERG SLIM: THE LIFE AS ART (2003). Peter A. Muckley’s study of

the life and work of African American pulp fiction author Iceberg Slim (born Robert Lee
Maupin and later changed to Robert Beck) was self-published in 2003.
The book combines elements of biography and literary criticism to show how Slim’s lit-
erary career was influenced by his real-life experiences as a hustler and a pimp. Featuring
composition histories and close readings of each of Slim’s eight published works, Iceberg
Slim is the most comprehensive and knowledgeable study of the author we have to date.
According to Muckley, the key to understanding Slim’s literary output is the “Life”—
the beliefs, practices, and attitudes that form the hard-nosed ethos of urban, or street, cul-
ture. Despite being associated with criminality and extralegal forms of business and
affiliation (the “numbers” game, prostitution, etc.), the Life has functioned, for poor
blacks, as a practical strategy of surviving the poverty and racism endemic to America’s
134 INVISIBILITY BLUES: FROM POP TO THEORY

ghettos. The Life neither consents to white racist policing of ghetto communities nor con-
forms to bourgeois models of uplift and respectability; it is, rather, a defiant subculture of
“outlaw” self-sufficiency. In Muckley’s view, Iceberg Slim has become the Life’s most cel-
ebrated chronicler because his stories reflect the unvarnished reality of those, like himself,
who have struggled to overcome hardship in the ghetto through pluck, ingenuity, and sheer
determination.
The Life has a language of its own: the urban black vernacular. As such, Muckley, who
holds a doctorate in African American literature from Temple University, takes care in ana-
lyzing Slim’s language for its social and cultural references to the street. He points out that
Slim, from Pimp (1967) to the posthumously published Doom Fox (1998), draws from a
rich vernacular heritage that includes sermons, raps, and toasts. But Muckley’s critical
attention to language also reveals that Slim is an intuitively crafty wordsmith when it
comes to more traditional literary devices such as zeugma, anaphora, and chiasmus. Here
Muckley believes it is important to recognize the diversity of Slim’s linguistic abilities so
that readers engage his books as complex literary objects and not gloss them as mere
reportage or entertainment.
Among critical studies of African American popular literature, Muckley’s Iceberg
Slim stands out for its twinned focus on culture and aesthetics. Moving between the
harsh reality of life in the ghetto and the imaginative labor of creative expression,
Muckley treats Slim’s oeuvre as both self-reflexive social criticism and provocative
literary art, setting it alongside American and European authors ranging from Baldwin
and Ellison to Shakespeare and Zola.

See also Iceberg Slim

FURTHER READING
Milner, Christina, and Richard Milner. Black Players: The Secret World of Black Pimps. Boston,
MA: Little, Brown, 1972.
Muckley, Peter A. “Iceberg Slim: Robert Beck—A True Essay at a BioCriticism of an Ex-Outlaw
Artist.” The Black Scholar, Vol. 26 Issue 1 (1996): 18–25.
Wepman, Dennis, Ronald B. Newman, and Murray B. Binderman. The Life: The Lore and Folk
Poetry of the Black Hustler. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976.

Kinohi Nishikawa

INVISIBILITY BLUES: FROM POP TO THEORY (1990). A lesson in

black feminism by critic and Professor Michele Wallace.
Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory is a compilation of Wallace’s frank and fearlessly
honest essays, reviews, and articles previously written and published between 1972 and
1989. Although the twenty-four essays cover a wide range of topics, this four-part collec-
tion represents Wallace’s interpretations of literary texts and related theorizations of racist
and sexist representations in media and popular culture.
Wallace begins the first quarter of Invisibility Blues with semi-autobiographical reflec-
tions on childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Her writings convey the profound
influence her mother, acclaimed black feminist artist and social activist Faith Ringgold,
had on her life and work as a feminist activist and scholar. Wallace’s essays comment on
 INVISIBILITY BLUES: FROM POP TO THEORY 135

challenges black feminists face in the effort to organize and act collectively against struc-
tural injustices. Wallace’s writings also insist that racism and sexism limit the rights of
black women, particularly those who are imprisoned or homeless. She goes on to show that
structural white supremacy not only perpetuates the notion that homeless and imprisoned
black women are pathological but also causes poor health, including the spread of HIV, in
black communities.
Wallace’s commentary on the maintenance of negative and creatively limited images of
black people, particularly women, in media and popular culture comprises the second and
third portions of Invisibility Blues. Wallace illuminates the media’s minimization and
silencing of African American achievement. Her writings in this part also consider the cin-
ematic interpretations of texts, such as Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Gloria
Naylor’s Women of Brewster Place, and explain that the possibilities and alternatives for
black women found in texts are often interestingly circumscribed and replaced by stereo-
typical tropes in films. She also writes about the films Mississippi Burning and Bird and
celebrities, such as Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jackson. Further, Wallace takes acclaimed
independent film maker Spike Lee to task, considering the ways certain artistic choices in
films, such as School Daze and She’s Gotta Have It, reinscribe and maintain the social
silence and fixity of black women.
Wallace considers issues of cultural production in relation to the manipulation of black
women writers, such as Zora Neale Hurston and her book Their Eyes Were Watching God.
She flushes out the politics of ownership of black women’s texts and challenges the via-
bility of accepting black patriarchal demarcations of black women’s writing in the acad-
emy. Taking Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls as an example, Wallace also contends
with the often unfair backlash feminist artists receive from established patriarchies.
The final quarter of this collection represents Wallace’s effort to create a niche for black
feminism and black feminist theory. As a whole, Invisibility Blues calls for revolutionary
changes led by black women in order to produce true progress, namely, black women’s
social empowerment.

See also Wallace, Michele Faith

FURTHER READING
Wallace, Michele. Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman. New York: Dial Press, 1979.
———. Dark Designs and Visual Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.

Christin M. Taylor
 J
JACKSON, CURTIS JAMES (50 CENT) (1975–). Rapper, Author,
Entrepreneur.
Curtis James Jackson III, known as 50 Cent, learned his entrepreneurial skills the hard
way when he began to deal drugs when he was 12 during the height of the crack epidemic
in New York City. He was arrested in 1994 and was sentenced to three to nine years in
prison but served six months in a boot camp, where he earned his GED. This encounter
with the law was not the end of his troubles by any measure, but he did learn to use his
experiences and natural street smarts as well as a genius for marketing to achieve an
unprecedented success across several media arenas. 50 Cent’s contributions to hip hop
literature involve his memoir, novel, nonfiction book writing, and launch of an imprint
with Time Warner called G-Unit Publishing.
From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens (2005) is the memoir
of 50 Cent. Given the colorful life that he has led, the book is full of lessons and advice
for the second wave of the Hip Hop Generation. From the death of his mother when he was
eight to his bonding with drug dealers as his only role models, his memoir is brash and full
of promotion of himself. He also uses the memoir as a space to give the “behind the
scenes” review of his various feuds with multiple rappers, among them Ja Rule, and the
2000 shooting that left him nearly dead. The memoir served as a publicity piece, and the
material in it was used to form the basis of a roman á clef movie: Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
Of course, given his personality, he acted in the movie.
Driven by his wide street experience, 50 Cent launched an imprint at the start of 2007.
He cowrote three novels, which were released simultaneously, with some of the biggest
names in hip hop literature: Nikki Turner, Noire, and K Elliott. Death before Dishonor,
cowritten with Nikki Turner, is a thriller about an ex-con who is running from the law and
comes across a beauty salon manager who assists him in evading the law. Baby Brother,
cowritten with Noire, is about seven brothers who make a deathbed promise to their
mother to look out for their youngest brother who was headed for Stanford before he was
murdered. The brothers then swear to avenge the loss of the only brother who was not
headed for the streets. The Ski Mask Way, cowritten with K Elliott, is due to become a
movie in 2008. The plot deals with a drug dealer who steals from his employers to get back
into his drug dealing life before he has to report to jail. While it may not be as profitable
as some of his other ventures, 50 Cent obviously enjoys his turn as a novelist and has
become a coauthor and presenter of some of the grittiest hip hop fiction around.
50 Cent also wanted to inspire youth by creating an advice book for the Hip Hop
Generation. He admired the work of Robert Greene in The 48 Laws of Power and The 33
Strategies. Greene’s work features theories about how and why people obtain or lose
 JONES, LISA 137

power and updates Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War and Machiavelli’s The Prince. 50 Cent
teamed up with Greene to write a hip hop twist to Greene’s theories about power called
The 50th Law. It is due to be released in 2008 by MTV books. Although Greene’s theories
may seem alarming to some, it is difficult to argue with 50 Cent’s formula for success in
keeping himself front and center in a wide variety of media interests, including his
developing career across multiple genres in hip hop literature.

FURTHER READING
50 Cent. From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens. New York: MTV, 2005.
“50 Cent.” 15 June 2008. <http://www.50cent.com>.
50 Cent and Derrick Pledger. The Diamond District. New York: G-Unit, 2008.
50 Cent and K Elliott. The Ski Mask Way. New York: G-Unit, 2007.
50 Cent and K’wan. Blow. New York: G-Unit, 2007.
50 Cent and Mark Anthony. Harlem Heat. New York: G-Unit, 2007.
50 Cent and Metta Smith. Heaven’s Fury. New York: G-Unit, 2007.
50 Cent and Noire. Baby Brother. New York: G-Unit, 2007.
50 Cent and Nikki Turner. Death Before Dishonor. New York: G-Unit, 2007.
50 Cent and Relentless Aaron. Derelict. New York: G-Unit, 2007.
50 Cent and Robert Greene. The 50th Law. New York: MTV, 2008.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

JONES, LISA (1961–). Jones is a playwright, writer, and cultural critic.

Lisa Jones, writer, was born Lisa Victoria Chapman, the youngest daughter of writers
Hettie Jones and Amiri Baraka. Jones and her sister, art historian Kellie Jones, were raised
on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and attended New York City public schools for their early
education. In 1979 Jones matriculated at Yale University, where she studied political sci-
ence and served as writer and editor of two Yale journals: Aurora (oldest collegiate
feminist journal) and Ritual and Dissent.
In 1983, after completing all Yale course work except her senior thesis, Jones trav-
eled to London, where she worked as a freelance writer for the newspaper City Limits.
Upon returning to America, Jones turned her attention to playwriting and performance.
The plays Jones wrote during the mid-eighties dealt with issues of identity, politics,
miscegenation, and self-loathing. In 1985 Jones wrote “Carmella and King,” a play
about a love affair between a pagan deity (Carmella) and a brown man (King) that
drives the woman insane. From 1986–1988, Jones was a member of Rodeo Caldonia, a
seventeen-woman performance troupe addressing feminist/women issues and other
political topics with satiric prose, dance, and song. Jones wrote “Combination Skin,” a
play about negative stereotypes, in 1986: Rodeo Caldonia staged the first reading and
workshop production of “Combination Skin” under Jones’s direction that fall. “Combi-
nation Skin” later opened to enthusiastic reviews at the Company One Theater in
Hartford, Connecticut, for a week-long run in 1992. Jones also began collaborating
with Spike Lee (whom she met through the black arts scene) on three books about his
movies: Uplift the Race: The Construction of School Daze (1988), Do The Right Thing
(1989), and Mo’ Better Blues (1990). Though it has not been produced, Lisa also
adapted Toni Morrison’s Sula in 1991.
138 JONES, SARAH

In 1992 Jones submitted her Yale senior thesis and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
degree. She subsequently joined Village Voice as a staff writer, where she wrote a provoca-
tive monthly column, “Skin Trade,” that explored popular culture and politics. As an observer
and critic of hip hop culture, Jones demanded more from hip hop than discourse on misog-
yny and glorified violence. During this time, Jones also contributed articles to Essence, Vibe,
Spin, Mirabella, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. Jones’s work was honored
by the Exceptional Merit in Media Award (1992–1993), the Women in Communications
(1992 Clarion Award), and a grant from the Experimental Television Center (1992).
Jones began collaborating with performer Alva Rogers in 1992 while enrolled in New
York University’s Film and Television School. Their first effort was three one-act plays,
commissioned by New American Radio. The plays, “Aunt Aida’s Hand” (1992), “Ethnic
Cleaning” (1993), and “Stained” (1993), focused on issues such as love, memory, and gen-
erational conflicts and were accompanied by innovative hip hop music. She graduated with
a M.F.A. in 1993. “Stained” was produced at Company One Theatre in Hartford,
Connecticut, in 1994 and at Harlem’s Aaron Davis Hall in 1995, directed by Carl Hancock
Rux. She won the 1995 Bessie Schomburg Award for her adaptation of “Stained.” Also
during this year, Jones published her first solo book, Bulletproof Diva, a collection of pre-
viously published and new essays that interrogated intersectional politics, hip hop, and
style. Jones also moved into television, writing teleplays for Oprah Winfrey’s production
of Dorothy West’s “The Wedding” (which aired on February 22, 1998) and the HBO pro-
duction of Terry McMillan’s “Disappearing Acts” (which aired on December 9, 2000).
Jones married executive Kenneth S. Brown in 2004 and gave birth to a daughter,
Margaret Hettie Chapman Brown, in 2005. Jones currently lives in Harlem, New York, and
is working on a collection of nonfiction essays. Jones remains committed to telling stories
about black people and analyzing hip hop culture.

See also Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair

FURTHER READING
Harrington, Walt. Crossings: A White Man’s Journey into Black America. New York: Harper Collins
Publishers, 1992.
Jones, Lisa. Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
———. Personal interview. 30 November 2007.
Klein, Alvin. “Theater in the 90’s, Questions of Color and Identity,” New York Times 18 Oct.1992: CN15.
Lee, Spike and Lisa Jones. Do The Right Thing. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.
———. Mo’ Better Blues. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990.
———. Uplift the Race: The Construction of School Daze. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.
Perkins, Kathy A. and Roberta Uno, eds. Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: An Anthology.
New York: Routledge, 1996.
Race, Mary F. Sex and Gender in Contemporary Women’s Theatre: The Construction of “Woman.”
Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 1999.

E. Angelica Whitmal

JONES, SARAH (1973–). Hip hop theater artist and poetry slam champion.
Sarah Jones is a critically acclaimed poet, performer, and playwright whose work is
known for its unflinching and provocative look at identity and power in contemporary
 JONES, SARAH 139

America. In solo shows, Jones transforms herself through body language, facial expres-
sion, intonation, and accents into each personality of her multicultural casts. Jones’s per-
formances are influenced by and incorporate elements of hip hop, often portraying
characters who are immersed in the culture or whose vocal delivery style resembles that of
rap music. In addition to theatrical productions and television appearances, Jones has been
featured on albums such as Lyricist Lounge.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Jones was raised in Queens, New York, by her African
American father and her mother of European and Caribbean descent. Jones has credited
her own experience as someone of multiethnic ancestry in a white-dominated society as an
influence on the themes of her creative projects.
After attending Bryn Mawr College as a Mellon Minority Fellow for two years, Jones
returned to New York. She became involved in the open mike poetry scene, and won the
renowned Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam poetry championship in 1997.
The celebrated poetry of Jones’s Nuyorican days evolved into her first show, Surface
Transit, which debuted in 1998 and became the headlining act of the first Hip Hop Theater
Festival in 2000. In a series of sketches, Jones portrayed eight New Yorkers, including
Pasha, a young Russian widow raising a biracial child; Joey, a violent and homophobic
Italian-American cop; and a politicized recovering rapper named Rashid. As the mono-
logues unfold, these disparate personalities are shown to be directly or indirectly tied to
one another. Despite the often extreme bigotry of characters who assert their superiority,
cross-cultural linkages and entanglements endure. Through personal narratives, Jones
depicts each individual with compassion while still offering a strong social critique.
In 1999 Jones attracted the attention of the Federal Communications Commission with
her poem, “Your Revolution,” a loving tribute to hip hop culture and uncompromising
response to misogyny and materialism in commercial rap. The poem that won Jones her
1997 Nuyorican championship became the sharp-tongued diatribe of Surface Transit’s
Keisha Rae. Inspired by Gil Scott Heron’s, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,”
Jones’s poem lifts graphic imagery from popular rap songs and subverts their meaning
to assert an anti-consumerist and feminist hip hop consciousness. When recorded with
collaborator DJ Vadim, the FCC censored the piece, citing indecency. Ironically, the FCC
targeted Jones’s poem, rather than the songs her lyrics referenced. Jones became the first
artist ever to sue the FCC, and, eventually, it reversed its ban.
Three of Jones’s subsequent performances were works that nonprofits and philanthro-
pist foundations commissioned. In 2000, international organization Equality NOW asked
the artist to address the oppression of women worldwide in Women Can’t Wait!, another
solo performance in which Jones inhabits several characters’ divergent identities. Her next
piece, Waking the American Dream (2002), was Jones’s answer to the National Immigra-
tion Forum’s call for a performance about the everyday lives of immigrants. The disparity
in access to health care was the theme of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation-commissioned
piece, A Right to Care (2005).
Sarah Jones then authored and starred in Bridge & Tunnel, a piece for which she won a
Tony Award in 2006. Expanding her earlier show, Waking the American Dream, in Bridge &
Tunnel, Jones shifts into fourteen different roles, each a voice on the margins of multicultural
America. The scene of the play, which ran off-Broadway before its Broadway run, is an
open mike gathering of collective, I.A.M.A.P.O.E.T.O.O. (Immigrant and Multiculturalist
American Poets or Enthusiasts Traveling Toward Optimistic Openness). In a Queens café
with colorful graffiti-covered walls, occasional snippets of hip hop music filter in while
Jones introduces audiences to characters of international origins and varied backgrounds.
140 JUICE

As young Vietnamese-American Bao, Jones explodes into a slam poetry cadence: “This
poem is for the Vietnamese history chapter/ My school never had.” In its review, The New
York Times praised “the uncanny accuracy with which she portrays the host of immigrants
and outsiders who make up this hybrid nation.”
Sarah Jones is highly regarded as a promising young performance artist, whose verbal
versatility, compassion, and commitment to social justice have garnered prestigious grants,
awards, and accolades.

See also Jones, Lisa

FURTHER READING
Jefferson, Margo. “One Woman Cooking Up the Melting Pot.” The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2004, E1.
Kalb, Jonathan. “Advertisements for Myself: Sarah Jones’s Bridge & Tunnel.” The Nation, 22 Mar.
2004, 43–45.

Vanessa Floyd

JUICE (PARAMOUNT PICTURES, USA, 1992). This film is early hip hop
cinema in that it deals with the cultural and socioeconomic plight of the first generation
reared on hip hop and stars Tupac Shakur.
The basic tenets of hip hop cinema involve the good black kid vs. the one made evil by
circumstance, an urban landscape, and the presence of rap and hip hop artists. Juice cer-
tainly embodies all three. Starring Tupac Shakur and Omar Epps, the film also features
cameos by Fab Five Freddy, Queen Latifah, Dr. Dre, and Treach from Naughty by Nature.
The film is the story of a group of young men who spend their days brushing up against
trouble. The bad boy of the group, Bishop (Tupac Shakur), needlessly kills a man during
a robbery and threatens the other boys to ensure their silence. Bishop ends up killing
another of the Wrecking Crew, as they call themselves. Because Q (Omar Epps) is the
member of the group least afraid of Bishop, Bishop sets him up to look like the killer of
yet another young black male. As the story ensues, Bishop and Q end up fighting on a
rooftop, and although Q tries to save Bishop, the latter falls to his death.
Juice is written and directed by Earnest Dickerson, whose body of work includes the tel-
evision series The Wire (2002); Bones (2006), starring Snoop Dogg; and Never Die Alone
(2004), featuring DMX. Never Die Alone is an adaptation of a Donald Goines novel.

Tarshia L. Stanley

JUST ANOTHER GIRL ON THE I.R.T. (MIRAMAX, USA, 1993).

An important film depicting the coming-of-age of a young black girl in Brooklyn amidst the
backdrop of rap and hip hop culture.
Leslie Harris wrote, directed, and produced this 1992 film chronicling this coming-of-
age story of a young African American woman in Brooklyn. It was nominated for the
Grand Jury Prize and won Special Jury Recognition at the Sundance Film Festival. Among
the earliest feature films directed by African American women—the first is Julie Dash’s
Daughters of the Dust (1991)—it deals honestly with such topics as sex, teen pregnancy,
working class poverty, and race and class tensions. The film was made independently for
 JUST ANOTHER GIRL ON THE I.R.T. 141

only $130,000, less than one percent of the cost of a then typical Hollywood budget, and
uses its small-scale location shooting and handheld camera work to its advantage. It main-
tains a look and feel of realism within commonplace youth situations of friendship,
romance, and difficult choices in the inner city without veering to the sensational depic-
tions of violence and drug use in better known films such as Boyz N The Hood (1991),
Juice (1992), and Menace II Society (1993).
Ariyan A. Johnson plays Chantel, a bright, outspoken high school student seeking to
skip her senior year and head straight to college, but the school counselor requires that she
stay in high school to gain maturity and learn to control her temper. Her relationships with
her friends, boyfriend, and parents take a turn when she becomes infatuated with Tyrone
(Kevin Thigpen). Their relationship leads to sex and her unplanned pregnancy, and
Chantel’s long denial and then concealment of it culminates in one of the most gripping
and realistic scenes of childbirth ever filmed. The choices, good and bad, that Chantel
makes before and after the pregnancy make the film a rich character study. The main fig-
ure is at once just another girl on the rapid transit of the film’s title and a gripping, imper-
fect character rising to challenges that are not strictly black or urban but essentially human.
The film demonstrates that emotional maturity does not necessarily coincide with adult-
hood but is instead the result of making decisions in the face of adult situations such as
poverty, sex, pregnancy, and parenthood.
The story focuses on Chantel, but the setting in Brooklyn is populated with characters
and circumstances of everyday urban life. Taking the subway and interacting with her
white employer and upper-class customers at a specialty grocery cause the main character
to vary her language use in order to present herself as she sees fit. Shopping in the mall,
gossiping with friends, and challenging her teacher, parents, and boss stage Chantel’s self-
assertion, her interest in both fitting in and rising above generational poverty. The chal-
lenges of self-presentation and authenticity are the core of the film. Even the main
character’s occasional direct address to the camera does not break the illusion of truth in
the story but enhances its realism, adding to its documentary feel.

FURTHER READING
Adjaye, Joseph K. and Adrianne R. Andrews. Language, Rhythm and Sound: Black Popular Cultures
into the Twenty-First Century. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997.

Peter Caster
 K
KELLEY, ROBIN D. G. (1962–). Historian of twentieth-century African American
life and culture.
Robin D. G. Kelley’s experiences growing up in public housing and his mother’s posi-
tive outlook led him to imagine a better world. In his book Yo Mama’s Disfunktional he
describes swapping “yo mamma” jokes with his peers, a play on words among some
African Americans known as “shootin the dozens.” The phrase “the dozens” refers to the
group purchase of African slaves considered deficient by buyers and sellers. As a popular
pastime in urban cities, African Americans refashioned the negative connotation into a
teasing dis. Youth use these metaphoric forms of expression as a bulwark against poverty,
crime, police brutality, and other ills of city life. These urban cultural experiences followed
Kelley throughout his academic training and ultimately shaped his life work. He left the
inner city and began his life in academia, finishing in 1987 with a Ph.D. in American His-
tory from UCLA. His work provides some of the earliest critiques of hip-hop along with
contextual narratives that inform listeners on conditions that birthed this developing
cultural expression.
Kelley’s first book, Hammer and Hoe, examines the lives of African Americans who
used the Communist Party to combat racism. In telling the story of Communist Party
activism among poor blacks in Birmingham and white Alabamians’ resistance to black
progress, this book reveals the tensions surrounding life for blacks in urban and rural areas
of the South. These tensions demonstrated the sharp color line that largely defined the
nature of social interaction between blacks and whites in the twentieth century. African
Americans collaborated under the Communist umbrella in spite of the consequences of
their membership because of the alternative vision it offered. Children born to this gener-
ation of activists would later contribute to the birth of hip hop.
Kelley continued to focus on the ways blacks altered expressions of black culture as
political tools in Race Rebels, his most renowned publication to date. As a labor history
told through the lives of everyday people, Race Rebels explores black working class com-
munities and the tactics they developed to ease social, political, and economic restraints on
black life. Because Kelley draws from his earlier works, this text allows for a broad look
at nontraditional forms of resistance shaped by mostly poor African Americans. In terms
of hip hop, Kelley argues for the need to revise narrow conceptions of political activism to
include cultural forms of expression such as gansta rap. Rather than taking rap lyrics lit-
erally, he encourages listeners to understand rappers’ use of metaphorical analysis as a way
to give voice to young urban blacks while raising awareness of inner-city life.
In Freedom Dreams, Kelley again describes hip hop’s relation to larger trends in African
American history. The “vision of an earthbound utopia” presented in earlier forms of hip
 KENNEDY, ERICA 143

hop pointed to the capacity of African Americans to imagine a world vastly different
from everyday realities (2002, 34). Kelley argues for a more complex understanding of
hip hop as a continuation of earlier black cultural forms with added technology. Since
hip hop is both an art form and a political tool, Kelley argues that “what counts more
than the story is the “storytelling”—“an emcee’s verbal facility on the mic, the creative
and often hilarious use of puns, metaphors, [and] similes” (2002, 37). Hip hop’s main
contribution to black culture, then, is its dual artistic and political nature. Kelley’s fem-
inist leanings result in attention to the oft overlooked contributions and historical roles
of black women. However, he tends to focus more fully on the thoughts and actions of
black men. In addition to his many novels, Kelley has authored a plethora of articles
related to his interest in African American history and culture, working-class popula-
tions, and African people worldwide. His latest project continues in the tradition of
African American culture and alternative forms of expression in its focus on legendary
jazz artist Thelonious Monk.

FURTHER READING
Kelley, Robin D. G. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston, MA: Beacon Press,
2002.
———. Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression. Chapel Hill, NC:
University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
———. Into the Fire: African Americans since 1970. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
———. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class. New York: The Free Press,
1996.
———. Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America. Boston, MA: Beacon
Press, 1997.

Christina L. Davis

KENNEDY, ERICA (1970–). Erica Kennedy published her first novel, Bling, in
2004. The satirical novel offers an inside look at the glamorous hip hop lifestyle. In a 2004
review in The New York Times Book Review, Sia Michel proclaimed, “Hip-hop gossip lit
makes its inevitable arrival. Kennedy’s novel has hip hop artists and fans alike trying to
decode the true identity of the various characters.”
Kennedy’s parents divorced when she was ten years old, and she moved with her
mother to an all-white neighborhood in the suburbs of New York City. Later Kennedy
attended Stuyvesant, a well-known public high school in New York. As a teenager, she
was introduced to the world of hip hop by a boyfriend who was a music producer. At 17
she met hip hop impresario Russell Simmons and later befriended his then girlfriend and
future wife, Kimora Lee. After graduation from Sarah Lawrence, Kennedy worked in
fashion, music, and public relations before pursuing a writing career in 1998. She inter-
viewed numerous hip hop stars for various fashion and entertainment magazines includ-
ing Vibe, US Weekly, and In Style.
Kennedy’s debut novel, Bling, was published by Miramax books. The publishers also
purchased the film rights to the novel. Kennedy received immediate critical acclaim for the
novel. The title comes from the phrase “bling-bling,” originally hip hop slang for dia-
monds. The term evolved to represent the hip hop stars’ penchant for the glamorous,
extravagant, and opulent lifestyle. The novel is divided into five phases, cleverly called
144 KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORPORATION

“Discs.” The 57 short chapters are each titled after the hip hop songs that have defined a
generation.
The novel focuses on hip hop mogul and self-made man Lamont Jackson and his
musical protégé Mimi. Born Marie-Jean Castiglione, Mimi gets a radical makeover,
and Lamont transforms the biracial singer into a “hip hop R&B princess.” The story fol-
lows Mimi as she learns the music business and becomes a fixture on the New York hip-
hop scene. The colorful cast of characters includes Mimi’s wild child best friend Lena,
image consultant and former model Vanessa, A&R rep Daryl, and Lamont’s devoted
assistant Imani, and his mother, affectionately called “Mama.” At its core, Bling is the
classic rags-to-riches, coming-of-age story. As Mimi struggles to maintain a sense of
self in a world of flash and glitz, she must battle the pressures of fame. With Lamont
pulling her strings, she laments that she feels more like a puppet than an artist. Even-
tually, after personal highs and lows, Mimi realizes the emptiness of the life dream she
has achieved.
At the time of publication rumors swirled and several names were bandied about regard-
ing who the characters in Bling were based on. Kennedy maintains that although the novel
is inspired by her experiences, the characters are creations of her vivid imagination. In a
Newsweek article, Kennedy was quoted as saying that any rumor suggesting otherwise
“diminishes my skills as a fiction writer.”

FURTHER READING
Bush, Vanessa. “Review.” Booklist, 15 May 2004, 58.
Donahue, Deirdre. “Review.” USA Today, 29 June 2004, D6.
Gregory, Deborah. “Review.” Essence, June 2004, 138.
Kennedy, Erica. Bling. New York: Miramax, 2004.

Kimberly R. Oden

KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORPORATION. A prolific publisher of urban

or street literature.
Founded in 1974 by Walter Zaccharius, Kensington Publishing is the largest independ-
ent publisher of fiction in the United States. As the other major publishing houses have
been acquired by larger corporations through the years, Kensington fancies itself a “David
and Goliath” publisher of literature ranging from romance, to true crime, to erotica, and to
what it calls alternative health.
Kensington began to distinguish itself as a company whose catalogue dictated the trends.
Many of its books mimic those by distinguished and successful authors, and much has been
reckoned about Kensington as a publisher of quality books. In recent years Kensington has
established a loyal fan base by producing books according to niche markets. This is one of
the reasons Kensington has become a leading publisher of African American and urban or
street literature. Kensington’s imprints Daufina and Vibe Books are readily recognizable as
having published texts that cater to African American and hip hop audiences. Kensington
recently teamed with Urban Books, a company founded by prolific urban literature author
Carl Weber, to form the imprint Urban Soul, which targets African American women.
Women readers make up more than half of Kensington’s audience. In 2008 Kensington
acquired Holloway House Publishing. Holloway made a name for itself as the publisher of
African American urban literature by Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim.
 KNOW WHAT I MEAN?: REFLECTIONS ON HIP HOP 145

FURTHER READING
Bookjobs. 2 June 2008. <www.bookjobs.com/viewcompany.php?prmCoID=60>.
Hoover Inc. 2 June 2008. <www.hoovers.com/kensington-publishing>.
Kensington Books. 2 June 2008. <www.kensingtonbooks.com>.
Reid, Calvin. “Kensington Acquires Holloway House Backlist.” Publishers Weekly (June 2008).

Tarshia L. Stanley

KNOW WHAT I MEAN?: REFLECTIONS ON HIP HOP (2007). In

the collection of interviews that comprise his fifteenth book, Know What I Mean?: Reflec-
tions on Hip Hop, Michael Eric Dyson draws on the rhetorical charisma and academic
rigor that have made him both a prominent public intellectual and a university professor
at Georgetown.
In its construction, the book attempts to approximate the form and flow of hip hop itself;
the book is comprised of “tracks,” not chapters, and also features an “Intro” written by
Jay-Z and an “Outro” by Nas. According to Dyson, “Hip hop scholarship must strive to
reflect the form it interrogates, offering the same features as the best of hip hop: seductive
rhythms, throbbing beats, intelligent lyrics, soulful samples, and a sense of joy that is never
exhausted in one sitting” (2007, xxvii). Yet as much as the book exists as a critical cele-
bration of the linguistic inventiveness and rich musical tradition of hip hop, Dyson also
consistently wrestles with the negative attributes of its music and culture: misogyny,
materialism, violence, and drugs.
Dyson begins the book by firing back at critics, of both his work and hip hop in general,
who have argued that hip hop fosters a harmful image of black authenticity and identity.
Dyson’s argument for the sustained attention to hip hop is twofold. First, he reminds us
that most great art serves to provoke the sensibilities of a culture: “art is supposed to get
in our faces and not simply soothe or reassure us” (2007, xxiii). In the same way that the
bebop movement in jazz sought to counter the appropriation of black expression by white
musicians and producers, the best hip hop works provide a voice for marginal urban youth
who are often spoken about—and not spoken to—within mainstream media. In addition,
Dyson also argues that critics of hip hop fail to account for the intricacy of the lyrics,
which often adopt a complex system of literary and artistic conventions, including parody,
hyperbole, and kitsch.
Dyson locates the ghetto as “an intellectual organizing principle of expression” for hip
hop (2007, 12), but the listener must remember that what may seem like “realism” in the
lyrics actually depends on a set of literary and narrative devices that achieve a desired
effect. To be able to bring an image of the ghetto to life in hip hop does not depend on
having lived there but instead relies on tapping into the creativity that comes out of it. At
the same time, Dyson routinely acknowledges the danger that comes with the perpetuation
of certain images within hip hop. For Dyson, much of the misogyny and aggression of hip
hop stems from the systematic abuse, neglect, and denigration of black bodies within a
larger cultural context. Dyson maintains that a violent vision of masculinity is a part of
American mythology in general, which has given a privileged status to outlaws, rebels, and
outcasts—to say nothing of the popularity of violent sports such as football and boxing.
Within this context, the subjugation of women in hip hop is still entirely reprehensible but
can be read to exist within a larger social pattern that must be questioned along with any
criticism of hip hop. Drawing on the national debate about the racist remarks of radio host
146 KRUSH GROOVE

Don Imus in 2007, Dyson interrogates the way in which the black female body in America
has never really “belonged just to her,” but is part of a system of symbolic ownership that
includes the history of slavery, the church, the media, and women’s liberation (2007, 143).
Similarly, Dyson suggests that the glorification of prison life in certain strands of hip hop
can be read to draw on a set of cultural messages in which black men are lead to believe
that there are few available options other than prison: “a lot of us are told that’s where
we’re going to end up. So it doesn’t take much imagination to conjure prison as an
alternative home” (2007, 16).
Above all, Dyson stresses that hip hop endures as a vibrant and viable instrument for
black cultural expression, and as rappers become more conscious of the problems that exist
within hip hop itself, the influence of the music will become increasingly pronounced.
Although hip hop cannot be a substitute for politics and political action, Dyson’s book
professes hope that hip hop will continue to foster inspiration for social change and
renewal.

See also Dyson, Michael Eric

FURTHER READING
Dyson, Michael Eric. Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop. New York: Basic Civitas Books,
2007.

David B. Olsen

KRUSH GROOVE (WARNER BROS, USA, 1985). A hip hop cult clas-
sic film, Krush Groove is one of a handful of films in the 1980s which served to chronicle
the history of rap and hip hop culture.
The loosely disguised biopic of media mogul Russell Simmons’s rise to mega producer
and promoter of hip hop culture, Krush Groove starred many of rap and hip hop’s super
groups of the 1980s. Under the direction of Michael Schultz, with a screen play by Ralph
Farquhar, the film virtually chronicles the rise of Russell Simmons via a character named
Russell Walker, played by Blair Underwood.
In the film Russell Walker is CEO of the Krush Goove record label, which can’t afford
to press the records of its new stars Run DMC. Russell borrows the money from a loan
shark, and the drama and comedy ensue. Boasting talent such as Kurtis Blow, Run DMC,
The Fat Boys, Sheila E, and the Beastie Boys, the film was a financial success, though not
without some backlash from hip hop purists. Michael Shultz directed a number of films
with African American thematic content and casts, including Car Wash (1975), Cooley
High (1976), and Which Way is Up (1977).

FURTHER READING
Krush Groove. <www.oldschoolhiphop.com/video/krushgroove.htm>. <www.imdb.com/title/
tt0089444/>.

Tarshia L. Stanley
 L
LADIES FIRST: REVELATIONS OF A STRONG WOMAN (1999).
This is the inspirational memoir of rapper Queen Latifah (Dana Owens).
Originally published in 1999, Queen Latifah’s memoir is her reflection on the major
events in her life. Ranging from her parents’ divorce to the death of her brother, the rapper
turned actress, spokesmodel, and producer shares the insight she has gained from the most
difficult moments in her life.
Born in New Jersey in 1970, Queen Latifah examines the lessons she learned as an
athletic girl who was called “tomboy” because she wanted to play with the boys. She
also talks about the difficulty she had after losing her brother in a motorcycle accident.
Her subsequent bout with depression and drugs and her run-in with the law are all dis-
cussed in an attempt to provide strength by example to her readers.
Many critics found the book disappointing because it was not a tell-all memoir.
Although Latifah shared many of her struggles, she spent little time discussing her career
or the rumors surrounding her sexuality. The memoir was the perfect opportunity to reveal
her ruminations of the position she occupies as a female rapper, but Queen chose instead
to rely on euphemisms and concentrate on encouraging her audience.

Tarshia L. Stanley

THE LAST POETS. Poetry collective, proto-hip hop performance poets.

The Last Poets—originally David Nelson, Gylan Kain, Felipe Luciano, and Abiodun
Oyewole—came together May 19, 1968, to recite poetry for a celebration of Malcolm X’s
birthday. Nelson, Kain, and Luciano soon left the group (though they continued to perform,
appearing in the film Right On!), and Oyewole was joined by Umar Bin Hassan, Jalal
Nuriddin (then known as Alafia Pudim), and percussionist Nilija. This core group recorded
the seminal album The Last Poets (1970). Disagreements led to the departure of Oyewole,
leaving Bin Hassan, Nuriddin, and Nilija to record 1971’s This Is Madness. Bin Hassan
eventually left and was replaced by Suliaman El Hadi, following which elements of jazz
and funk were added to the group’s sparse percussion-backed spoken word (to become
what they called “jazzoetry”). Various incarnations of the group have emerged and disap-
peared since the mid-70s, with strife among members and occasional albums. Nuriddin’s
and El Hadi’s poems appeared as The Last Poets in 1992’s Vibes from the Scribes. Poetry
and autobiographical statements by Oyewole and Bin Hassan were published in 1996 as
The Last Poets On a Mission.
148 LET THAT BE THE REASON

The Last Poets were born in the act of performance, which combined poetry reading
with percussion, leading to a highly rhythmic, chant-like recitation. It is impossible to
separate the Poets’ verse from its oral delivery, which is why the first two albums must
be considered the original documents of the Poets’ literary output (as spoken word
records) as well as experiments in a new kind of urban music that count among the very
first examples of hip hop. In this way the two volumes of Last Poets verse that appeared
in the 1990s are better read as transcriptions of these original performances than as
texts from which these performances originate. The printed text cannot reproduce the
kinds of simultaneous voicings that are ubiquitous in the Poets’ performances, such as
in the poem “Run Nigger,” whose first lines—“I understand that time is running out”—
are delivered over the repeated recitation “tick tock.” This technique is expanded on in
This is Madness, where recapitulated “chants”—first introduced as separate tracks—
serve as the accompaniment for syncopated poetic recitation (e.g., “Black Is Chant,”
“Black Is”).
Such repetition is characteristic of the Poets’ verse, which deals with a variety of urban
experiences and heterosexual male desire. Performance is intimately connected with the
Poets’ main theme, the need for revolution to kindle African American consciousness and
social change (e.g., “When the Revolution Comes,” “Niggers Are Scared of Revolution”).
Performance poetry becomes a means to provoke reflection on the necessity of Black
Nationalism and revolutionary action (e.g., “Wake Up Niggers”). Ultimately, poetry itself
becomes an act of revolution, the poet and revolutionary being one and the same.

See also Black Poetry

FURTHER READING
The Last Poets. The Last Poets. Douglas Records, 1970.
———. This is Madness. Douglas Records, 1971.
———. Vibes from the Scribes: Selected Poems. Trenton: Africa World Press, 1992.
Oyewole, Abiodun and Umar Bin Hassan. The Last Poets on a Mission: Selected Poems and a His-
tory of The Last Poets. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.

Samuel Frederick

LET THAT BE THE REASON (2001). A novel written by Vickie M. Stringer

while she was incarcerated for seven years for money laundering and drug trafficking.
After being freed from jail, Stringer sent her manuscript to twenty-six publishing houses
but was rejected by all. As a result, Stringer self-published her first novel, Let That Be The
Reason, with $100 donations from family and friends. In 2001, 1,500 copies were published
by Stringer and sold for $10 each. Stringer sold her novel at the car wash, to beauty salons,
and from the trunk of her car. In 2002, Stringer was offered $50,000 by UpStream Publica-
tions to publish her novel. It sold over 100,000 copies and made Essence’s bestsellers list. The
success paved the way for Stringer’s books, Dirty Red and Imagine This, and Triple Crown
Publications, which is a leading hip-hop publishing house founded by Stringer. In addition,
the novel allowed Stringer’s Triple Crown Publications to make a major contribution to the
hip-hop literary genre by publishing A Hustler’s Wife by Nikki Turner and Gangsta by K’wan.
The novel is based on Stringer’s street experiences. It is the intersection between fiction
and fact about Stringer’s life, but most importantly Stringer hoped her depiction of the
 LETTERS TO A YOUNG BROTHER: MANIFEST YOUR DESTINY 149

consequences and repercussions of engaging in criminal activities would discourage

readers from this lifestyle. The novel begins with Pamela Xavier, owner of L-O-Quent
Hair Salon—a high-end establishment servicing an elite clientele. The reader is also
introduced to Chino, co-owner of L-O-Quent Hair Salon, drug dealer boyfriend of
Pamela, and her son’s father. As the novel progresses, Chino abandons Pamela and their
child. As Pamela’s personal relationship quickly comes to an end, so does her profes-
sion as a hair stylist. Chino’s absence coupled with financial restraints causes her to
close her salon. Hopeless and penniless, Pamela turns to her alter ego Carmen to help
her cope with her troubles. Pamela names herself Carmen to establish her call girl serv-
ice and drug trafficking business. The alternating names act as an apt metaphor for
Pamela’s double life. For Pamela, the modification of her name coincides with the
transformation of her life. Pamela goes from a respected hair stylist and mother to the
criminal conscious Carmen.
Stringer’s novel starts off slowly, but like a pot of water it gets hot and eventually boils
over, becoming more intense as you read it. The reentry of Chino leaves Carmen torn
between staying in a life of crime as a drug hustler—to please Chino, who needs her to
help him link up with criminal minded Dragos—or leaving to start a new life with her son
and new boyfriend Delano. As the novel comes to a close, the reader learns that Carmen
runs out of choices, and the law determines her fate.

FURTHER READING
Smith, Dinitia. “Unorthodox Publisher Animates Hip-Hop Lit.” The New York Times, 9 Sept. 2004, E6.
Stringer, Vickie M. Dirty Red. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007.
———. Imagine This. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006.
Stringer, Vickie M., and Mia McPherson. How to Succeed in the Publishing Game. Columbus, OH:
Triple Crown Publications, 2005.

Ava Williams

LETTERS TO A YOUNG BROTHER: MANIFEST YOUR DESTINY

(2006). Hill Harper’s manifesto to young African American men.
Actor and star of television’s CSI: NY, Hill Harper made his debut in the hip hop literary
genre with the publication of his first book, Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Des-
tiny. Published in 2006 by Gotham Books, Letters to a Young Brother became an inspira-
tional best seller and winner of an award for Best Books for Young Adults 2007 by the
American Library Association. Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letter to a Young Poet,
Harper’s inspirational text draws on Rilke’s informal approach to mentoring. The Austrian
poet’s text provides insight and motivation in his responses to ten letters written by a stu-
dent in 1903 seeking advice and guidance on poetry and life. Although written well before
Harper’s time, Rilke’s willingness to cultivate the next generation of scholars and artists
served as a blueprint for Letters to a Young Brother.
In Letters to a Young Brother, Harper engages in an important dialogue concerning
the complex terrain of African American male identity and masculinity. His focus on
the issues that often complicate the road to success for many African American male
youths is structured to spark conversation about life choices being faced by the Hip Hop
Generation. By addressing issues such as premarital sex, materialism, education, men-
toring, quality friendships, establishing strong familial ties, and career goals, Harper’s
150 LIFE AND DEF: SEX, DRUGS, MONEY, AND GOD

inspirational messages extend themselves beyond socio-economic barriers. The honest

and forthright response to letters written by today’s African American youths creates a
universal appeal that easily reaches young men throughout the black diaspora. As a
member of the Hip Hop Generation, Harper presents himself as a successful yet acces-
sible brother whose humility and passion for shaping the next generation continues to
be a priority.
In the introduction to Letters to a Young Brother, Harper reflects on the multiplicity
of the African American male experience as he shares details about his own family his-
tory. During this reflection Harper emphasizes the importance of support systems,
determination, and black male role models. Harper acknowledges his grandfathers,
Harold E. Hill and Harry D. Harper Sr., as two of his greatest role models. Both Harold
E. Hill and Harry D. Harper Sr. overcame racial and economic obstacles in order to
achieve professional goals. Harold E. Hill (Doc Hill), a self-educated pharmacist,
became the owner of Piedmont Pharmacy in 1936 in Seneca, South Carolina. Harry D.
Harper (Doc Harper) became a successful family practitioner in Fort Madison, Iowa,
in the 1920s. Despite the “privileged” label some would attach to his background,
Harper addresses the reality of the pain that one can experience as a result of aban-
donment. Harper relives the painful childhood memories of his mother’s departure and
the process toward rebuilding the bond between them. The use of Harper’s family his-
tory serves as a motivational lesson for readers. He is careful to explain to youths that
one’s past inevitably informs current self-perception but that it should not deter future
possibilities.
Written from a layman’s point of view, Harper speaks directly to young black men by
joining their discourse community. By speaking to young men as a friend and advisor,
Harper engages in difficult conversation without intimidation or didacticism. Additionally,
Harper enlists the help of fellow celebrities and mentors to help answer some of the most
difficult questions received via email from young black men. Harper’s positive reinforce-
ment team includes AIDS activist Phil Wilson, NFL star Curtis Martin, Harvard Professor
Charles Ogletree, actresses Gabrielle Union and Sanaa Lathan, Senator Barack Obama,
and hip hop artist Nas to name a few. Ultimately, Harper promotes education as the key to
success and stronger understanding of self. As a graduate of Harvard Law School with
three Ivy League degrees among his accomplishments, Harper is a great role model for
African American male youth. His messages of hope and inspiration are authentic and will
continue to inspire future generations.

Chaunda A. McDavis

LIFE AND DEF: SEX, DRUGS, MONEY, AND GOD (2002). Life and
Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and God is an autobiography by Russell Simmons with Nelson
George. The novel discusses Simmons’s childhood and his experiences as a manager and
producer of hip-hop music, comedy, and fashions.
Russell Simmons was born in 1957 in Jamaica, a part of Queens in outer New York
City. He is the second of three sons in his family, and both his parents were graduates of
Howard University in Washington, D.C. His father was a teacher who eventually became
a professor of black history at Pace University, and his mother worked for the New York
City Parks Department as a recreation director. The Simmons family moved to the Hollis
neighborhood of Queens when Simmons was eight years old. Their home was near a
 LIFE IS NOT A FAIRY TALE 151

corner that was a known meeting place for drug users and their dealers. His older brother,
Danny, influenced by the environment, became a heroin addict. Ironically, Russell’s first
attempt at entrepreneurship would be selling marijuana and later fake cocaine. In order
to avoid the fates of his brother and friends (death or prison), Russell looked for other
less dangerous ways to earn a living, and ultimately, hip-hop music became his salvation.
He started promoting and producing rappers and hip-hop groups at a young age. He was
also passionate about the culture and the hip-hop phenomenon that was developing in the
community. Russell overcame racial, economic, social, and critical barriers to achieve
financial success: a history-changing rap record label, Def Jam (co-founded with Rick
Rubin); a clothing label, Phat Farm; and an artist management company, Rush Produc-
tions. Simmons is also responsible for the launch of Def Comedy Jam, the long-running
hit television series that introduced a new generation of black comedic stars to America.
These comedians include Martin Lawrence, Bill Bellamy, Bernie Mac, and Chris Rock.
Simmons made an indelible mark on popular culture by taking previously marginalized
music into the pop mainstream. Under Simmons’s savvy tutelage, Def Jam and Rush
Communications helped make LL Cool J, The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Slick Rick, and
Public Enemy into household names.
In this autobiographic novel, Simmons also gives accounts of the unglamorous side of
the music industry, and he recounts his success as a black businessman, beginning with his
crucial partnership with co-Def Jam head Rick Rubin. Simmons’s business successes and
personal philosophies keep him grounded. He is not only a business entrepreneur but also
focused on how to give back to the community.
Russell Simmons is one of the most innovative and influential figures in modern
American business and culture. He is known as the godfather of hip hop and has brought
hip-hop music, along with the urban culture it represents, to the American mainstream.

FURTHER READING
Gueraseva, Stacy. Def Jam, Inc.: Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin, and the Extraordinary Story of the
World’s Most Influential Hip Hop Label. New York: One World Ballantine, 2005.

Beatrice Nibigira Kelley

LIFE IS NOT A FAIRY TALE (2005). This is the memoir of rhythm and blues
singer Fantasia Barrino. Born on June 30, 1984, in High Point, North Carolina, African
American author and singer Fantasia Barrino is most famous as the third winner of
American Idol, the TV reality show.
In Life is Not a Fairy Tale Barrino tells the story of her upbringing in a poor but religious
family. The narrative depicts the dreams she had for her life and their subsequent interrup-
tion by illiteracy, abuse, rape, and the birth of a daughter. In addition, the narrative depicts
her insecurities and self-consciousness about her physical attributes. The memoir ends with
Barrino’s maturation and clarity about being a good mother and entertainer and additionally
encourages literacy, education, and perseverance for all young people.
Life is Not a Fairy Tale recounts Barrino’s childhood singing in church with her family:
“I have been singing since I was five years old.” Her entire family had aspirations of
singing professionally, but a badly interpreted contract signed by Barrino’s father, Joseph,
ended the family’s hopes. Barrino credits the strong Christian beliefs of her family seeing
her through the tougher times in life. The difficult moments included dropping out of high
152 LITERARY FICTION

school, an unplanned pregnancy, living in government subsidized housing, stealing to support

herself and her child, and her subsequent struggle to earn her GED.
Barrino declares that her voice is her medium of communication and she used it to speak
to the world when her past, particularly her lack of a high school education and her status
as a single parent, haunted and threatened her chances of completing the American Idol
competition. Despite some questioning of her ability to be a role model to the younger gen-
eration, Barrino persisted. The turning point came when her rendition of George Gershwin’s
classic “Summertime,” from the 1937 opera Porgy and Bess, endeared her to the audience.
On May 26, 2004, after a documented 65 million votes were cast, Barrino, in a final com-
petition with Diana DeGarmo, became an American Idol.
Currently, Barrino dedicates her life to encouraging others to live their dreams. A major
part of her platform is the importance of literacy and education. She is focused on encour-
aging teenagers and individuals with low self-esteem. In 2004 Barrino released her debut
album, Free Yourself, on the J-Records label. “I Believe,” her debut single, rated number
one on Billboard magazine’s 100 singles chart. Barrino also appeared as the principle char-
acter Celie in the Broadway rendition of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.

FURTHER READING
Fantasia. Life is Not a Fairy Tale. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Tolu O. Idowu

LITERARY FICTION. Literary fiction is high quality fiction writing according to

Western, traditional modes of interpretation.
Often distinguished from popular and genre fiction, literary fiction aesthetics encompass
a range of styles from various narrative structures, astute erudition, eloquent prose, and
allegory. However, a fictional work’s literary merit is not limited to these techniques but
includes an amalgamation of precursor influence or intertextuality and stands the test of
literary touchstone or canonical inclusion.
According to prominent literary critic Harold Bloom, as noted in The Western Canon:
The Books and School of the Ages, William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri are the major
influences for the development of Western literature. Bloom supports this claim by noting
Shakespeare’s preeminence as a literary figure and also suggesting that Shakespeare is the
representation of literary originality, which places him at the head of the canon. In Bloom’s
opinion, Shakespeare’s work is the touchstone by which other writers are tested for liter-
ary merit. Bloom asserts the importance of time-tested literary merit by a writer’s influ-
ence and canonical inclusion and objects to “social” literary theories, such as Feminist,
Marxist, and Post Colonial criticism, that seek to open up the literary canon to what Bloom
considers undeserving texts.
Despite Bloom’s claims, social literary criticism also illuminates aesthetically valuable
texts. For example, Womanist theory, as developed by Alice Walker in the text In Search of
Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose, is a more inclusive feminist theory that recognizes
not only the system of patriarchy in Western society and Western letters, but also the system
of racism and classism that exists in society and texts as well. In practice, Womanist theory
rereads canonized texts with a more inclusive feminist gaze and/or rediscovers important yet
underrepresented texts written by women for inclusion into the literary canon. A work of
fiction that has benefited from a Womanist reading is Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were
 LITERARY FICTION 153

Watching God, which is noted for its use of African American folklore, biblical allusions,
blues aesthetics, and African American dialect. Prior to the publication of “In Search of Our
Mother’s Gardens,” Walker published an article entitled “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston,”
using the rediscovery or “re-search” proponents of Womanist theory and revitalized interest
in her literary “mother’s” works. The overall literary merit of Their Eyes Were Watching God,
affirmed by Bloom as well, demonstrates the benefit of a social re-reading of texts but also
emphasizes the importance of a precursor’s influence and the possibility of canonical inclu-
sion through Walker’s own Pulitzer Prize winning literary development.
Aesthetic techniques, intertextual originality, and exemplary touchstone excellence
are ways to mark literary quality, and these features are often the basis for the honor
of prestigious literary awards. Notable prestigious literary awards, such as the Interna-
tional Nobel Prize for Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for American fiction writers, and
The Booker Prize for writers of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth,
are awarded to works of high literary merit. Although there has been some criticism
about awarding certain writers over others, a notable standard of literary craftsmanship
is honored by the three literary prize committees. The winners of these awards are ben-
efited by high critical acclaim, international recognition, and monetary awards, all
which signify their positions as serious writers. Furthermore, there is a broader visi-
bility of the work that can lead to inclusion in academic syllabi and scholarly publica-
tion, front page reviews in The New York Times, a reissue of the text with critical
accolades, and excerpts featured in anthologies, which all can lead to the works’
canonical inclusion.
Perhaps one of the most notorious critiques of award winning and critically acclaimed
literary fiction in recent history is B.R. Myers “A Reader’s Manifesto,” first published in the
July/August 2001 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. In his declaration, Myers debases the state
of contemporary literary fiction, particularly the works of writers Annie Proulx, Don
DeLillo, Paul Auster, and David Guterson and the later work of Cormac McCarthy, and dis-
esteems the literary establishment’s admiration for what he considers bad writing and genre
fiction convoluted by slow, prolix, unintelligible prose. Myers’s article received mixed
reviews, but the response was mostly negative criticism concerning the writers he chose to
repudiate, the passages from the novels examined, and the neglect of acknowledging well
known highly skilled contemporary literary fiction writers. However, his exposition demon-
strated that though our culture is immersed in fragmented oral and visual stimuli, where
popular novels are becoming ever more cinematic stylistically, there is still a demand for
intellectually stimulating literary writing.
Similarly, the resurgence of African American letters interchangeably called hip hop
literature, urban fiction, and “ghetto lit” has had its share of criticism concerning the lack
of literary merit in many of its works. In the article “It’s Urban, It’s Real, But Is This
Literature?,” mystery author Walter Mosley advocates reading ghetto lit, though he sets
apart this category of fiction from more literary fiction such as Mark Twain’s novels or
his own. On the other hand, writer and publisher Victoria Stringer repeatedly claims that
the fiction she publishes is hip hop literature because of its resemblances to hip hop
music. As represented by Triple Crown publication’s catalog of titles, such as Whore, A
Hustler’s Son, A Project Chick, Gangsta, A Hustler’s Wife, and Crack Head, Stringer’s
assessment is predominately based on rap’s current saturation with street life. However,
in the Backlist article “Two Scholars, Two Books, One Hip Hop,” hip hop critic Gwendolyn
Pough notes that hip hop literature also models the writings of Iceberg Slim and Donald
Goines. Although many writers of hip hop literature do intertextualize themes of Iceberg
154 LOVE DON’T LIVE HERE NO MORE

Slim’s and Goines’s writings, other authors have more literary predecessors. Black British
writer Diran Adebayo, whose first novel Some Kind of Black was long listed for the Booker
Prize, intertextualizes Shakespeare and the urban philosophy of Wu-Tang Clan and alludes
to the Old Testament and West African Yoruba tradition in his second novel, My Once
Upon a Time, while writing very capable literary prose that incorporates techniques of
detective fiction, hip hop literature, and fairy tales.

FURTHER READING
Adebayo, Diran. My Once Upon a Time. Oxford: Abacus, 2002.
Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. New York: Harcourt Brace,
1994.
Venable, Malcolm, Tayannah McQuillar, and Yvette Mingo. “It’s Urban, It’s Real, But Is This Lit-
erature?” Black Issues Book Review (Sept.–Oct. 2004).

Tyechia L. Thompson

LOVE DON’T LIVE HERE NO MORE (2006). Love Don’t Live Here No
More is a hip hop novel written by Snoop Dogg and David E. Talbert.
Born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. in 1971, but better known by his stage name Snoop
Dogg, Broadus is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. David E. Talbert is a
five-time NAACP Award-winning playwright and a bestselling author. Their collaborative
novel depicts a young man, Ulysses, who lives the hard life in southern California (on the
east side of Long Beach) while struggling to make it in the world of hip-hop.
The story takes place in 1989, when the protagonist Ulysses and his peers listen to
politically conscious hip-hop, specifically, Public Enemy’s Fight the Power (1989).
Hip-hop ethos can trace its genealogy to the emergence in that decade of an American
black ideology that equated black strength and authentic black identity with a militantly
adversarial stance toward American society. Unabashedly political, Fight the Power’s
message is confrontational, demands action, and acts as the perfect summation of its
ideology and sound. The song Fight the Power was introduced at a crucial period in
America’s struggle with race, capturing both the psychological and social conflicts of
that time. The Republican administration of that day had dismantled a battery of social
programs, squashing urban communities already struggling with drugs, poverty, guns,
and violence.
In Love Don’t Live Here No More, Ulysses Jeffries’s mother decides to move her family
from the drug infested East side to what she believes will be safer North Long Beach,
but Ulysses and his bother Bing are thrown into a world of drugs, violence, thefts, and
prostitution. Ulysses’s family lived in a dilapidated apartment and, although they lived
in poverty, they were supportive of each other. With growing conflicts in the streets, and
at home with his mother’s new live-in boyfriend Harvey, Ulysses is forced to make deci-
sions that will forever alter his life. His only chance of survival is through close friends,
family, and the music he loves. Snoop’s novel takes us through the 1990s “summer of
crack cocaine,” as young Ulysses learns the crafts of dealing and rhyming, and he is on
a mission, spending every moment writing music and trying to succeed in the world of
hip hop music. The novel’s main protagonist, Ulysses, reminds us of Odysseus
(Ulysses), the main hero in Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey. Like the Greek warrior,
Ulysses and his equally heroically named friend Hercules, are on a mission, which is
 LOW ROAD: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DONALD GOINES 155

their Manifest Destiny. The novel also comes with an original single that provides the
backdrop to this compelling tale. The subtitle of Love Don’t Live Here No More, “Doggy
Tales: Vol. 1,” suggests that there are more books on the way. The sequel is set up in the
final sentence of Love Don’t Live Here No More, as the young hero points a gun and
debates whether to pull the trigger.

FURTHER READING
Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture.
New York: Basic Civitas, 2002.

Beatrice Nibigira Kelley

LOW ROAD: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DONALD GOINES (2004).

Journalist Eddie B. Allen Jr.’s biography of Donald Goines was published by St. Martin’s
Press in 2004, thirty years after the murder of the prolific African American pulp fiction
author.
Black and mainstream periodicals alike reviewed the book favorably, and National Public
Radio featured an interview with Allen in a piece on Goines. Written for a general audi-
ence, Low Road includes a foreword by the rapper DMX, who played King David in the
2004 film adaptation of Goines’s novel Never Die Alone.
In the preface to Low Road, Allen explains that his decision to write Goines’s biography
resulted from a chance meeting with a radio station manager named Charles Glover.
Glover, it turned out, is Goines’s nephew, the son of his older sister Marie. He thought
Allen was the perfect candidate to pen a biography that would improve on Eddie Stone’s
book Donald Writes No More. This paperback page-turner had been put out by Goines’s
publisher, Holloway House, mere months after his death in 1974; for three decades it stood
as the lone, sensationalistic account of his life. Allen accepted Glover’s offer and sought
to give a human face to the man at once celebrated and vilified for his literary representa-
tions of sex, violence, and drug use in the ghetto.
Thanks to his connection with Glover, Allen was given access to an archive of rare mate-
rial and personal effects that shed light on the enigmatic author’s life. In writing Low Road,
then, Allen was able to draw from not only historical research and Goines’s published
work but also interviews, correspondence, official documents, and sources otherwise
unavailable to anyone outside of the Goines family. Including this material in his narrative
allowed Allen to create the most complete portrait of Goines we have to date. Interviews
with Goines’s relatives illuminate his years as a precocious middle-class boy growing up
in Detroit. Business correspondence with Holloway House indicates certain methods the
publisher used to encourage its star author to produce sixteen books in just five years. And
excerpts from Goines’s handwritten will, which his younger sister Joan helped compose,
reveal the terms by which the author distributed his “legacy” among the several children
he had fathered with his wife and lovers: each son or daughter had a book’s royalties
bequeathed to him or her.
In an investigative turn in the narrative, Low Road’s epilogue surveys competing theories
on the brutal slayings of Goines and his common-law wife Shirley Sailor. Allen inter-
viewed a police detective, now retired, who worked on the double homicide; he still
believes the crime was drug-related. A historian suggests it may have been Shirley, not
Donald, who was the actual target of the attack, and Bentley Morriss, cofounder of Holloway
156 LOW ROAD: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DONALD GOINES

House, thinks someone on whom Goines had based a delinquent character in his novels
wanted to silence him for good.

See also Goines, Donald; Dopefiend: Story of a Black Junkie

FURTHER READING
Stone, Eddie. Donald Writes No More. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House, 1974.

Kinohi Nishikawa
 M
MAKES ME WANNA HOLLER: A YOUNG BLACK MAN IN
AMERICA (1994). Akin to Claude Brown’s 1965 autobiography Manchild in the
Promised Land, McCall’s Makes Me Wanna Holler gives an accounting for why so much
of young black America feels hopeless and why a success story such as his is so rare within
that community.
Nathan McCall’s 1994 publication Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in
America offers a new and exciting addition to the African American memoir literary genre.
Beginning with his youth in Portsmouth, Virginia, in the 1970s, McCall recalls the details
of his life to the present in order to demonstrate how the entire pathology of America’s
history of racial inequality can be observed by looking at the life of any one young black
person in America.
McCall’s account begins in a working-class black neighborhood in Portsmouth,
Virginia, where, as McCall describes, he and his peers were faced with the harsh realities
of America’s race consciousness at a very early age. To mentally deal with the injustices
suffered due to this consciousness, it became vital for McCall to win the respect of these
black peers. With each caught up in their own form of this high-stakes fight for identity,
the culture that defined the relationship of McCall’s peer group was one of acting out
against society in order to compensate for their seemingly inconsequential roles within it.
McCall recalls one such act in the book’s opening chapter, where he describes his group’s
beating of a random white person riding through their neighborhood on a bike as their
way of getting back at white people and asserting their power within the system.
Conforming to this peer culture was demanding and entailed that one constantly be
ready to prove oneself to the group in various shows of deserved belonging: behaving a
certain way, walking a certain way, talking a certain way, and being able to physically
defend your walk and talk if necessary. McCall presents the alternative to conforming to
this peer culture as exposing oneself as an outsider who was not to be trusted or respected.
Thus McCall and his peers engaged in criminal and deviant behaviors in a vicious cycle of
respect earning. But McCall is careful not to present the behavior of young black America
in response to dominant culture as only mere senseless and misguided acts of social
deviancy. There was often a conscious and political reasoning behind the deeds of McCall
and his peers.
Witnessing white peers getting better summer jobs despite not being any more qualified,
looking at the indignity with which his stepfather was treated by his white employer for
the second job he worked to make ends meet, and dealing with the overt racism of his own
white employers led McCall and others in his peer group to view acquiescing to the dom-
inant system and working for a white employer with a particular disdain. The urgency to
158 MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND

function outside of a proven unfriendly system leads one of McCall’s peers to formulate a
plan to be financially set for life by his early twenties by dealing drugs for a few years. So
undesirable was the idea of working for whites within a white system that McCall and
some of his friends decide to become professional thieves for a living. These political
responses to the unfriendly nature of the dominant social system to blacks, of course, lands
McCall and several of his peers in prison.
While in prison, McCall took advantage of the opportunities presented to him and
eventually left prison as a budding intellectual. Riding this momentum, McCall earned a
degree from Norfolk State University and eventually went on to become a renowned jour-
nalist, first at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and then with the Washington Post, where
he was at the time he wrote Makes Me Wanna Holler. Though not a sociological study in
the strict sense of the term, McCall’s candid accounting of the systematic helplessness
felt by America’s black citizens offers as in-depth a description and analysis of the race
pathology hindering black folks in America as any sociological study could.

See also Brown, Claude; Manchild in the Promised Land

FURTHER READING
Brown, Claude. Manchild in the Promised Land. New York: Touchstone, 1965.
Thomas, Piri. Down These Mean Streets. New York: Vintage, 1997.

Gil Cook

MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND (1965). Written by autobiogra-

pher, writer, social activist, and lecturer Claude Brown in l965, the same year that he grad-
uated from Howard University with a degree in government and business, this book is an
autobiographical odyssey that vividly recounts the story of his life during the l940s and
l950s as an African American youth in Harlem.
Originating from a shorter work that he wrote for Dissent magazine, this stirring
memoir reveals Brown’s struggles growing up in the rough streets of Harlem and his
coming of age as he learned from these struggles, but Manchild is so much more—
functioning as a seminal text in African American literature and autobiography. The
book is a window into seeing the conditions of poor, urban African Americans during
the aforementioned decades. Brown’s work in many ways provides ground-breaking
images and insights, which awakened many American readers to these conditions and
which created for him a literary and social platform from which to address these prob-
lems of African Americans in Harlem and around the nation. As Herb Boyd wrote,
“Claude Brown’s novelistic autobiography conjured up the social pathology and the
psychological trauma of black Americans caught in the throes of unforgiving ghettoes,
particularly Harlem” (2002).
Born on February 23, 1937, to parents from South Carolina who had come North in
search of better economic opportunities, he describes growing up in a run-down Harlem
apartment building and other conditions that left his parents economically impoverished
and frustrated that the North had not provided for them the economic haven that they had
desired. Brown turned to the streets as a respite from an overbearing home life and from
the poverty that he saw around him at home and in the community.
 MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND 159

In Manchild, Claude Brown records that he was thrown out of school by the age of 8 and
constantly beaten by his father. “Sonny,” as he refers to himself in the book, became a mem-
ber of a gang, the Harlem Buccaneers, and was immersed in Harlem street life and violence.
He was constantly in trouble with the police and was given several psychiatric examinations
that did little to alter his destructive behavior. Even at the young age of 5 or 6, he took to the
street life, fighting and engaging in other mischievous behavior in his community. A couple
of years later, Brown had earned a reputation for himself. He ran with older boys in Harlem
and constantly disobeyed his parents. Living in many group homes because of his behavior,
Brown continued to carry his street and gang behavior with him. He was shot in the leg, and
he was introduced to heroin or “horse” as it was then known. He became a heroin addict and
eventually saw the deleterious affects of this drug on the lives of others and on his own life.
Claude Brown’s life changed as a result of his enrollment at the Wiltwyck School, which
was a special-education school in upstate New York’s Ulster County, a rural area, far away
from urban violence and the street life with which Brown was familiar. The school was co-
founded by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. He would later dedicate Manchild to
Mrs. Roosevelt, whom he met. Although he dedicated his book to Mrs. Roosevelt, his
strongest influence at the Wiltwyck School was Dr. Ernest Papanek, a psychologist and the
director of the Wiltwyck School for emotionally disturbed boys who had a history of bad
behavior. Brown describes the doctor as perhaps the smartest person whom he had ever
known. Dr. Papanek encouraged him to read and seek an education. Brown found solace read-
ing the biographies of African Americans and others who had triumphed over adversities.
Manchild was a monumental work when it was published in l965 because it gave evi-
dence that a person who had endured such a life of crime, violence, and drug addiction
could become an American success story, beating the odds of poverty and racism that were
placed against him as an African American youth. This work still resonates, not only as an
important work of African American biography and African American letters, in general,
but also because it rings chords of similarity with the plights of many urban African
American youth today who struggle in unrelenting, harsh environments against racism and
against other issues that plague them in urban locales and beyond.
Claude Brown graduated from Howard University in 1965, the same year that Manchild
was published. He later attended Stanford and Rutgers law schools, but the demands of a
successful career as a lecturer prevented him from finishing. His second novel, Children of
Ham (1976), though not nearly as successful as Manchild, brought more serious attention
to African Americans and drug addiction.
Brown’s lifetime concerns of African American youth and urban issues brought him to
juvenile detention centers and prisons, and he drew the conclusion that American society
had abandoned young African Americans, especially African American males, who were
somehow compelled to respond by violent, destructive behavior.
As a “hip cat,” (Brown describes himself as such in Manchild), he can certainly be
considered a forerunner of hip hop artists who, in their lyrics, have expressed the kinds
of concerns that Brown delineates in his writing.
Claude Brown died of respiratory failure in 2002.

See also X, Malcolm

FURTHER READING
Boyd, Herb. “Manchild in the Promised Land.” Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 1 (May 2002).
Brown, Claude. Children Of Ham. New York: Stein and Day, 1976.
160 MAYO, KIERNA

———. Manchild in the Promised Land. New York: MacMillan, 1965.

Gilmore, Brian. “Appreciation: Author Claude Brown Offered Promise.” The New Crisis, (May/June
2002) 11 September 2008. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HST/is_/ai_86041484>.
Madhubuti, Haki. “In Memoriam: Claude Brown: 1937–2002.” Black Issues in Higher Education,
Vol. 19 Issue 1 (February 2002): 26.

Timothy Askew

MAYO, KIERNA (1970–). Hip hop journalist and one of the first female editors
at The Source (1991–1994); founding editor-in-chief of Honey, a magazine aimed at
young women of color.
As one of the first female hip hop journalists in a male-dominated field, Mayo devel-
oped a complex, ambitious writing style: each word balances on a tightrope; Mayo appre-
ciates hip hop music and culture, yet dislikes its materialism; and she critiques hip hop’s
misogyny, violence, and homophobia but points out, often with dark irony, the way that the
poverty and racism that have fueled hip hop culture are left out of the discussion.
“Caught Up in the (Gansta Rapture)” demonstrates Mayo’s complicated writing style,
as Mayo interviews C. Delores Tucker, a crusader against “gangsta rap music,” for The
Source, a magazine that was, at the time, the authoritative hip hop magazine. In this story,
Mayo adopts a tone that is at times respectful and at others blatantly mocking. Mayo refers
to Tucker—always—as “Dr. Tucker,” but she points out that a “psychic friend and a wel-
fare recipient” (Mayo’s derisive references to Dionne Warwick and Melba Moore) were
the people who first made Tucker aware of the sexism and violence in hip hop lyrics. Like-
wise, Mayo recognizes Tucker’s power in Washington, but when Tucker tells Mayo that
she marched with King, Mayo dismisses Tucker as out of touch with the Hip Hop Gener-
ation. For young people of the Hip Hop Generation, Mayo announces, “Dr. King has
become less than a hero, role model, or intrepid warrior but instead, more of an intangible
icon that every February, McDonald’s insist we remember” (2004, 123).
Interestingly, in “Caught Up in the (Gangsta) Rapture,” what quickly becomes apparent
is that Mayo is critical of hip hop’s misogyny—perhaps even more so than Tucker. Still,
Mayo argues, first, that the people who are not members of the hip hop community have
no right to criticize a culture they neither love nor fully understand and, second, that the
larger community has failed to recognize the Hip Hop Generation’s own efforts to fight
misogyny:

Heated sessions take place between black women and girls who listen to and love this music
as they defend themselves against the same hateful threats and images black females have
always had to fight. Nasty editorials challenging rap artists to check themselves are written.
(2004, 126)

Writing about Queen Latifah, Mayo demonstrates a similar ability to fuse a hip hop
sensibility with a journalist’s eye for detail and truth. In “Queen Latifah: The Last Good
Witch,” Mayo is not afraid to use the word “feminist” to describe what is arguably the most
“feminist” of rappers, even though “feminist” is a title that many female rappers, including
Latifah herself, resist. Still, as Mayo traces Latifah’s history, Mayo demonstrates quite
clearly that Latifah is a feminist. Here, Mayo writes, is a rapper who “has never shied away
from women’s issues,” who has “never let the presence or absence of a man determine her
fate” (2001, 52).
 McDONALD, JANET 161

In the Latifah story, Mayo interviews sources who discuss Latifah’s obvious influence
over female rappers from Lauryn Hill to Eve, but she also daringly explores lesser dis-
cussed aspects of Latifah’s persona. At times, for instance, Mayo quotes what seems to be
a more private Latifah, who discusses her spirituality and her brother’s death. Ultimately,
Mayo is careful to show the irony of Latifah: as a female rapper who has refused to diet or
wear tight clothing or fit a prescribed definition of femininity, Latifah, Mayo writes, is still
very much a “brand,” a money-making entity that has mainstream crossover appeal in
much the way a Whitney Houston or an Oprah Winfrey does.

See also Honey Magazine; Source Magazine, The

FURTHER READING
Mayo, Kierna. “Caught up in the (Gangsta) Rapture: Dr. C. Delores Tucker’s Crusade Against ‘Gangsta
Rap.’” In And It Don’t Stop!: The Best American Hip Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years. Raquel
Cepeda, ed. New York: Faber and Faber, 2004, 121–30.
Mayo, Kierna, “Queen Latifah: The Last Good Witch.” In Hip Hop Divas. Vibe, ed. New York:
Crown Publishing, 2001, 52–61.

Rochelle Spencer

McDONALD, JANET (1953–2007). A prominent author of fiction and non-

fiction written for and about urban youth coming of age.
Her 1999 memoir, Project Girl, chronicles McDonald’s experiences while living in one
of New York’s housing projects, The Farragut Homes in Brooklyn. The memoir explores
the evolution of housing project life from that of a safe and pastoral environment to
poverty, violence, drugs, and single-parent homes. The hip-hop genre is steeped in the pol-
itics of location. Listen to any hip-hop song or read any novel by a popular urban fiction
author and notice that theme of “place” permeates throughout the piece. McDonald’s work
informs readers of just how critical one’s “home” is in the shaping of a worldview.
The daughter of Jim Crow South immigrants, McDonald was one of seven children who
were part of what she terms “the founding families” of Farragut. McDonald’s insight into
how the deterioration of a well-intentioned plan to provide housing for the working poor
of New York turned into a social nightmare in a matter of a few years. McDonald draws a
correlation between segregated schools and rising unemployment as the catalyst for the fall
of urban, poor, and minority residents.
McDonald’s academic abilities made her stand out from her peers. She was double
promoted in elementary school and then subsequently selected for admission to the elite
Erasmus Hall Academy for high school. Unfortunately, fledgling grades and a growing
sense of resentment for her living circumstances made it difficult for McDonald to take
advantage of the opportunities that came with attending an academically rigorous
school. McDonald managed to earn her general high school diploma but was forced to
return to school, The Harlem Preparatory Program, in order to obtain her academic
diploma.
McDonald continued her discussion of coming of age in her young adult fiction. The
Spellbound trilogy, which includes: Spellbound, Chill Wind, and Twists and Turns,
chronicles the ups and downs of three very different project girls who stop at nothing to
create their own version of success. Following the Spellbound series, McDonald
162 MEDINA, TONY

explores hip-hop culture from a male perspective. In Brother Hood, the protagonist bal-
ances the opposing worlds of Harlem with life at an upstate prep school, and he shatters
the myth that street smarts and community allegiance cancels out studiousness. In
Harlem Hustle, the main character is an aspiring rapper and street-wise hustler. Off-
Color, McDonald’s final novel, explores the tensions that come with society’s tendency
toward racial categorization. The main character finds out that she is not white but bira-
cial. Her discovery makes it necessary that she confront the negative stereotypes that she
holds about black people in general and project girls in particular.
Janet McDonald’s work is crucial to the understanding of hip hop culture because she
balances her experiences of growing up in the projects with straying away from judgment
and condemnation in order to demonstrate how an urban streetwise existence is not mutually
excusive of a positive sense of self.

See also Teen Fiction

FURTHER READING
McDonald, Janet. Brother Hood. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press, 2005
———. Chill Wind. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press, 2003.
———. Harlem Hustle. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
———. Project Girl. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.
———. Spellbound. Topeka, KS: Topeka Bindery, 2003.
———. Twists and Turns. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press, 2004.

Catherine Ross-Stroud

MEDINA, TONY (1966–). Poet, educator, activist, and anthologist.

In the Harlem poetic tradition of Langston Hughes, the fiery oratorical tradition of
Amiri Baraka, and the griot as historian tradition of Haki Madhubuti, Tony Medina—
poet, mentor, and social archivist—is a bridge figure in the world of hip hop poetry. One
of the most prolific poets of the Hip Hop Generation, Medina has published five volumes
of poetry—including Emerge and See, No Noose is Good Noose, and Committed to
Breathing—and four children’s books—Deshawn Days, Letters to Santa, Love to
Langston, and Christmas Makes Me Think. Additionally, while developing emerging
poets formally as a Howard University professor and informally as a community
mentor—one of the younger poets is also one of the younger poets featured in the 2004
Furious Flower Poetry Conference—Medina has edited anthologies such as In Defense
of Mumia (winner of The American Bookseller Association’s Firecracker Alternative
Book Award), Role Call, and Bum Rush the Page.
Creatively, Medina operates “from the whole position of the poet as messenger, the poet
as warrior—the fighter. The poet on the front lines using poetry as the tool or weapon to raise
consciousness but not in a way that is rhetorical or beating people over the head, but coming
from the voices of the tribe” (Johnson 2005, 14–15). Medina’s poetry is best described as
brash, in-your-face, confrontational, political, and passionate, just like early hip hop; Medina
is a poet who is passionate about the state of humanity, especially that of the poor and peo-
ple of color. His poetry critiques such issues as neo-imperialism, urban blight, America as an
icon, homelessness, the plight of children, capitalism, violence, and terrorism. As Jonathan
Scott notes, “there is the preference in Medina’s poetry for dialogue over monologue, for
 MENACE II SOCIETY 163

the concrete over the abstract, for sarcasm over irony, for the plural over the singular, and a
strong emphasis on the naming of places, things and people” (2005, 36).
As a bridge between Black Arts poets, whom Medina counts among his diverse influ-
ences, and their poetic children, the hip hop poets, Medina’s role as a mentor and editor
has had a substantial impact on contemporary, published poetry. Indeed, wherever poets
of today are collected, whether on page or stage, Medina is spiritually (and sometimes,
physically) present. Proof that the bridge—the continuum, the circle—is unbroken, hip
hop poet and publisher Jessica Care Moore-Poole describes Medina, who edited her first
poetry collection, as a mentor. Concerned with preserving and passing on the heritage of
poetry and social consciousness, Medina, ever the socially active poet, crafts a bridge
between the Hip Hop Generation of poets, their ancestors, and an ever-expanding progeny
of twenty-first century poets.

See also Black Poetry

FURTHER READING
Johnson, Jacqueline. “The Wonderful World of Tony Medina.” Mosaic Literary Magazine, Vol. 15
(Spring 2005): 1–15, 48–49.
Scott, Jonathan. “A New Aesthetics of Black Equality: On Tony Medina.” Race & Class, Vol. 46
Issue 4 (April–June 2005): 20–38.

Adrienne Carthon

MENACE II SOCIETY (NEW LINE CINEMA, USA, 1993). Twin

brothers Albert and Allen Hughes wrote, directed, and produced this dark urban fable in
1993, and it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival when they were 21. It is one of the earliest
and best of the ‘hood films, a genre emerging in the 1990s and matching hip hop literature
and gangster rap in expressing the violence of young African American street life. Set in
South Central Los Angeles, the story follows Caine Lawson (Tyrin Turner) the summer after
his high school graduation, as his increasing involvement in murder and theft sets him on a
path to prison or death. The back story and setting establish reasons for the casual violence
of the main character and his peers. Caine’s father, played by Samuel Jackson, was a drug
dealer and murderer, his mother a heroin addict, and the grandparents who raise him are
generations removed from his present life. The main character’s voiceover narration men-
tions the Watts riots, from which the neighborhood never recovered, leaving it saturated with
drive-by shootings, retaliatory violence, car jacking, and drug use.
Characters in the film either pull the central character to salvation or destruction. The
father shown in flashback is no role model, and the subsequent father figure serves a life
sentence in prison and counsels Caine to seek another path. With the exception of Sharif
(Vonte Sweet), a black Muslim advocating brotherhood and education, the young men in
the film participate in a violent, nihilistic world typified by the charismatic psychopath
O-Dog (Larenz Tate). The grandparents’ Christian faith offers no attraction for Caine, but
love interest Ronnie (Jada Pinkett Smith) proposes escaping the neighborhood. The tragic
ending stages the conflicts of bad choices made in the face of few options.
Critical comment on the film splits between celebrating its style and challenging its
representation of hopeless violence. The film features technical flourishes, and its tense
narrative is enhanced by rapid-fire editing and camera work, including a masterful circular
164 MIRANDA, ELISHA

tracking shot during Caine’s police interrogation. However, some viewers felt the inces-
sant bloodshed ran the risk of glorifying violence. The Hughes brothers guard against that
critique by weaving in the plot a security videotape of Caine’s friend O-Dog shooting a
Korean store owner, which O-Dog and his friends watch for fun even as it remains evi-
dence of the crime. Their enjoyment disturbs Caine, the audience’s focal character, and
he worries that it could implicate him in the murder. The gritty realism of the videotape
and Caine’s response to it depict violence without promoting it, just as the film does.
The Hughes brothers describe Menace II Society as a representation of what their lives
might have been if they had not discovered filmmaking early on. Their subsequent careers
have involved African American and hip hop history, including writing, directing, and
producing Dead Presidents (1995), a fictional account of black veterans of the Vietnam
War turning to crime, and the documentary American Pimp (1999), as well as producing a
documentary of DJing, Scratch (2001).

Peter Caster

MIRANDA, ELISHA (1969–). Author of The Sista Hood, a series of young

adult novels that follow the lives of four girls of color who attend a predominantly white
high school in San Francisco, California, and together form a hip hop crew.
Miranda is a writer, activist, filmmaker, educator, and businesswoman with numerous
credits and awards in both publishing and film. As with her literary work, hip hop remains
a prominent theme in Miranda’s initiatives as an activist and entrepreneur.
Born and raised in the Mission district of San Francisco, California, Miranda partici-
pated in several youth programs. At the age of twenty-three, she created one of her own
called the Kellogg Koshland Youth Leadership Project. She graduated from the Univer-
sity of California at Berkeley with dual degrees in Ethnic Studies and English in 1991.
In 1997, she earned a master’s in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, where she completed a thesis entitled ”Using the Arts to Empower Urban
Youth of Color.” Eventually, Miranda moved to New York City to attend the Columbia
University School of the Arts, graduating in 2003 with an MFA in both directing and
screenwriting. Soon thereafter she co-founded Chica Luna Productions, a nonprofit
organization that seeks to identify, support, and develop young women of color who wish
to create socially conscious entertainment.
Furthermore, Miranda has written, produced, and/or directed various screenplays and
films that are notable for their hip hop sensibility. For example, her directorial debut, the
short film Corporate Dawgz, features a white male protagonist (and aficionado of socially
conscious hip hop) who attempts to wield his skin privilege in the interest of racial justice
while working a demoralizing job in corporate America. Her feature-length screenplay
Outside the Wall, which depicts a Puerto Rican graffiti artist, has garnered several awards
and continues to gain recognition from respected entities from the Sundance Institute to
the Tribeca Film Institute.
Arguably, her most notable work of hip hop literature is the young adult fiction series
called The Sista Hood. The first installment of the series The Sista Hood: On the Mic was
published by Atria/Simon and Schuster in 2006 and three more will follow. Dubbed by
the author in her Amazon.com author’s profile as “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
for urban girls of color,” the series provides a rare depiction of young women participating
in hip hop culture as practitioners of its various art forms. Furthermore, the four ensemble
 THE MOMENTS, THE MINUTES, THE HOURS: THE POETRY OF JILL SCOTT 165

characters are diverse with respect to race, class, sexual orientation, and national origin.
In her review representing A Place of Our Own BookClub, a respected online literary
community of African American readers, Lena Willis wrote, “E-Fierce does an excellent
job of illustrating to the reader what life is like for Mariposa. . . . She touches on issues
that any teenage girl growing up in an urban city would witness—divorce, a parent’s
alcoholism, homosexuality, teen domestic violence, race relations, and teen pregnancy.
She also makes an admirable effort to show how Mari and her friends come together to
be a support to each other, step-by-step. Girls reading this novel will be able to gain so
much from this book and hopefully apply Mari’s learnings to their own life” (2006)
The next installment of The Sista Hood is slated for publication by Atria/Simon and
Schuster in 2009. Also, Miranda aims to write and direct a feature-length film adaptation of
On the Mic under her own multimedia production company Sister Outsider Entertainment.
In fact, to promote The Sista Hood, Miranda used multimedia strategies, including producing
an album consisting of poems and lyrics commissioned for publication in the first novel and
creating faux MySpace pages for each of the four main characters in the series.

FURTHER READING
Miranda, Elisha. The Sista Hood: On the Mic. New York: Simon & Schuster/Atria, 2006.
Willis, Lena. “The Butterfly Learns How to Fly.” 31 October 2006. <http://www.amazon.com/Sista-
Hood-Mic-E-Fierce/dp/0743285158>. 5 September 2008.

Sofía Quintero

THE MOMENTS, THE MINUTES, THE HOURS: THE POETRY OF

JILL SCOTT (2005). Neo-soul artist Jill Scott’s first published book of poetry.
Scott considers the eighth grade as her beginnings as a poet, but the poems in the volume
represent work culled from her young womanhood, dating back to 1993. The Moments
followed the release of three critically acclaimed, award-winning, multi-platinum albums.
Whereas her music has received a great deal of critical attention, particularly because of its
commercial success, there was little critical attention given to this collection of poetry. Pub-
lishers Weekly and The Black Review of Books offered positive, albeit brief, reviews. Music
fans were mostly enthusiastic about seeing Scott’s words, even without benefit of musical
accompaniment.
The poems, written in either free verse or haiku, range from short, poignant musing
couched in the guise of asides to more direct declarations of emotion. Broken into five sec-
tions, the subjects covered include black pride, feminism, parent/child relationships, and
spirituality. Scott offers social commentary in a number of poems and looks not only at
systems of oppression for black people but also at those that exist specifically for women.
And as she examines and calls to task those outside forces that affect women’s lives, she
is quick to put that same critical lens on women’s attitudes and behaviors from within.
However, her most frequently discussed topic is love.
The poems are supplemented throughout by the inclusion of photography and other
graphics. From the very first section, “All the evil and all the love” (the title refers to a
comment made by Mister about Shug Avery in Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple),
Scott explores the conflict inherent in love—both of self and others.
In the introduction, Scott specifically refers to Black Arts Movement poet Nikki Giovanni
as an early influence and this is evidenced by the tone and structure of many of the poems,
166 MOORE, JESSICA CARE

which call to mind Giovanni’s periodic autobiographical statements. Although many readers
will not see them as poems in the strictest sense, they are indeed poetic statements. Just as
female artists such as Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and others who came before her struggled
to assert their right to creativity and productivity on their own terms, so does Scott through-
out this collection. This tension runs throughout the final section of the collection, “Poetry
4 Poets and Folks Who Would Like to Be.” It is in this section that Scott’s connection to
those poets of the Black Arts Movement is most keenly felt as she moves to investigate the
creative impulse and its effects on the artist. As the reader sees her wrestle with her role and
responsibility as a poet, the reader is offered both encouragement and admonishment in
their own craft.

Wandra C. Hunley

MOORE, JESSICA CARE (1971–). “First Lady of Hip Hop Poetry.”

There can be no discussion of hip hop poetry without acknowledging the voice, the
legacy, the performance, and the poetry of Jessica Care Moore whose first foot on the
national stage was at the Apollo Theater. The Detroit native was one of the first to bring
national attention to what would become known as hip hop poetry, a form that has rein-
vigorated the genre of poetry on a large scale. When Moore first stepped to the mic on It’s
Showtime at the Apollo in 1995 after being in New York for only five months, few knew
what to expect, but by the time she completed her poem, “Black Statue of Liberty,” with
her fist flying high in the air, a five-time winner and Apollo legend was born. After a sub-
sequent tour on the college circuit with The Last Poets, Moore opened her own publishing
house in 1997, Moore Black Press, and simultaneously published her first hip hop inspired
poetry collection, The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth, under the editorial direction of poet
and anthologist Tony Medina.
Moore’s poetry has taken her message of activism, self-reflection, feminism, commu-
nity responsibility, and hip hop mores into many different venues. Moore’s poetry has been
widely anthologized and catalogued on video; it is regularly featured in a variety of mag-
azines. Moore has also performed throughout the United States, Europe, and South Africa
as well as opened and closed her own club, MoorEpics: The Poetry Planet, in Atlanta. The
playwright also has two theatrical productions to her credit: There Are No Asylums for the
Real Crazy Women about Vivienne Eliot, the wife of T. S. Eliot, and AlphaPhobia, a show
about a woman who believes the alphabet is a homicidal threat. In addition to performing
on various talk and entertainment shows, she is a repeat performer on Russell Simmons
Presents: Def Poetry Jam, the television venue for hip hop poetry. Moore is also a record-
ing artist as the lead vocalist-poet for her band Detroit Read. As active as she is, the 2000
Harvard Black Men’s Forum Woman of the Year and ardent AIDS activist additionally
works with young people at the Alvin Ailey Dance Camp in Atlanta on personal develop-
ment and self-esteem. Further positioning herself as a multimedia guru of hip hop poetry,
Moore is also the talent, writer, and producer for the poetry and music show SPOKEN! on
Robert Townsend’s Black Family Channel. Moore is a renaissance hip hop woman work-
ing to secure a legacy for oral and written hip hop poetry.
Poet, publisher, wife, mother, activist, public speaker, band member, actress—Moore
functions in many roles, but her most lasting contribution to hip hop poetry may be her role
as a publisher. Moore Black Press moved to Atlanta in 2000, where it published Moore’s
second collection, The Alphabet Verses the Ghetto, as well as work by other influential hip
 MOORE, NATALIE Y. 167

hop artists: poet and actor Saul Williams; poet Sharrif Simmons; philanthropist, novelist,
poet, and visual artist Danny Simmons, also a co-creator of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam; com-
munity activist and second generation poet Ras Baraka (son of Amina and Amiri Baraka);
basketball player and poet Etan Thomas; novelist and poet, Asha Bandele; and visual
artist/painter Marcia Jones. Moore’s third collection, God Is Not an American, will be
Moore Black Press’s first publication of essays and poems. Moore’s goal as a publisher is
to ensure that hip hop poetry is taken seriously and disseminated widely. As a part of that
mission, Moore Black Press has a nonprofit organization, Literacy Through Hip-Hop,
whose initiatives include the anthology, The Poetry of Emcees, a collection of poems by
hip hop artists to further the cause of literacy among youth. As the youngest recipient of
African Voices magazine’s Ellie Charles Artist Award (2006), formerly presented to such
prestigious writers as Toni Morrison, Moore is a chronicler for her generation just as
Dudley Randall (Broadside Press) and Haki Madhubuti (Third World Press) were for
theirs. Moore’s memorable rise to star status on the Apollo stage, her fiery performances,
her hip hop riddled poetry, and her position at the helm of Moore Black Press solidify her
place as “The First Lady of Hip Hop Poetry.”

See also Black Poetry; Spoken Word Movement

FURTHER READING
Anglesey, Zoe, ed. Listen Up! New York: One World/ Ballantine, 1999.
Moore, Jessica Care. The Alphabet Verses the Ghetto. Atlanta, GA: Moore Black Press, 2002.
———. The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth. New York: Moore Black Press, 1997.

Adrienne Carthon

MOORE, NATALIE Y. Natalie Moore’s experience is as a reporter for a prominent

news organization, Chicago Public Radio. She used her background and reporting expe-
rience and co-wrote a book in 2006 with Natalie Hopkinson: Deconstructing Tyrone: A
New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation.
Written by two black women, this book gives some insight into the black male mindset by
using Erikah Badu’s song “Tyrone” as a frame for explaining their theory of “Tyronicity.”
Deconstructing Tyrone focuses on several black men to explain this hip-hop theory and how
it explains black men of the present day. “Tyronicity” can be defined as a disregard for the
contention of society. Some of these discarded attitudes can be seen as positives and some as
negatives. Moore and Hopkinson cite examples of how some of these Tyrones start their own
businesses as an example of a positive disregard. Other Tyrones who are more prominent may
work within the system but do it with their own flair. Recently disgraced Detroit politician
Kwame Kilpatrick is an example of their kind of Tyrone. They cite him taking off his diamond
ear stud on the advice from pollsters as he ran for office and his defiance in putting it back on
again after he won as an example of “Tyronicity.” Moore and Hopkinson state, “Like hip-hop,
he’s flashy, fresh, a finger-to-the-establishment. Like hip-hop, he is, at his worst, arrogant,
unfocused, and undisciplined” (2006, 90). Moore and Hopkinson are not social scientists, but
this statement about Kilpatrick is quite prescient given his later legal problems.
Moore and Hopkinson cite more of the negative disregard in Tyronicity in the negative
attitudes and portrayals of black women, and they cite the famous example of Nelly swiping
a credit card between a woman’s buttocks. They state, “Often the most thugged-out rappers
168 MOORE, STEPHANIE PERRY

turn to sharp, educated women to market their images” (2006, 45.) Here they are making
a conclusion about the many thousands of women that had input into Nelly’s infamous
video but were powerless to say or do anything in their defense because they were not
economically empowered to make a social change.
Moore and Hopkinson also focus on regular black men. Kofi “Debo” Ajabu is a subject
who was a gifted child of committed black parents, who taught him Swahili and believed
they did everything right in raising a strong black son. He is in jail, convicted for his part
in a gruesome murder at age 21. Moore and Hopkinson’s analysis provides an answer for
what went wrong with this young man of such strong potential—the lure of the gangster
lifestyle. Ajabu says, “You wouldn’t believe how many middle-class gangbangers there
are” (2006, 35), citing the need to prove themselves as worthy men.
In Deconstructing Tyrone Moore and Hopkinson are not afraid to take on established
theorists such as Jawanaza Kunjufu as “homophobic.” Their analysis provides some
important insight into the mindset of the Hip-Hop Generation and makes for a worthy read.

See also Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation

FURTHER READING
Moore, Natalie, and Hopkinson, Natalie. Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity
in the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: Cleis Press, 2006.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

MOORE, STEPHANIE PERRY (1969–). A novelist who writes for the Hip
Hop Generation using Christian themes. Following in the footsteps of many urban fiction
writers, she also established her own publishing company.
Authors are often encouraged to specialize in one genre for the sake of understanding
and clarity. Writer Stephanie Perry Moore has, thankfully, paid no attention to these
delineations and writes what she pleases to appeal to both young people and adults alike.
Moore understands that she can produce quality fiction that appeals to the masses and
includes a Christian reach as well. As president of Soul Publishing, Inc., Moore has made
it her mission to make sure that this fiction is readily available to all who want to take in
a positive message as part of their fiction. In all of her writing, whether it is for young
adults or women, Moore is careful to include elements of hip-hop culture into her works
to show that elements of the culture can be embraced while also espousing a Christian
frame of mind.
Moore’s reach beyond the typical genre boundaries has included starting a series of books
for young African American men called the Perry Skyy Jr. series after achieving great suc-
cess with the series of similarly themed books for young African American women about
Perry’s sister, called the Payton Skyy series. She has also written other book series for young
people with the Laurel Shadrach and Carmen Browne series of books. Moore takes her reach
as an author seriously and her desire to reach younger populations with positive messages is
admirable. She has discussed her own struggles in finding this fiction as nearly impossible in
terms of the marketplace and has created her own books to appeal to various age groups. As
an added bonus, the young people in her books exhibit a strong, if imperfect, faith in their
Christianity, and she produces strong and believable conflicts in her works.
 MORGAN, JOAN 169

Moore also writes for adults as well. Staying Pure, Sober Faith, Saved Race, A Lova’
Like no Otha’, Chasing Faith, and A Heated Romance Without Him . . . Burns Vigorously
Out of Control are other titles that Moore has written to appeal to an adult female audience
to convey that women struggle to find the right man but they should place their trust in God
to find the happiest ending for their lives.
Moore is a life-long writer, but is also an NFL wife who found a creative way to minister
to women and young adults. Her marketing savvy has allowed her to become very suc-
cessful in selling to a reading population that is growing. Like E. Lynn Harris and Sutton
Griggs, Moore saw a niche market for African Americans and set out to fill that niche. Her
contribution in writing Christian fiction that shows young people that their culture is not
“wrong” or “strange” should be further recognized as a strong positive force.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

MORGAN, JOAN (1965–). Joan Morgan has developed a poignant voice in the
literary world writing about issues of race and gender from the perspective of a feminist
and as a member of what Bakari Kitwana defines as the first Hip Hop Generation
(1965–1984).
A former executive editor at Essence Magazine, the Jamaican-born, South Bronx-bred
journalist and author has published in The Village Voice, Vibe, New York Times, Ms., Interview,
Spin, and Working Mother. In 1999 Simon and Schuster published her first book, When the
Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down.
This series of essays explores such topics as the gender war apparent in male/female
relations, misogyny in hip hop and women’s complicit behavior in this male-dominated
industry, and men’s powerlessness in the pro-choice movement—specifically male
accountability once a woman decides to have a child even against their desire. Morgan,
who was around age 34 when the book was released, raises the question: “If we don’t
allow a father’s desire for parenthood to impinge on an unwilling mother’s desire for an
abortion, how then, both legally and morally, can we ignore an unwilling father’s objections
to parenthood?” It’s a controversial and radical thought that reviewer Angela Ards
describes as her “most provocative contribution to feminist thought.”
Morgan’s book has been both celebrated and criticized by book reviewers, cultural critics,
and hip hop enthusiasts. Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Nelson George, and Fab 5 Freddy all hail
Morgan’s voice in When the Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist
Breaks it Down as passionate and powerful and describe her writing style as fresh and
playful, yet provocative. Stanley Crouch in the New York Daily News revered her for putting
“her foot deep into the rump of all the wrongs arriving from the world of hip hop.” He added:
“It was exciting to hear her go after rappers who make the ugliest conceptions of life into
commodities” (2001).
Conversely, reviews in Publishers Weekly and Women’s Review of Books point out theoret-
ical analysis and a limited scope as shortcomings. Ards says Morgan raises an interesting
question in the chapter “babymama” about “male parental accountability, but theoretical
analysis is where this collection falls short.” (1999, 17). Sarah Lazim, another critic, writes:
“Though she claims ‘to explore the world of the modern black woman from a variety of view-
points’, Morgan comes off as a self-consciously styled hip-hop provocateuse” (1999, 69–70).
This appears to be intentional because her target audience are members of the Hip Hop
Generation from the ‘hood—not the ivory tower. In an interview with Faedra Chatard
170 MORGAN, JOAN

Carpenter in Callaloo, Morgan describes her audience as “first and foremost, young people
of color, but if you’re asking me who I wrote this book for, I wrote this book for young
women who were not finding their experience represented in any other book” (2006, 76).
Her point is that she and other young women who grew up in the ‘hood are not connected
to black feminists rooted in the academy. Is it an issue of class or an issue of urban vs.
suburban? The dividing line she paints in When the Chickenheads Come Home to Roost:
A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks it Down does not clearly answer this question; however, it
makes clear that there is a disconnect between Morgan and her Hip Hop Generation peers
and black feminists such as bell hooks, Angela Davis and Audre Lorde:

When I thought about feminism—women who were living and breathing it daily—I thought of
white women or black female intellectuals. . . . Women who had little to do with my everyday
life. The sistas in my immediate proximity grew up in the ‘hood, summered in the Hamptons,
swapped spit on brightly lit Harlem corners, and gave up more than a li’l booty in ivy league
dorms. They were ghetto princesses with a predilection for ex-drug dealers” (1999, 37).

Morgan speaks openly about her conflict with feminism and her contradictions—having
chickenhead tendencies, using sex as a commodity; being a fan of some aspects of patri-
archy; and holding the viewpoint that women should be held accountable for complicity to
sexism. “I think there is a very strong tradition of feminism, especially black feminism,
that goes back to pre-suffrage in this country and I absolutely want to link myself to that
and I also want to be able to analyze it and be critical of it and be aware of how my gen-
eration’s experiences depart from that and need a new narrative. A lot of my work is about
trying to create that narrative for our generation,” Morgan explains in the Callaloo inter-
view. The Hip Hop Generation cannot afford to let the feminists of the 1970s women’s
liberation movement or those of the black civil rights movement define the conversation
necessary in the new millennium.
Joan Morgan has birthed a new school of thought—hip-hop feminism—in her first text
exploring the impact of race and gender on male/female relations. She is joined in this
effort with others writing on this subject, such as Farai Chideya, Tracy Sharpley-Whiting,
and Gwendolyn Pough.

See also When the Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down

FURTHER READING
Ards, Angela. “Down with Feminism.” Women’s Review of Books Vol. 17 Issue 1 (1999): 17.
Carpenter, Faedra Chatard. “An Interview with Joan Morgan.” Callaloo, Vol. 29 Issue 3 (2006):
76.
Crouch, Stanley. “Hip-Hop Gets the Bruising It Deserves.” New York Daily News, 9 April 2001.
<http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/opinions/2001/04/09/2001-04-09_hip_hop_gets_
the_bruising_it.html>.
Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Cul-
ture. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
Lazim, Sarah. “When the Chicken Heads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist.”
Publishers Weekly (1999): 69–70.
Morgan, Joan. When the Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down.
New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1999.

Tomika DePriest
 MYERS, WALTER DEAN 171

MYERS, WALTER DEAN (1937–). One of the foremost authors of young

adult, urban fiction.
Walter Dean Myers has earned numerous accolades for his children’s and young adult
fiction and nonfiction. However, his works that center upon the lives of African American
pre-teens and teenagers, especially African American males, position him as one of the
foremost authors of urban fiction for young adults. Myers’s body of work illustrates his
determination to rid children’s literature of mere caricatures of black children’s lives and,
instead, present the real dreams, aspirations, and “happy endings” that black youths
encounter. Myers writes “in the real” by placing his characters within the urban environ of
Harlem, New York, while thematically encouraging his readers to identify the maturation
of his young protagonists from reactionists to respondents.
Myers began writing by way of a fifth grade assignment in which he and classmates
were instructed to write an original work to read for the class. According to Denise Jordan,
Myers composed a poem that “he could read without his tongue getting in the way”
(1999, 30). He and Jordan note how this moment was not only a turning point in Myers’s
troubled youth but also an opportunity for him to work around a speech impediment and
express himself (Jordan 1999, 30; Myers 2000, 44). Thus, he composed a work that,
simultaneously, reflected his perspectives on the world and allowed him to select words
and an arrangement that he could pronounce clearly. It is this quality of Myers’s works
that makes them reflective of hip hop’s language and culture, for he, like many hip hop
lyricists, recalls experiences from his own past, creates a language and structure through
which to relay these events, and infuses them into the lives of the young men and women
who populate his works.
Myers’s first young adult novel, fast sam, cool clyde, and stuff (1975), established him
as important advocate for and author of young African American male lives and their stories.
This novel follows the lives of Stuff and his friends—Clyde, Fast Sam, Gloria, Maria, and
BB—as they confront the many issues of their teenage years. In order to cope with the
challenges of their lives, the characters decide to form a club called the 116th Street Good
People and vow to always be there for one another and any other person who may need
their help. The novel’s friendship motif is a refreshing contrast to the expected stories
centering upon the lives of African American teenagers, and it proves that many young
adults are compassionate individuals who are smart enough to realize that they, too, need
someone as they attempt both physical and psychological survival. This novel captures one
of the most vital components of hip hop culture in that it presents a young man and his
“crew” working together to find their way in a world that is constantly changing.
In 1977, Myers penned three young adult novels, Mojo and the Russian, Brainstorm, and
Victory for Jamie, and in 1978 wrote It Ain’t All for Nothin’ (1978), which garnered the
American Library Association’s Best Book for Young Adults award. Myers published the The
Young Landlords (1979), earning the ALA’s Best Book for Young Adult award and the Coretta
Scott King award (in 1980), and the essay “The Black Experience in Children’s Books: One
Step Forward, Two Steps Back.” In the 1980s, Myers published three novels that migrated
away from the Harlem setting—The Legend of Tarik, Tales of a Dead King, and The Nicolas
Factor—while simultaneously composing the Harlem centered texts Hoops (1981), Won’t
Know Till I Get There (1982), The Outside Shot (1984), Motown and Didi: A Love Story
(1987), and Me, Mop, and the Moondance Kid, Fallen Angels, and Scorpions all in 1988.
Myers’s young adult novels, arguably, trace the development of hip hop culture from its pre-
history in the late 1970s to its commercial recognition by the end of the 1980s, especially as
it reveals the rapidly changing face of African American urbanity. Myers illustrates how the
172 MYERS, WALTER DEAN

world and choices that young people encounter become more complicated year by year, espe-
cially in the novel Scorpions.
Scorpions, which earned Myers both an ALA Best Book for Young Adults award
and a Newberry Honor Book award, belies the realities that many young people face—
single-parent homes, gangs, guns, poverty, and incarceration of a family member. The
story offers a poignant portrait of an African American family struggling to stay afloat
despite the multiple systems of oppression that attempt to destroy it. Central to this
novel’s plot are a gang and gun. Scorpions’ protagonist, Jamal Hicks, is “forced” into
gang life after his brother is incarcerated and requests that Jamal take his place as leader
of the gang. Jamal does not enter into the gang willingly or alone. His best friend, Tito,
refuses to allow Jamal to spar with bullies and/or gang life without him, for he views
Jamal as not just his friend but as his brother. The story concludes with Jamal finding his
way out of the gang but losing Tito, not to gun violence but because of the gun that he,
Tito, hid and subsequently used to protect Jamal. Tito accidentally murders a gang mem-
ber, wounds another, becomes depressed, and confesses his crimes. The police suggest
that he move away from Harlem and to his family’s native Puerto Rico. This novel, like
Myers’s earlier works, presents the importance of friendship despite the ugliness that many
young people find themselves confronting everyday.
By the 1990s rap music had migrated from the underground to the commercial
world and became an important “soundtrack” for Myers’s novel The Mouse Rap
(1990). In this novel Myers melds street slang, rap lyrics, parental voices, and Harlem
in order to create a plot where the fifteen-year old protagonist, Mouse (aka Frederick)
experiences friendship, the return of his previously absent father, and a multicultural
“gang” that consists of his friends—Styx, Omega, Beverly, Celia, Sheri, and
Booster—and former gangsters, Gramps and Sudden Sam. The Mouse Rap affords
Mouse and his comrades the opportunity to be young people who love basketball,
experience “puppy love,” playground fights, and family issues but emerge alive and
looking forward to the possibilities of tomorrow. Moreover, The Mouse Rap, as its title
foreshadows, most clearly exemplifies Myers’s hip hop influence in the rap lyrics that
precede each chapter and Mouse’s rhymed speeches. The novel begins with Mouse’s
lyrical introduction, “My tag is Mouse, and it’ll never fail/And just like a mouse I got
me a tale” (1992, 3) and concludes with “You’ve heard my story, you’ve dug my
show/You’ve rapped my rhythm and felt the flow” (1992, 186). Between these rap
preludes is a story that proves Myers’s ability to capture the nuances and rhythms of
“urban” youth life but also challenges the expected representations of young African
American men and women. The Mouse Rap celebrates rap music and its ability to
enable young adults to locate and express themselves via a cultural vernacular that
they can proudly own.
Throughout the nineties and into the twenty-first century, Myers continues to add to the
young adult literary canon and reflect the angst of urban, young adult lives. His novels
enable young readers to encounter other persons—though fictional—who share their stories
and learn from them how to find solutions and hope despite what others may tell them.
Myers’s fiction brings hip hop culture to the young adult literary canon in the way that
Langston Hughes’s seminal poem “I, too, Sing America” reminds readers of the impor-
tance of all of America’s cultures. Myers and his young protagonists collectively “sing
America” but with a hip hop beat.

See also Teen Fiction

 MYERS, WALTER DEAN 173

FURTHER READING
Hughes, Langston. “I, Too, Sing America.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature.
Henry L. Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1996.
Jordan, Denise M. Walter Dean Myers: Writer for Real Teens. New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, 1999.
Lane, R. D. “Keepin’it Real: Walter Dean Myers and the Promise of African-American Children’s
Literature.” African American Review, Vol. 32 Issue 1 (1988): 125–138.
Myers, Walter Dean. Bad Boy: A Memoir. New York: Harper Tempest, 2000.
———. The Mouse Rap. New York: Harper Trophy, 1992.

Ladrica Menson-Furr
 N
THE NAKED SOUL OF ICEBERG SLIM: ROBERT BECK’S REAL
STORY (1975). This collection of essays, letters, and musings was written in 1971
by Robert Beck (1918–1992), who was best known by his street moniker Iceberg Slim.
Much like other works from Slim, which are considered black pulp fiction, many of the
essays featured in The Naked Soul offer an objective, realistic, and often harsh look at
inner-city life. However within these recounts of his life as a pimp and hustler, Slim
focuses on acknowledging the errors of his ways in an attempt to steer others away from
the street life that nearly destroyed him and toward black liberation.
The Naked Soul offers the most personal look into Slim’s life to date, conveying his
most intimate feelings about incarceration, the politics of publication, his family, and his
life as a pimp. Many of the essays in this text relay Slim’s political beliefs within anec-
dotes about people that he has encountered, such as “The Goddess,” “The Professor,”
and “Melvin X.” Among the letters in this text, Slim’s “Letter to Papa” is the most per-
sonal and insightful because it recounts the unnecessary cruelty he showed his father and
the one positive memory of his father lambasting former Chicago Mayor William “Big
Bill” Thompson.
Throughout the ever shifting content of Slim’s essays, letters, and musings, his political
criticisms remain constant. Beginning with the very first page Slim sets the tone, “I want
to say at the outset that I have become ill, insane as an inmate of a torture chamber behind
America’s fake façade of justice and democracy,” (1975, 17). By critiquing the U.S. legal
system in this fashion, Slim opens the door for the praise he shows revolutionaries, such
as The Black Panther Party and Melvin X. Nonetheless he further critiques black America
in “Racism and the Black Revolution,” in which he speaks in depth about the black man’s
desire for the white woman. Also within “Uncle Tom and his Master in the Violent
Seventies,” Slim recreates the Uncle Tom figure to address the newly formed black middle
class and “so-called religious and political leaders” by portraying them as effective agents
for “the master in his strategy to keep niggers nonviolent and peaceful in the ghetto torture
chamber,” (1975, 184–185). These candid critiques of black life and American life only
further solidify his place within African American literature.
Despite the lack of scholarly attention shown to the work of Iceberg Slim, it is estimated
that he has sold over six million books. Not only was his work the muse that led Donald
Goines to write but it remains an inspiration to the hip hop community, whose music pro-
vides a soundtrack for the unrelenting reality that Slim so eloquently forces his readers to
observe.

See also Iceberg Slim; Iceberg Slim: The Life as Art

 NEAL, MARK ANTHONY 175

FURTHER READING
Beck, Robert. The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim: Robert Beck’s Real Story. Los Angeles, CA: Hol-
loway House Publishing, 1971.
Muckley, Peter. “Iceberg Slim: Robert Beck—A True Essay at a Biocriticism of an Ex-Outlaw
Artist.” Black Scholar, Vol. 26 Issue 1 (1996): 18–26.

Rachel Robinson

NEAL, MARK ANTHONY (1965–). Scholar and critic of popular culture.

Coeditor of That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, and author of three books
on black popular music. Neal serves as Chair of Black Popular Culture at Duke University
(where he also directs the Institute for Critical U.S. Studies) and is a crucial figure in what
Murray Forman has termed the “new black intelligentsia.” In addition to his books, his
work has been included in numerous essay collections, as well as appearing in various
online publications.
A progressive proponent of the Hip-Hop Generation, Neal is firmly convinced that rec-
ognizing the struggles and successes of previous generations of black resistance need not
come at the expense of critical reassessments of black history. His most persistent concerns
revolve around questions of black masculinity, and he singles out the “strong black man”
(praised and typified by men such as Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. DuBois) as a prob-
lematic model of black identity, whose values call for reevaluation. Neal’s own appraisal of
this figure comes sharply into focus in his latest book, New Black Man, where candid per-
sonal reflections underpin a compelling critique of misogyny, homophobia, and classism.
Neal argues that the tendency to treat middle-class, heterosexual masculinity as “synony-
mous with black identity” stems from a collective desire to shield the community by put-
ting its strongest members front and center, whereas consigning to the margins those
perceived (for reasons of gender, class, or sexuality) to be most vulnerable to criticism. This
patriarchal model of headship reproduces the very relations of dominance suffered under
racist society, inflicting a regimen of internally directed violence (and self-imposed silenc-
ing) in the name of protecting the community from more debilitating “external” threats.
Strategies of self-representation have always been a contentious issue within African
American communities, inspiring passionate debate over the “proper” portrayal of black
life in ongoing negotiations with the dominant culture. These concerns have often led to
the internalized policing of images likely to exhaust the sympathies of wider audiences
(most often imagined as white, or black middle class), a tendency exemplified for Neal
by the NAACP “Image Awards.” Neal questions the conservatism of such capitulations to
the dominant classes, affirming unreservedly the diversity of African American identity.
His hopes are rooted in anticipation rather than nostalgia, and his work is motivated by
the conviction that the community’s future depends upon “the recognition and empower-
ment of those most ostensibly marginalized within it, and within the larger American
society” (2002, 9).
Neal’s exceptional grasp of hip-hop culture, commerce, and criticism is attested to by
the meticulous work of compilation and commentary undertaken in his comprehensive
hip-hop reader, That’s the Joint. In the face of the mass commodification of black experience
through hip-hop, the question of identity becomes especially vexed, and Neal’s work is finely
attuned to the many ways in which corporate interests shape cultural production. “Keeping
it real” often amounts to little more than the “commodification of black dysfunction,” a racist
176 NEW JACK CITY

fantasy that revolves around criminality, hyper-masculinity, and violence. A century after
Twain’s nostalgic lament for the “real nigger show,” Neal still sees minstrelsy as an apt
metaphor for the way many black performers are made “complicit in their own demoniza-
tion by producing commercially viable caricatures of themselves” (1998, 10). Authenticity
sells, and the colonization of culture by a market that requires its performers to “blacken
up” insidiously undermines the nuances of black experience. Though this strain on cultural
identity is most starkly evident in the case of hip-hop, Neal observes that the genre repre-
sents a critical vanguard in explicit addressing “issues of commodification and commer-
cialization as narrative themes” (1998, 164).
Neal’s clearest alliances are with black feminists, such as Masani Alexis de Veaux,
Hortense Spillers, and bell hooks. His affirmation of the fluidity of black identity has led
many to characterize his position as postmodern. Although this tradition certainly informs
his thought, Neal avoids the potentially alienating qualities of such academic identifica-
tions; his style borrows more from hip-hop vernacular than the theoretical jargon of French
philosophy. As a committed public intellectual, Neal’s cultural analysis is disciplined by a
principled impatience for symbolic controversies and abstract debate; his writing displays
a keen sense of priorities that never loses sight of the material circumstances and of
African Americans in all of their diversity.

See also Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic; That’s the Joint!:
The Hip-Hop Studies Reader; What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public
Culture

FURTHER READING
Neal, Mark Anthony. Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic. New York:
Routledge, 2002.
———. What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture. New York: Routledge,
1998.
Neal, Mark Anthony and Murray Forman, eds. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New
York: Routledge, 2004.

Gregory Donald Brophy

NEW JACK CITY (JACMAC FILMS, USA, 1991). One of the early films
dealing with the violence, drugs, and criminal aspirations seemingly associated with hip
hop culture in the early 1990s. Rapper Ice-T is one of the principle actors.
New Jack City was the first film directed by Mario Van Peebles, who also plays the role
of Stone, a police detective. At the heart of this story are the defining elements of hip hop
cinema. There is gang initiation, black-on-black crime, and the expendability of black
women—their bodies and their lives. The film is said to pay homage to 1970s drug king
Nikki Barnes and signals the iconic switch from gangsta rapper to film and television cop
made by Ice-T.
The film denotes the rise and fall of Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) and the blueprint for
making crack and making money in 1990s New York. The Cash Money Brothers mix Wall
Street wisdom with ruthless violence as they take over an apartment complex, where they
terrorize residents and evade the police. The police send in Pookie, (Chris Rock) an ex-
addict, to infiltrate the gang, but the wholesale exposure to crack cocaine is his undoing.
 NO DISRESPECT 177

Left with few choices, it is undercover police detective Scotty Appleton’s (Ice-T) job to get
close to the Cash Money Brothers and Nino Brown.
Although he made his acting debut in Breakin’ and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo
(1984), Scotty Appleton is perhaps Ice-T’s most memorable role. Having been known for
his vehement and vitriolic raps about police brutality in the late 1980s, Ice-T as a cop
seemed quite a departure from his status as the Original Gangsta. The character also
seemed to foreshadow his long-running role as Detective Odafin Tutuola in Law and
Order: Special Victims Unit.
The critical reception of New Jack City was unusually positive. Roger Ebert’s assessments
of the film are often cited. In particular is Ebert’s reading of the scene in which Nino com-
pares himself to the character of Tony Montana in Brain De Palma’s 1983 film Scarface.

There is a moment in New Jack City when Nino Brown, a character who has made millions by
selling cocaine to poor blacks, relaxes in his suburban mansion. He has his own screening room
and is viewing Scarface, the Al Pacino movie about a drug lord. Nino brags to his girlfriend
that he will never make the mistakes the guy made in the movie—but as he stands in front of
the screen, the image of Scarface’s dead body is projected across his own. (1991)

New Jack City is unique in that it critically engages the tendency of hip hop films and
music videos to paint traditional caricatures of gangster life as right and desirable. The
superimposition of Montana’s dead body upon the body of Nino Brown invites the audi-
ence to see beyond the glamour and excitement of the drug/thug life and see the pain,
death, and ultimate destruction.
Although Nino manages to maneuver past the police and the legal system during his
trial, an average citizen of the streets he has devastated kills him, thus committing an act
of vigilante justice. In the end, Nino does not get away but is gunned down inside the
courthouse. In addition to its critique of the glamorization of gangs, drugs, and violence,
it is significant that New Jack City belongs to a genre of films that feature black characters
and that highlight individuals enacting their own justice rather than relying upon the tra-
ditional system (i.e., A Time to Kill (1996) and Shaft (2000)).

FURTHER READING
Ebert, Roger. “New Jack City,” Chicago Sun-Times, 1 May 1991. <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/
apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19910501/REVIEWS/50714002/1023>.
Grant, Natasha. “‘New Jack City’ Stars Reflect On 1991 Hit.” New York Amsterdam News, Vol. 96
Issue 35 (25 Aug. 2005): 22–45.
Smith-Shomade, Beretta E. “‘Rock-a-Bye, Baby!’: Black Women Disrupting Gangs and Construct-
ing Hip-Hop Gangsta Films.” Cinema Journal, Vol. 42 Issue 2, (Winter 2003): 25.

Tarshia L. Stanley

NO DISRESPECT (1994). Sister Souljah’s memoir, No Disrespect, is an out-

spoken yet sensitive collection of experiences that aims for the collective healing of the
black female community.
Each chapter of No Disrespect is devoted to an individual who made a difference in her
life—from her mother to the men and women who taught her about love and loss—and
Souljah uses these examples to illustrate to young black females how they must “listen
up!” and be strong. Through her experiences she chronicles the division between the
178 NO DISRESPECT

sexes, the disintegration of the family, and the ways in which racism remains pervasive in
American society and continues to circumscribe the way African American people view
and treat one another.
She continually draws upon the strength of her African roots and her faith in God to
make a case for a collective movement against white racism and for a return to family.
Beginning with the chapter on her mother, Souljah writes about growing up in the projects
of New York City and highlights the challenges mothers faced raising their children as
single parents. Men come in and out of her mother’s life, and even as a young girl, Souljah
identifies the high turnover rate and her mother’s white boyfriend as a symptom of slave
mentality. Although her mother did not lead by example, she instilled in Souljah that she
could use her mind and faith to resist temptations such as drugs and sex—the pitfalls of
welfare living.
By revealing painful stories of her own naiveté, as in the chapter “Chance,” she offers
her experiences up to her readers so they can learn from her mistakes. The vulnerability
with which she writes conceals nothing but leaves her in a position of authority to chal-
lenge the pieties of race, class, and gender. Her views are wise but unconventional. Regard-
ing homosexuality in the black community, she believes it to be a symptom of racial
victimization and a deterrent to building the strong family structures she feels are neces-
sary to rebuild the black community. Also, in the section titled “Derek,” she suggests man-
sharing as a possible solution to the shortage of black men and notes that sharing men
openly might bring solidarity to black women. This situation does not turn out to be the
ideal for her, but the scenario supports her objective to take whatever steps necessary to
unite the black family.
In her view, racism has dismantled the black consciousness, and by highlighting the con-
sequences of racism—prostitution, conflicted sexual identity, infidelity, and violence—she
argues for a return to family values and a strengthening of the black family unit. In her final
chapter called “Sermon,” she challenges young black women to respect themselves and to
save themselves.

See also Souljah, Sister; The Coldest Winter Ever

FURTHER READING
Pittman, Coretta. “Black Women Writers and the Trouble with Ethos: Harriet Jacobs, Billie Holiday,
and Sister Souljah.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Vol. 37 (2007): 43–70.
Rose, Tricia. “Review: A Sister without Sisters.” The Women’s Review of Books, Vol. 12 Issue 19
(June 1995): 21–22.
Wamba, Philippe. “Review: Souljah on Ice. No Disrespect by Sister Souljah.” Transition, Vol. 67
(1995): 138–149.

Sheri McCord
 O
OLD SCHOOL BOOKS PUBLISHING. Between 1996 and 1998, W. W. Norton
published sixteen books under its Old School Books imprint. The books were trade paper-
back reprints of little-known or “underground” hard-boiled novels of the black urban
experience from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Edited by American pulp fiction aficionado Marc Gerald and French journalist Samuel
Blumenfeld, the imprint sought to recover, in Gerald’s words, “a lost legacy of African-
American noir.” Gerald started doing research for the series after reading the gritty crime
novels of Donald Goines. Noting that Goines was popular among African Americans yet
unknown to the literary mainstream, Gerald wondered if there were other black novelists
whose work had so provocatively defied white middlebrow tastes. Two years of research
yielded a list of books that, for Gerald, constituted a “forgotten” genre of black writing,
one that “chronicled the truth about the hurt, pain, frustration and rage of the urban
American experience” (1997, 2). Gerald approached Norton with his idea for a book series,
and it was black crime novelist Walter Mosley’s editor at the company, Gerald Howard, who
helped launch Old School Books.
Two cult classics of African American pulp fiction were logical choices for inclusion
in the series: Goines’s revenge tale Daddy Cool (1974; rpt. 1997) and fellow Holloway
House author Iceberg Slim’s ghetto tragedy Mama Black Widow (1969; rpt. 1998). The other
reprints were more obscure but no less graphic in their representation of urban, or street, cul-
ture. Among these titles were Herbert Simmons’s jazz novel Man Walking on Eggshells
(1962; rpt. 1997), Clarence Cooper Jr.’s surreal prison narrative The Farm (1967; rpt. 1998),
and Robert Dean Pharr’s picaresque Harlem adventure Giveadamn Brown (1978; rpt. 1997).
Old School Books’ most renowned contribution to literary history was the publication
of Chester Himes’s Yesterday Will Make You Cry in 1998. The book was based on Himes’s
earliest manuscript for a novel, which he began during a stint in the Ohio state penitentiary
from 1928 to 1936. After several rounds of rejection letters and manuscript revisions, how-
ever, Himes could only get his book published in bowdlerized form as Cast the First Stone
in 1952. Lost in the editorial process were some of Himes’s most pointed observations on
male homosexuality in prison. Old School Books’ publication of the original manuscript
thus restored an important work of social criticism and a unique hard-boiled narrative to
American letters.
The Old School Books series has been credited for sparking critical and popular inter-
est in authors who drew from personal experience to depict the harsh realities of ghetto and
prison life for African Americans. Indeed, by bringing the forgotten archive of urban expe-
rience novels to the attention of mainstream readers, Old School Books helped establish
what we now recognize as the “first wave” of black urban fiction.
180 OTHER MEN’S WIVES

See also Kensington Press

FURTHER READING
Franklin, H. Bruce. “‘Self-Mutilations,’ Review of Yesterday Will Make You Cry, by Chester Himes.”
Nation (16 Feb. 1998): 28–31.
Gerald, Marc. “Blood Stains: My Search for African-American Noir’s Lost Legacy.” Salon.com
7 Mar. 1997. <http://archive.salon.com/march97/noir970307.html>.

Kinohi Nishikawa

OTHER MEN’S WIVES (2005). This is the third novel written by Freddie Lee
Johnson III, professor of history at Hope College. The story centers on the response of pro-
tagonist Denmark Wheeler to the infidelity of his trophy wife, Sierra.
After growing up in Cleveland’s dangerous Brownfield District, Denmark Wheeler
worked hard, put himself through college, and is now a regional manager of an auto
parts store and happily married to Sierra Montague Wheeler. He adores his wife and is
planning several extravagant surprises for her to celebrate their fifth wedding anniver-
sary, but when he receives a DVD sent anonymously he is enraged to find his beloved
wife engaged in explicit sexual acts with a man whose face is blurred. Denmark not
only files for divorce but also embarks on a mission to find the identity of the man on
the DVD. The top two suspects are his best friends, Harry and Gordon. Harry is mar-
ried to Inez, but their marriage is on the rocks because she wants kids and he doesn’t.
Gordon is a popular television personality, who has been known to cheat on his long-
suffering wife Alice. Although he has no concrete evidence, Denmark sets out to sleep
with both their wives because he’s convinced that one of their husbands has crossed the
line. He also has a few encounters with other women along the way. Meanwhile, he
enlists the help of a technology wiz, who will be able to modify the DVD and reveal
the culprit. Denmark also calls on his friend, Mason Booker, a private investigator, who
has done background checks on potential new hires for Denmark’s store. Is Wheeler’s
retaliation against his wife’s indiscretions the best answer? Psychologist Mark Leary
notes that humiliation inflicts such a deep and painful injury to a person’s self-esteem
and social status that taking revenge might well be regarded as a powerful means of
restoring dignity and regaining some control over the situation. By the time the elec-
tronic investigation reveals that Mason was Sierra’s lover, marriages and friendships
have been unnecessarily ruined.
Johnson’s main character, Wheeler Denmark, acts without confirming all the facts.
He is a multifaceted character, a smart and ambitious businessman who is regional
manager of Speed Shift’s Auto Supply, a lover, and a jealous husband consumed by
rage, lust, and deceit—he is a friend and enemy. Wheeler’s anger is a natural and a
common social reaction to hurt and betrayal, but it is extremely destructive. There are
far better ways to cope with marital infidelity than with anger. As Wheeler acknowl-
edges, he acted in a self-centered manner. His sexual rampages ultimately degraded the
quality of his own life as much as they hurt the lives of others. Beliefs and expectations
about the rights and wrongs of relationship behavior and the consequences of breaking
the rules are explored in the novel. Clearly, our understanding of Wheeler’s behavior
needs to be explored further, particularly in relation to the balance between betrayal,
revenge, and forgiveness.
 OTHER MEN’S WIVES 181

FURTHER READING
Leary, Mark R., ed. Interpersonal Rejection. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Tucker, Belinda M., and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, eds. The Decline in Marriage Among African
Americans: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Implications. New York: Russell Sage Foundation,
1995.

Beatrice Nibigira Kelley

 P
PERRY, IMANI (1972–). One of America’s leading cultural critics of the artistry
and literary narrative forms within hip-hop music.
Perry is both hip-hop scholar and a self-proclaimed hip-hop head. After hearing
Sugar Hill Gang at age five, hip-hop music served as the backbeat to Perry’s coming of
age, and its political and cultural substance organically meshed with her educational
path. In 1994 when The Fugees entered the Booga Basement, grabbed the mic, and
proved they “got the vocab,” Perry was graduating from Yale with a B.A. in literature
and American studies. Six years later when Lauryn Hill chose self-seclusion, Perry was
graduating from Harvard with a Ph.D. in history of American civilization and a J.D.
from Harvard Law School. Perry, a law professor and cultural scholar, explores the
intersection of aesthetics and politics in African American cultural productions, including
hip hop.
Perry argues in “It’s My Thang” that the early 1990s produced a flowering of feminist
discourse, empowerment, and self-possession for black women rappers. Poetic lyrics by
such writers as MC Lyte and Salt n’ Pepa were opening up and occupying a feminist space,
allowing women to articulate their sexual desires. By “endowing the woman with power
as she positions herself as the sexual subject,” female rappers were inverting the “sexual
gaze,” and thereby objectifying males (1995, 526).
Dramatic changes—fueled by commodification and commercialization—have tran-
spired since the 1990s, diminishing the feminist presence in hip-hop. Perry’s
“Who(se) Am I?” posits that the shift toward video culture, which fuels the objectifi-
cation of women with sexist images, has undermined the feminist message. “Lan-
guage,” Perry argues, “even aggressive liberatory language becomes nearly powerless
in the face of the powerful discourse of the visual within the texts of music videos”
(2003, 145).
Prophets of the Hood, Perry’s richly nuanced treatment of hip hop, explores the aesthetic
and artistic value of the “poetry of the lyrics and the music of the beats,” a unique public
space where the “sacred” meets the “profane” (2004, 3–4). Perry cogently argues that hip
hop is a distinctly black American form, deeply rooted in oral traditions and influenced by
such signature features as African American vernacular English, call and response, trickster
consciousness, metaphors, storytelling, braggadocio, signifying, and the dozens. Perry
probes beneath the raw, explicit, often aggressive lyrics to the skillful articulation and
sophisticated understanding of social politics by hip-hop artists, who offer brilliant insights
on society’s ills. With emotional authenticity and radical honesty these “self-proclaimed
contemporary prophets” insert themselves into our culture’s material reality and offer
“truth-revealing parables” (2004, 2).
 PICTURE ME ROLLIN’ 183

FURTHER READING
Perry, Imani. “It’s My Thang and I’ll Swing It the Way That I Feel! Sexuality and Black Women
Rappers.” In Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez,
eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995, 524–530.
———. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 2004.
———. “Who(se) Am I? The Identity and Image of Women in Hip-Hop.” In Gender, Race, and
Class in Media: A Text-Reader, 2nd edition. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez, eds. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage, 2003, 136–148.

Judy L. Isaksen

PICTURE ME ROLLIN’ (2005). Determined to write contemporary yet

impactful novels for “all warrior women, realized and emerging, alive and transcended,
celebrated and unsung and the men fierce enough to love them,” Sofia Quintero wrote her
second novel Picture Me Rollin’ under the pen name Black Artemis.
This self-proclaimed “Ivy League homegirl” has contributed immensely to hip-hop
culture as a pioneer in the field of hip-hop literature. She was born into a working-class
Puerto Rican-Dominican family in the Bronx, where she still resides. Growing up, Quintero
loved to read but felt she wasn’t reflected in the works she was given. And now she is
changing that by creating cutting edge hip-hop noir.
Upon first glance, Picture Me Rollin’ is a classic story of redemption. It chronicles a
young woman, Esperanza Cepeda, who returns home after a year in prison with a felony
conviction and tries to get her life together despite many obstacles. What is of particular
significance is that “Espe” is a young Latina from the South Bronx who has a passion for
Tupac. Her sister Dulce, a reformed “gangster chick” uses tough love to keep Espe on track
and hold their family together.
During her brief stint in prison, Espe is influenced by her cellmate Isoke Oshodi, a
political prisoner who teaches her powerful lessons about activism, history, and social
movements. But Espe isn’t quite sure how to integrate that “new” knowledge into her
old life. She needs to reconcile past relationships, including that with her former
boyfriend Jesus, who is responsible for Espe’s incarceration in the first place and is
intent on coaxing her back into criminal enterprise. She also struggles to reconcile her
new identity as a convicted felon by attempting to go to school, get a job, and, otherwise,
“do the right thing,” in a society that rarely gives second chances to formerly incarcerated
urban people of color.
In her attempts to reconcile the inconsistencies and contradictions within herself and
others, Esperanza makes many mistakes along the way. Nevertheless, she attracts unlikely
mentors and friends as she attempts to grow into the person she wants to be. Eventually,
Espe realizes that the path of her complicated hero, Tupac, is an all too common one in
present times because of the systemic inequities in place.
A Place of Our Own Book Club (APOO) raved about Picture Me Rollin’, “The storyline
captures the language and feel of the current Hip-Hop Generation while also delivering a
powerful social message. Artemis has written a powerful and poignant story with believable
characters that will resonate well with today’s youth while also enlightening parents and
adults. For those who enjoy books with an urban feel and that are well written, Picture Me
Rollin’ should become part of your library today” (2007).
184 PIMP: THE STORY OF MY LIFE

Black Artemis delivers an inspirational narrative in Picture Me Rollin’ that is also

entertaining and educational, which has truly become her trademark. In an interview on
her blog, she advises, “Be authentic. Tell it the way it is. It will resonate with a broader
community. I think everybody should write, sing and dance for themselves. It keeps us
connected to our humanity and to each other” (2007).

See also Burn: A Novel; Quintero, Sophia

FURTHER READING
Artemis, Black. Picture Me Rollin’. New York: New American Library/Penguin, 2005.
“Black Artemis Beyond Keepin’ it Real.”2 Dec. 2007. <http://blackartemis.blogspot.com/
2007_02_01_archive.html>.
“Picture Me Rollin’ Review.” Dec. 2007. <http://www.blackartemis.com/rollin.php>.

Marcella Runell Hall

PIMP: THE STORY OF MY LIFE (1969). Published by Holloway House

and written under the pen name Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life stands
as a primary text that is frequently referenced in hip hop culture.
Its author was born Robert Lee Maupin in Chicago in 1918 and would later change his
name to Robert Beck in 1960 (Muckley 2001, 18). The twenty-two chapter novel, which
includes a preface, an epilogue, and a glossary of terms used in the text, sold some six
million copies worldwide and was translated into six languages before his death in 1992
(Osborne 2001, 54). Beck’s fictionalized reflection on his life remains a seminal text
within the African American pulp fiction genre.
Though it is a foundational text of that genre, the novel draws upon the conventions and
forms of other genres. In particular, it closely follows some of the purposes of the slave nar-
rative, which typically employs a narrative frame, including a prologue or preface and an
afterword or epilogue, attesting to its authenticity and the sufferings described within, in
addition to arousing the sympathy of readers in order to promote humanitarian purposes. Fur-
ther, it utilizes some of the patterns that critic Frances Smith Foster identifies in slave narra-
tives, which include a descent from a state of innocence into a recognition of slave status, a
progressive dehumanization and concomitant growth of self-reliance, a spiritual bottoming
out, a resolution to change his/her situation, flight from the situation, and ultimately, spiritual
and emotional redemption (Foster 1994, 85). Although Beck’s work may have attracted more
attention to the world of pimping and prostitution, in the novel’s preface, he clearly frames
it as a cautionary tale that reveals the inhumanity of the profession arguing that “if one intel-
ligent valuable young man or woman can be saved from the destructive slime, then the dis-
pleasure I have given will have been outweighed by that individual’s use of his potential in
a socially constructive manner” (Iceberg Slim 1969, 17). In effect, providing the details of
his protagonist’s descent into pimping and his rise from it into a solidly middle-class lifestyle
serves as a means of dissuading others from “the Life”—or what the novel’s glossary defines
as street or criminal life—which in turn achieves broader humanitarian purposes.
The novel provides a first-person narrative of the 30-year career of the novel’s protago-
nist Young Blood/Iceberg as a pimp in the street skin trade. Much like the bildungsroman
or novel of personal development, it describes his Depression-era struggles to overcome
childhood sexual abuse, his father’s abandonment, his mother’s desertion of a working-class
 PIMP: THE STORY OF MY LIFE 185

man, Henry, who loved them both for a con man who abused them, and finally, at his
mother’s urging, a brief stint as a student at the Tuskegee Institute. Ultimately, his dismissal
from Tuskegee marks his entry into “the Life,” from roughly 1938 to 1960. While under the
tutelage of his mentor, Sweet Jones, he is sentenced to multiple jail terms and becomes a
heroin addict. During his fifth jail term, Iceberg experiences a psychological “bottoming
out” and rejects “the Life,” naming his troubled relationship with his mother as a primary
factor in his ability “to see the terrible pattern of [his] life” (Iceberg Slim 1969, 305).
Lamenting the time he has lost, he asserts that he “had spent more than half a lifetime in a
worthless, dangerous profession” (Iceberg Slim 1969, 305). Upon his release from jail,
Iceberg returns to his dying mother’s bedside in California, and as she apologizes for her
earlier mistakes, he forgives her, absolving her of any responsibility for what he has done
with his life. At the novel’s end, he remarks in the epilogue that although the “square world”
is a strange place for him, his wife and two young children provide the motivation to “fit in”
and, he concludes that he is “an Iceberg with a warm heart” (Iceberg Slim 1969, 311).
Thematically, concerns around class status and access to class mobility informs much of the
novel’s action as does escaping the brutality of institutional racism in the era preceding the
African American freedom struggle and the end of Jim Crow segregation. Iceberg frequently
alludes to “the Life” as an alternate means of accessing class mobility and evading racism.
Observing the symbols of wealth and upper-class status that his mentor Sweet Jones has
gained, Iceberg asserts “[h]e came out of the white man’s cotton fields . . . [h]e ain’t no nig-
ger doctor . . . [h]e ain’t no hot sheet nigger preacher but he’s here” (Iceberg Slim 1969, 163).
Figuring Jones as a model for his own pursuit of class mobility, he continues, “I got more
education, I’m better looking, and younger than he is. I know I can do it too” (Iceberg Slim
1969, 163). Although he outlines a career as a doctor or minister as two significant and con-
ventional avenues available to African Americans to gain class mobility, he views Jones as con-
testing social restraints imposed on African Americans regarding race as well as class status.
The novel continues to impact popular culture. It was optioned by Fine Line Features
in 2000 and rapper Ice Cube was slated to star as Iceberg with Bill Duke to direct. How-
ever, after the project stalled, Pras, a former member of the hip hop group The Fugees,
acquired the rights to the story. A variety of cultural producers have acknowledged that
the novel significantly influenced them, including rappers Snoop-Dogg, Ice-T, and Ice
Cube, comedian Dave Chappelle, African American pulp fiction writer Donald Goines,
and film directors Allen and Albert Hughes.

See also Iceberg Slim; Iceberg Slim: The Life as Art

FURTHER READING
Foster, Frances Smith. Witnessing Slavery: The Development of Antebellum Slave Narratives,
2nd edition. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.
Muckley, Peter. “Iceberg Slim: Robert Beck—a True Essay at a BioCriticism of an Ex-Outlaw
Artist.” The Black Scholar, Vol. 25 Issue 4 (2001): 18–25.
Osborne, Gwendolyn. “The Legacy of Ghetto Pulp Fiction: Hustler Heroes for All Times.” Black
Issues Book Review, Vol. 3 Issue 5 (Sept./Oct. 2001): 50–52.
Patton, Phil. “Sold on Ice: Six Million Readers Can’t Be Wrong.” Esquire, Vol. 118 Issue 4 (Oct.
1992): 76.
Slim, Iceberg (Robert Beck). Pimp: The Story of My Life. Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1969.

Carol Davis
186 PIMPS UP, HO'S DOWN: HIP HOP'S HOLD ON YOUNG BLACK WOMEN

PIMPS UP, HO’S DOWN: HIP HOP’S HOLD ON YOUNG BLACK

WOMEN (2007). A feminist perspective on the role of young black women in com-
modified hip hop culture.
Currently the director of African American and diaspora studies and French at Vanderbilt
University, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting has been described as one of the brightest of the
young black intellectuals who theorize race and gender within the framework of hip hop
culture. Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women is an important
work chronicling the power hip hop culture has to shape sexual identity for many young
black women. The title is perhaps a derisive nod toward the 1999 HBO documentary Pimps
Up, Ho’s Down, but it is far different in that Sharpley-Whiting presents a serious and
in-depth critique of the effect of the exploitation mentality on self-perceptions and actions
of young women who participate in hip hop culture.
Much of the essence of commercial hip hop culture has at its core the relationships of
men to women. If the male archetypes in the culture are of gangsters, thugs, and pimps, then
their primary counterpart has been the sexually available female. From lyrics and music
videos to movies and literature the prevailing mythology surrounding girls denotes their
place as “eye-candy,” groupies, hoochies, strippers, video dancers, and oftentimes whores.
The author is candid in her criticism of a culture that, like traditional western capital-
ism, makes much of its money from the bodies, minds, and spirits of girls and young
women. Sharpley-Whiting presents her readers with the knowledge that sales of down-
loadable music videos are in some instances outdistancing the sales of the actual music
(2007, 25–26). As a result the bodies of the young women in the video become increas-
ingly important as marketing tools. In addition to the video dancer’s importance to the
music sales, she is the iconic role for young women in hip hop culture. Many young girls
desire the status of a video dancer because she is seen as having power—she supposedly
has control over the males who ogle her. The other roles available for young women as
commodities include groupies and golddiggers. These women are constantly vilified in hip
hop culture as opportunists and manipulators, yet the male rapper persona is deeply tied to
his ability to draw these very women. Music videos have also made strippers infamous as
they become an integral part of what it means to have a good time as a rapper.
The side effect of these kinds of presentations is that young female viewers and
participators in the culture often crave the kind of attention these archetypes provoke.
Sharpley-Whiting’s book makes a space for a critique that includes the very negative
aspects of these presentations. Because gender relations are overly influenced by current
commercial manifestations of hip hop culture, there is much confusion and contention
regarding the young black female body and her rights to control it. Issues of sexual abuse
and violence become increasingly difficult to talk about in a culture that embraces
exploitation and the commoditization of black female bodies.

See also Confessions of a Video Vixen

FURTHER READING
Hill Collins, Patricia. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racisim, Nationalism, and Feminism. Philadelphia,
PA: Temple University Press, 2006.
Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost : A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down. New
York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2000.

Tarshia L. Stanley
 POSTMODERNISM 187

POETIC JUSTICE (COLUMBIA PICTURES, USA, 1993). This film

examines the difficulty of growing up black and female in South Central Los Angeles
during the 1990s.
John Singleton’s Boyz N The Hood established a precedent for a rash of black, male-
centered, inner-city films during the last decade of the twentieth century. In 1993 he
expanded the theme by developing a project with a young woman at its center. In the
aftermath of gang and drug violence there are many victims. During the explosion of
black-on-black crime in the 1980s and 1990s much attention was given to the black men
who were killed or incarcerated. Singleton’s film is one of the few instances of a work
that deals with the collateral damage of this terrible phenomenon.
Justice (Janet Jackson) is a young woman suffering excruciating depression and
loneliness after the death of her loved ones. Her mother and grandmother have passed
away and her boyfriend has been shot to death. Alone in the world, Justice becomes
emotionally isolated and her only outlet becomes the poetry she writes. Throughout the
film her poetry, which is original work scripted by Maya Angelou, must speak for her,
until she meets a flirtatious postman named Lucky (Tupac Shakur).
Justice and Lucky have a hard time getting to know one another as both their assumptions
about the opposite sex get in the way. Lucky tries to court Justice at the beauty salon where
she works, but he is summarily rebuffed by her. The two end up traveling to Oakland in
Lucky’s mail truck because Justice’s friend Iesha (Regina King) and Lucky’s friend Chicago
(Joe Torry) are a couple and have made the travel arrangements. The two become close and
after several twists and turns the film ends with Lucky bringing his daughter to the hair salon
to meet Justice.
In Poetic Justice: Filmmaking South Central Style, Singleton says that the poetry inter-
woven throughout the film was designed to give it depth (1993, 128). Because the pro-
tagonist of the film is female, Singleton saw the need to enhance her characterization by
making her a poet. Justice’s need to wax poetic in the voiceovers seems contrived to show
that “around the way girls” have hearts too. Jut as his presentation of Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.)
in Boyz was meant to provide a human subtext to the caricatures of black men seen on the
nightly news engaged in drive-by shootings; Justice is a conglomerate of emotions and
attitudes and Singleton tries hard to make her a whole character. Finally, the film gives
yet another nod to the black poetic tradition with a cameo by The Last Poets.

FURTHER READING
Nicholson, David. “Poetic Justice and Other Clichés.” American Visions, Vol. 8 Issue 4 (Aug./Sep.
1993): 26.
Singleton, John, and Veronica Chambers. Poetic Justice: Filmmaking South Central Style. New York:
Dell Publishing, 1993.
Travers, Peter, and Gary Kelley. “Girlz ‘n the Hood.” Rolling Stone, Issue 663 (19 Aug. 1993): 81.

Tarshia L. Stanley

POSTMODERNISM. Because postmodernism is such a large phenomenon with a

range of definitions, it is important to identify one of the most recognized definitions of
postmodernism as posited by Fredric Jameson in Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic
of Late Capitalism: “Postmodernism is what you have when the modernization process
is complete and nature is gone for good” (1991, ix). Jameson, like many others, sees
188 POSTMODERNISM

postmodernism as not a distinctly new period but a continuation of modernism, the final
stage of modernism. Although discussions about postmodernism are tremendously con-
tentious, there is agreement that postmodernist literature has a proclivity to be self-
reflexive, parodic, ironic, and formally fragmented. Terry Eagleton comments on how
this consensus about postmodernist literature is “depthless, decentered, ungrounded,
self-reflexive, playful, derivative, eclectic, pluralistic art which blurs the boundaries
between ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture, as well as between art and everyday experience”
(1997, vii). Just as contentious as the discourse about what defines postmodernism is the
debate about specifically when postmodernism emerges. There is, however, a dominant
acceptance that postmodernism begins to develop with the fundamental shifts in Western
thought that occurred in the decades following World War II. The most important his-
torical phenomenon responsible for the shift between modernity and postmodernity is
the arrival of the Cold War. As Eagleton highlights, postmodernist literature is differen-
tiated by “a style of thought which is suspicious of classical notions of truth, reason,
identity and objectivity, of the idea of universal progress or emancipation, of single
frameworks, grand narratives or ultimate grounds of explanation” (1997, vii).
Marxist literary and cultural critic Fredric Jameson is one of the foremost critics of
the phenomenon of postmodernism and postmodern literature. Jameson has written a
number of works about postmodernism and postmodern literature, but none of his works
have been more important than his seminal work Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic
of Late Capitalism. In this work, Jameson offers his account of how postmodernism is
literally the cultural logical of late capitalism. He finds that one has to understand post-
modernism by understanding capitalist ideology. One of the fundamental problems that
Jameson has with postmodernism is with the unwillingness of individuals situated in the
postmodern moment to engage in thinking historically: “It is safest to grasp the concept
of the postmodern as an attempt to think the present historically in age that has forgotten
how to think historically in the first place” (1991, ix). Jameson’s work places a strong
focus on this crisis of historicity in postmodernism. In discussing this crisis of historicity,
Jameson speaks about one of the central features of postmodernism he finds: pastiche,
that is, “blank parody” (1991, 17). Although Jameson does not find pastiche in itself to
be problematic, he does contend that postmodern literature’s use of pastiche has a disre-
gard for historicity, which he comes to understand as postmodern literature’s resistance
to history.
Another dimension of postmodern art that Jameson finds that characterizes postmodern
art and postmodernism is “the waning of affect”—the flattening of emotion that has accom-
panied the arrival of the postmodern moment (1991, 11). Whereas Jameson does not argue
that people can no longer feel basic human emotion and compassion in the postmodern
moment, he does argue that they have an unwillingness to evince basic human emotion and
compassion. This accounts for the great “waning of affect” that we experience in postmod-
ern literature containing disquieting violence and disregard for the basic value of human
life. Jameson contends that it is the lack of the ability to think historically that has con-
tributed to the unwillingness of postmodern subjects to feel basic human compassion and
emotion. This “waning of affect” is conspicuous in the literature of postmodern texts that
glamorize violence, suffering, oppression, racism, and discrimination, and those texts that
do not have the “waning of affect” express a desire for the reader to respond to these afore-
mentioned issues with a sense of social, personal, and political responsibility. Jameson’s
call to engage always in historicizing the quandary one is attempting to solve is what
Jameson argues that postmodern writers resist, or have no concern for at all.
 POSTMODERNISM 189

Just as Jameson’s work has had a tremendous influence on how scholars have come to
understand postmodernism and postmodernist literature, Brian McHale’s Postmodernist
Fiction (1987) has also had a tremendous impact on how postmodernism and postmod-
ernist literature is viewed. He emphasizes that postmodernism is not a definitive object
but something that has been constructed by contemporary readers. Postmodernism is
something that does not have a definitive meaning, so he says that this allows for it to
have numerous interpretations. It is McHale’s fundamental belief that a definitive mean-
ing of postmodernism cannot be created. Although McHale and Jameson agree that post-
modernism is a continuation of modernism, McHale disagrees with Jameson’s argument
that postmodernism can be understood through a dominant narrative of postmodernism as
the culture logic of late capitalism. McHale contends that the fundamental difference in
postmodernist fiction and modernist literature is in the shift of modernist literature’s con-
cern for epistemological questions to postmodernist literature’s concern for ontological
questions (1987, 10). He contends that the ontological disposition of the postmodern
novel is evinced in its concern for engendering autonomous worlds.
Drawing upon what he accomplished in Postmodernist Fiction, Brian McHale
decided to extend what he said and offer more specific examples of postmodernist texts
in Constructing Postmodernism (1992). In Constructing Postmodernism, McHale
engages in critical readings of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s
Rainbow (1973) and Vineland (1990), Umberto Eco’s In The Name of the Rose (1980)
and Foucault’s Pendulum (1988), and some of the fiction of Joseph McElroy, Christine
Brook-Rose, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Walter Jon Williams. McHale comments
that the first half of Joyce’s Ulysses challenges our understanding of the notion of what
postmodernist and modernist literature is: he argues that the first half of Ulysses oper-
ates in the tradition of modernist literature, but the second half of the work he acknowl-
edges as being read as “normatively postmodernist” (1992, 10). McHale, therefore,
wants scholars to rethink the way in which they negotiate notions of what is modernist
and postmodernist, for example, considering Ulysses as modernist and postmodernist at
the same time. McHale finds that each of the aforementioned works complicates our
notions of what is postmodernist literature because they do and do not enact elements
of postmodernism.
In McHale’s reading of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, McHale concentrates his focus
on how the reader experiences Pynchon’s novel. He opines:

Pynchon’s text sets itself against this modernist mind-set, chiefly by luring paranoid readers—
modernist readers—into interpretive dark alleys, culs-de-sac, impossible situations, and requiring
them to find their way out by some other path than the one they came in by. (1992, 82)

Pynchon’s text is a classic example of the way in which a great crisis of certainty hovers
over postmodernist literature. The uncertainty that Pynchon engenders for his readers is
accomplished by having them learn a certain world in the text, and then, at any moment,
modifies that world in a way that causes the readers to have to reorient themselves to the
world of the text. Pynchon’s novel provides a strong example of how the postmodern novel
reflects the difficulty of being able to think in terms of totality. Postmodernist literature and
postmodernism have a tremendous skepticism and disapproval of totalizing narratives.
Therefore, as we see through McHale’s reading of Pynchon’s novel, this novel exemplifies
postmodern literature because it demonstrates a frustration with the difficulty of thinking
in terms of totality in a growing and fragmented world.
190 POWELL, KEVIN

Similarly, McHale’s reading of Pynchon’s Vineland helps to illuminate what post-

modernist literature is. McHale argues that Vineland’s close engagement with television
and the phenomenon of television channel switching reveals how the work itself paral-
lels with the formal fragmentation of the work. One of the fundamental features of post-
modernism and postmodernist literature, as mentioned earlier, is formal fragmentation.
McHale contends that the narrative movement in the text is reflective of the narrative
movement of television, a movement that resists totalizing, coherent narratives. The nar-
rative associated with television also is reflected in Pynchon’s narrative, considering
that the language of the text reflects cutting and perspective practices associated with
television and film.

FURTHER READING
Anderson, Perry. The Origins of Postmodernity. London and New York: Verso, 1998.
Eagleton, Terry. The Illusions of Postmodernism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
hooks, bell. “Postmodern Blackness.” Postmodern Culture, Vol. 1 Issue 1 (Sept. 1990).
Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. London: Routledge, 1988.
———. The Politics of Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 1989.
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 1991.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Geoff Bennington and
Brian Massumi, trans. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
McHale, Brian. Constructing Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 1992.
———. Postmodernist Fiction. London: Methuen, 1987.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

POWELL, KEVIN (1966–). Hip-hop historian, journalist, and social activist.

Kevin Powell, a native of Jersey City, New Jersey, in many ways codified and institu-
tionalized hip-hop music and culture during the 1990s. Parlaying his brief stint on the first
season of MTV’s Real World in 1992 into an opportunity to become an entertainment world
insider, Powell became one of the founding staff members and a senior writer for Vibe mag-
azine, one of the most influential hip-hop publications. He has written articles, essays, and
reviews that have appeared in Rolling Stone, Essence, The Washington Post, and Newsweek.
He has interviewed major hip-hop figures, such as Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, and Aaliyah, as
well as prominent leaders, such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell and cultural critic
and feminist scholar bell hooks.
Powell, who attended Rutgers University from 1984 to 1988, seamlessly melds academic
and journalistic fervor with a hip-hop sensibility that positions hip-hop music and culture
squarely in the center of contemporary public discourse. He is the editor of Who Shot Ya?:
Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography (2004), Step into a World: A Global Anthology of
the New Black Literature (2000), and In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers
(1992). These books highlight and articulate the diversity and scope of hip-hop art. He has
also published four books, including Someday We’ll All Be Free (2006), in which he analyzes
American politics and raises poignant questions about the tragedies of September 11, 2001,
and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. True to his hip-hop activist roots, Powell personally traveled
to New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Houston to interview Katrina survivors, organized New
York City benefits to raise supplies, and co-created Katrina on the Ground, a nonprofit group
that sent college students to the devastated areas of the Gulf Coast in March 2006.
 THE PRISONER’S WIFE 191

Powell writes extensively about his impoverished childhood, his single mother Shirley
Mae Powell, and the countless obstacles he encountered as an African American male
raised in an urban environment. In Keepin’ It Real: Post-MTV Reflections on Race, Sex,
and Politics (1997), Powell summarizes his journey toward personal enlightenment the fol-
lowing way: “Over the course of the last decade I’ve been a flag-waving patriot, a Christ-
ian, an atheist, a Muslim, a student leader, a homeless person, a pauper, a lover, a social
worker, a poet, a misogynist, an English instructor, an MTV star, a full-time journalist, an
egomaniac, a manic-depressive, a bully, a punk, an optimist, a pessimist, and most of all,
someone who is always trying to tell the truth as I see it.” Like hip-hop artists, Powell
asserts that the personal is political, and he writes candidly about his own failures in order
to create public dialogues.
With activist April Silver, Powell cofounded the nonprofit community-based group
Hiphop Speaks, and in 2006, he made an unsuccessful bid for the United States House of
Representatives in the 10th Congressional District of New York.

FURTHER READING
Powell, Kevin, ed. In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers. New York: Harlem Writ-
ers Press, 1992.
———. Keepin’ It Real: Post-MTV Reflections on Race, Sex, and Politics. New York: One
World/Ballantine, 1998.
———. Recognize: Poems. New York: Harlem River Press, 1995.
———. Someday We’ll All Be Free. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2006.
———, ed. Step into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature. New York: J. Wiley,
2000.
———. Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?: Manhood, Race, and Power in America. New York: Three
Rivers Press, 2003.
———. Who Shot Ya?: Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography. New York: Amistad, 2004.

Seretha D. Williams

THE PRISONER’S WIFE (1999). Asha Bandele’s memoir denoting the effect
of incarceration on the loved ones outside of the prison.
Today, there are millions of Americans behind bars, and African Americans are dispro-
portionately represented in this population. Asha Bandele’s The Prisoner’s Wife, a lyrical
memoir, puts a personal face on these grim statistics. In it, Bandele, a poet and former
editor-at-large at Essence, recounts the evolution of her relationship with Zayd Rashid, an
inmate serving a fifteen-year-to-life sentence for second degree murder. What’s remarkable
about her story is that this relationship blossoms behind bars; he is in prison when she meets
him. She and her college classmates read poetry for a class in a New York State prison, and
she is immediately attracted to his spirit. They begin their relationship as platonic friends,
and after building a relationship over the next seven years, decide to marry. Bandele
recounts how differently she was treated once she began traveling to the prison to visit
Rashid, no longer entering the heavily secured areas as a volunteer, but rather as a friend
and later a girlfriend of someone incarcerated there.
The memoir details the repression of sexual desire that lies at the center of the incar-
ceration experience; at the same time, Bandele cites this time as the most romantic one
of her life and describes her own sexual awakening. Because he is incarcerated, she and
Rashid undergo constant surveillance of their visits, phone calls, and letters. Her own
192 PUSH: A NOVEL

history of disassociation from her sexual needs parallels that of Rashid. Whereas she felt
earlier that she was not in touch with her sexuality and allowed men to dominate her,
falling in love with Rashid primarily through his letters made for a more egalitarian
relationship. She credits Rashid with helping liberate her sexuality.
The liberation of sexuality ties into the memoir’s trope of overcoming imposed distances.
She describes the five-hour ride from New York City to the prison in upstate New York with
the other women. When she did see Rashid, they were forced to maintain distance between
them. After talking for hours, their physical contact was limited to hand holding and a kiss
and hug when she left. So they fought to maintain mental and emotional intimacy despite
their lack of physical closeness. After they were married, it took four months to get per-
mission for a conjugal visit, two days of privacy in a trailer on prison grounds. However,
even during her visit then, their sex is interrupted by the prison’s count. Even when they can
be together, the prison continues to keep them separated.
Though the couple is now legally separated and Rashid has been denied parole, The
Prisoner’s Wife succeeds in offering an insight not often portrayed in contemporary liter-
ature, the experiences of loved ones and family who bridge the geographical and mental
distance imposed by the criminal justice system on a regular basis to keep their imprisoned
friends and family connected to the “outside.” Bandele contests dismissive generalizations
about her relationship with Rashid by repeatedly showing that we, in fact, need them as
much, if not more, than they need us.

FURTHER READING
Girshick, Lori B. “I Leave in the Dark of Morning.” Prison Journal, Vol. 74 Issue 1(Mar. 1994): 93.

Courtney D. Marshall

PUSH: A NOVEL (1996). Written by Sapphire, Push is a short novel, often

regarded as a young adult novel, that has been met with much acclaim and almost as much
controversy for its raw and honest depiction of a young black girl dealing with sexual abuse.
Push is the story of sixteen-year-old Clarice “Precious” Jones. Told through Precious’s
eyes, the novel details two years of Precious’s life as she attempts to deal with sexual and
physical abuse at the hands of both her mother and father, motherhood as a result of
incest, contraction of HIV, and ultimately, the struggle to articulate the many traumas she
has faced in her young life through the gradual acquisition of literacy. It is through Pre-
cious’s involvement with an adult literacy program, run by Miss Rain, that Precious is
able to process and articulate what she has endured. Written in a combination of barely
literate first-person narrative and journal entries, it is through literacy that Precious is able
to more maturely comprehend and express what she has experienced. Through this artic-
ulation, low self-esteem and self-blame are transformed into something more positive and
progressive.
Sapphire, whose real name is Ramona Lofton, was born in 1950 in Fort Ord, California.
A bi-sexual author and poet, Sapphire deals with the recurring themes of girlhood, sexuality,
transformation, voice, and the visibility of marginalized individuals. Although she was first
noticed as a poet, it was Push that thrust Sapphire into the spotlight. The controversy Push
was met with on release in part stemmed from anger directed toward the seemingly relent-
less and brutal traumas that Sapphire’s young protagonist endures and tells in her own raw
language. The sexual abuse is graphic, and Precious’s own processing of the abuse is honest
 PUSH: A NOVEL 193

and raw in ways that many readers have found difficult to confront. However, confrontation
and its healing, transformative effects are key themes in Push and much of Sapphire’s work.
Crediting the very manifestation of Push to authors such as Toni Morrison and Alice
Walker, Sapphire is continuing a legacy of black female voices that seek to expose and
confront the traumas and silenced narratives of the African American community. Just as
Walker’s The Color Purple and Morrison’s The Bluest Eye were met with anger at their
allegedly negative portrayals of the black community, particularly black men, so Push has
been met with similar scorn for what is deemed by some to be a betrayal. Push, as Sapphire
has noted on occasion, can be seen as The Color Purple for a new, more contemporary
generation.
Since its publication, rumors of a Hollywood adaptation of Push have continued to
surface, yet Sapphire has resisted due to her concerns that Hollywood might exploit the
subject matter. As well as this, a film adaptation would lose much of the novel’s themes
of literacy, language, and Precious’s own intimate voice.
Sapphire currently lives in New York and is working on her next novel.

See also Sapphire

FURTHER READING
Sapphire. American Dreams. New York: Vintage Press, 1994.
———. Black Wings & Blind Angels. New York: Vintage Press, 1999.
———. Meditations on the Rainbow: Poetry. New York: Crystal Bananas Press, 1987.

Laura H. Marks
 Q
QUEEN OF THE SCENE (2006). Queen of the Scene is a children’s book
written for ages 3–8. It follows the adventures of a young African American girl as she
dominates the streets and courts of her neighborhood to become the ultimate representa-
tion of girl power.
Penned by Queen Latifah, arguably the most prolific and popular female hiphop artist
and one of the first to articulate the experience of African American women in a genre
often dominated by men, and made possible by the Coretta Scott King’s New Talent
Award, Queen of the Scene is a hip-hop urban tale of strength and pride in one’s commu-
nity and neighborhood. Written in rhyme, with a hip-hop flavor that engages audiences at
all levels, and incorporating the language of street urban culture, Queen of the Scene
engages us in the experience of a young girl’s strength, determination, and ambition to be
the best at everything in her neighborhood.
Queen of the Scene allows us to follow a young African American girl as she presides
over the sports (basketball, running, and football) and the streets traditionally thought to
be ruled by boys. The book continues with her proving that she is just as adept at hop-
scotch, stickball, and double Dutch; thus, proving to all who read this tale that girls,
strength, and athleticism go hand in hand. More importantly, this gendered and authentic
urban experience is embedded in an urban hip hop language (represented here as a pow-
erful voice) and includes a rapped version of the story by Queen Latifah herself (included
on a CD attached to the book).
As the Queen of the story tells us, she is “representin’.” Representin’ is an urban slang
generally used to position strength and representation of a specific area or place and used
here to further reflect the representation of young girls empowering themselves to find
spirit, voice (especially a hip-hop one), and pride in their gender and in their neighbor-
hoods. The “neighborhood,” generally thought to be beyond an individual’s control, is re-
presented as a space that girls do have the power to influence.
Significant to the story are the images drawn by Frank Morrison, a children’s book illus-
trator whose other illustrated books include Sweet Music in Harlem, written by Debbie A.
Taylor, and Jazzy Miz Mozetta, written by Brenda C. Roberts, for which he won the Coretta
Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Morrison’s illustrated text draws upon
images from an urban street culture, evident in the graffiti walls, the city buildings in the
background images, the unfortunate litter that finds its way into the urban world, and the
concrete paved sidewalks and courts where the kids play all day.
Additionally, the appreciation and admiration of the urban and ethnic is everywhere
in both the story and the illustrations, from the hairstyles (Afros, Locs, barrettes, beads,
and ponytails) to the clothing (rolled up jeans, Converse shoes, and baseball caps) and
 QUEEN PEN 195

on toward the images of her parents and other adults, dressed to evoke the representation
and spirit of the pro-black power movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, what is
different and exciting in this children’s tale is the choice made by Queen Latifah to show
the experience of young ethnic girls and boys growing up in a multicultural world, illus-
trated in the varied faces of ethnic youth that are found throughout the playground. The
children range from African American and Latino youths to Asian youths. Ultimately,
Queen Latifah gives us an urban hip hop children’s tale that examines the courage and
strength to be oneself and proves that no matter race and/or gender the Queen is always
at the top of her game.

See also Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman

FURTHER READING
Latifah, Queen, and Frank Morrison. Queen of the Scene. New York: Harper Collins Publishers,
2006.

Rosa Soto

QUEEN PEN. Rap artist and passionate hip hop novelist.

Queen Pen (aka Lynise Walters) started her hip hop career first as a guest rapper on
BlackStreet’s smash-hit single “No Diggity” in 1996. She then released her debut album
My Melody in 1997 and later Conversations with Queen in 2001. She is known particularly
for her groundbreaking song “Girlfriend,” which discusses lesbian culture.
In 2002, Queen Pen turned to fiction writing and self-published her first book Situations,
which is made up of short stories about various urban street life topics. Since then, Queen
Pen has been recognized as an urban literary writer in the writing genre of urban literature.
Although urban literature has received much criticism for its “positive” narratives about
drugs, violence, and sex, Situations gained notice and sold well despite the lack of support
from big publishers. The popularity of the book was probably due to Queen Pen’s ability
to write about daily life situations that reflect the reality that readers face in their own lives
every day. Queen Pen, an independent writer at that time, also encouraged other urban lit-
erary writers to consider self-publishing, which could provide writers with maximum con-
trol of their own work.
Her success with her first book attracted attention from Simon and Schuster, with
whom she signed a deal for the publication of Blossom in 2006. Instead of a collection of
short stories, Blossom is a romance novel about a beautiful schoolgirl falling in love with
a New York City street hustler. The novel portrays the mixed feelings of love and pain that
the girl experiences in her first love relationship. Blossom does not just reveal an African
American hustler’s world, which is associated with drugs, material things, danger, and the
street, but more importantly, it also gives insight into the issue of love in African American
culture. One reason why Queen Pen is skillful in writing street-related stories that often
touch the hearts of readers may be because she has had much personal experience in her
hometown of Brooklyn, which, along with the Bronx, is known for its rich hip hop cul-
ture history. This may also explain why Blossom is set in Brooklyn streets.
Queen Pen is a prime example of an artist using her efforts in urban literary writing to
promote African American culture. She is keen to use her words to convey messages that
196 QUINTERO, SOFÍA

can inspire people. Her hard work was further recognized when she was nominated for the
“Breakout Author of the Year” of the African American Literary Awards Show Open Book
Award in 2006. Queen Pen is also a columnist for The Source magazine, a popular publi-
cation about hip hop music and culture.

FURTHER READING
Walters, Lynise (aka Queen Pen). Blossom: A Novel. New York: Atria Books, 2006.
———. Situations. New York: Queen Pen Music, 2002.

Almaz Tsz-ying Leung

QUINTERO, SOFÍA (1969–). Under the pen name Black Artemis, Sofía Quintero
writes cutting edge hip-hop fiction. Quintero is a well-known writer, activist, educator, pro-
ducer, speaker, and entrepreneur once named one of the “New School Activists Most Likely
to Change New York” by City Limits Magazine. She was born into a working-class Puerto
Rican-Dominican family in the Bronx, where she still resides. The self-proclaimed “Ivy
League homegirl” has contributed immensely to hip-hop culture as a pioneer in the field
of hip-hop literature.
Before becoming a novelist, Quintero earned a B.A. in history-sociology from Columbia
University in 1990 and her M.P.A. from the university’s School of International and Pub-
lic Affairs in 1992. Quintero’s activism is far-reaching. For example, she has worked on
campaigns to defend multicultural education, fight police brutality, and educate communi-
ties on HIV/AIDS. Yet after years of working on a range of policy issues as an “unapolo-
getic generalist,” she decided, in her own words, to “heed the muse” and pursue a career
in entertainment.
Quintero is adamant about distinguishing between “street lit” and hip-hop lit through
her essays on Blogger and MySpace, speaking engagements, and her body of work itself.
Her Black Artemis novels have been hailed by critics for being as intelligent and substan-
tive as they are entertaining and accessible. As such, they are assigned regularly in univer-
sity courses ranging from English literature to women’s studies, a rarity for any author of
popular fiction.
Determined to write entertaining yet clever novels for “women who love hip-hop even
when hip-hop doesn’t always love them in return,” Quintero wrote her debut novel Explicit
Content. It is the first work of fiction about women MCs in the hip hop industry as the pro-
tagonists and was published by New American Library/Penguin in August 2004. In a
review of the novel Explicit Content posted on the Black Artemis website, Booklist said,
“Fans of Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever (1999) will find this debut novel just as
tantalizing.” Her second Black Artemis novel, Picture Me Rollin’ (published in June 2005)
brings a new twist to the home-from-prison tale, telling the story of a young Latina whose
obsession with Tupac Shakur leads her to find self-love. Black Beat wrote of Picture Me
Rollin’, “Black Artemis has penned yet another piece of hip-hop fiction that’ll have you at
the edge of your seat ‘til the very last page” (2005). Her third Black Artemis novel, Burn:
A Novel, was released in August 2006 and follows a female bail bond agent in the South
Bronx who searches for a missing graffiti artist and grapples with her own tragic past.
With her beloved friend and creative/business partner Elisha Miranda (aka E-Fierce,
author of The Sista Hood), Sofia cofounded Sister/Outsider Entertainment in 2006, a mul-
timedia production company with several projects in development for television, film, and
 QUINTERO, SOFÍA 197

stage. Quintero is also a co-founder and current board member of Chica Luna Productions,
a community-based organization that supports young women of color in popular media.
Acknowledging the controversy over street lit, Quintero’s mission is to write “urban
noir” that reaches past stereotypes of urban, low-income communities by tackling sociopo-
litical issues, exploring the social and economic conditions that give rise to “street life,”
and captivating reader interest through innovative storytelling.

See also Burn: A Novel; Explicit Content; Picture Me Rollin’

Marcella Runell Hall

 R
RAIMIST, RACHEL (197?–). Hip hop filmmaker, educator, and activist who
garnered critical acclaim for her hip hop documentary, Nobody Knows My Name (1999).
In addition to serving as one of the editors for Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop
Feminism Anthology (2007), Rachel Raimist describes herself as a “mother, filmmaker,
scholar, educator, hip-hop feminist, activist, community organizer, and blogger.” Raimist,
who speaks and writes about her love of true hip hop culture, also teaches classes and hosts
an Internet site providing information and links for those interested in learning about the
history and depth of the culture outside of the confines of commercialism.
Raimist is particularly interested in presentations of hip hop culture through the eyes
and minds of women. Her documentary, Nobody Knows My Name, chronicles the journeys
of six women. Their intimacy with hip hop ranges from the rap artist and deejay to the
political organizer and self-styled mother of a hip hop family. From maintaining the right-
eousness of hip hop to using hip hop to change her life, the women’s stories in the film are
marked by passion and a blazing desire to express their understanding and interaction with
the culture. Raimist documents their voices from their perspectives and gives faces to the
various ways women are situated within hip hop. It is a welcome departure from depic-
tions of women in hip hop as always helpless, voiceless, and purposeless. However, the
filmmaker is careful not to create a world where sexism does not exist. Raimist’s talent lies
in her ability to give shape to the complexity and diversity that is hip hop culture and to
fulfill the mission of hip hop in its infancy—to provide a means of expression for those
who have often been locked out and overlooked.

See also Home Girls Make Some Noise: A Hip Hop Feminism Reader

FURTHER READING
Pough, G., R. Raimist, E. Richardson, A. Durham, eds. “Feminist Filmmaker.” In The Women’s
Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third Wave Feminism. L. L. Heywood, ed. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 2005, 122–123.
———.“Hip Hop Feminism” In Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. F. Malti-Douglas, ed. Thomson
Gale Press, 2007.
———. Home Girls Make Some Noise: A Hip Hop Feminism Reader. Los Angeles, CA: Parker
Publishing, 2007.

VIDEO PRODUCTIONS
BBOYSUMMIT 2001 V. I-III (Digital Video, 90 min.) 2001.
B-Boy Summit 2000- Vol. 1 & 2 (Digital Video, 60 min.) 2000.
 REED, ISHMAEL 199

NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME (Digital Video, 57 min.) 1999.

SPEAK UP SISTAS! (Digital Video, 90 min.) 2001.

Tarshia L. Stanley

REED, ISHMAEL (1938–). Poet, novelist, teacher, playwright, anthologist, and

cultural activist—born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ishmael Scott Reed is one of the
preeminent African American literary figures of the twentieth century.
Reed attended Buffalo public schools and the State University of New York at Buffalo
but left without a degree in 1960, moving to the Talbert Mall, a lower-class black housing
project. After leaving college, Reed briefly served as a staff correspondent for the Empire
Star Weekly, and then as a cohost for WVFO’s radio program “Buffalo Community Round-
table,” which was canceled after he interviewed Malcolm X. Later, relocating to New York
City, Reed attended Umbra Society, an African American writers’ fraternity, where he met
influential figures, including James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and Amiri Baraka. During the
early 1960s, Reed helped establish the East Village Other, the first “underground” news-
paper of New York City.
The fundamental source of Reed’s creative and subversive energy is Neo-HooDoosim.
As a variant of Haitian Voodoo, HooDooism, hitherto oppressed by the Western culture,
not only serves Reed as an alternative to Western conventionality but also as an explana-
tion for his hybrid and eclectic use of narratives. Central to Neo-HooDooism is the belief
that “every man is an artist and every artist a priest” who can bring their “own creative
ideals to Neo-HooDoo.” “Neo-HooDoo Manifesto,” “The Neo-HooDoo Aesthetic,” and
“catechism of d neoamerican hoodoo church” are significant Neo-HooDoo statements.
The Free-Lance Pallbearers (1967), his first novel, parodies the autobiographical modes
in African American literature and also unequivocally asserts the manifold aspects of
HooDooism. In his second novel, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down (1969), Reed satirizes
the American west as symbolized in the novel by the Loop Garoo Kid. It is with the cele-
brated Mumbo Jumbo (1972), however, that Reed develops the “true Afro-American aes-
thetic.” Set in New Orleans during the Harlem Renaissance, the novel revolves around the
possession of Jes Grew’s sacred text and PaPa LaBas, the head of the Mumbo Jumbo
Kathedral and the atonist of The Wallflower Order. Characterized as “laborious ‘funda-
mental brainwork’” by Houston Baker, Mumbo Jumbo is a postmodern syncretistic com-
position that incorporates drawings, photographs, and a bibliography to affect a double
parody against essentialism of the Black Aesthetic movement, on the one hand, and mono-
lithic Western aesthetics on the other. Again, his collection of poetry Conjure (1972) effi-
ciently summarizes the features of Neo-HooDooism.
His major novels, such as The Last Days of Louisiana Red (1974), Flight to Canada
(1976), A Secretary to the Spirits (1978), The Terrible Twos (1982) and its sequel The Ter-
rible Threes(1989), and Reckless Eyeballing (1986), among other things, provide refresh-
ing commentary on language, black essentialism, Western aesthetics, slavery, capitalism,
and race and gender politics. Particularly, his satiric narrative in Reckless Eyeballing about
feminism courted controversy during the 1980s. Reed’s critically acclaimed Flight to
Canada signifying clearly Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, not only estab-
lishes the ongoing effects of slavery but also raises awareness of the subversive use of lan-
guage. This concern with language and multilingualism finds extended treatment in his
recent novel, Japanese by Spring (1993). Thus, Reed draws on three languages, English,
200 REPRESENTING: HIP HOP CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION OF BLACK CINEMA

Yoruba, and Japanese, and even leaves the epilogue section of the novel in Yoruba untrans-
lated. Reed has also authored numerous essays and nonfictions and has cofounded literary
magazines such as Yardbird Reader, Y’Bird, Quilt, and Konch, now published on the Web.
Further, Reed, showing his concern for pan-American values, helped establish the Before
Columbus Foundation, an organization that celebrates multiracial and multicultural America.
In addition to winning several awards, Reed has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and
was twice a finalist for the National Book Award.
Interestingly, Reed’s oeuvre not only challenges the norms and values of Western cul-
ture but also satirizes the excesses and absurdities of the black community—a detachment
that lends objectivity and critical force to Reed’s oeuvre. To conclude, Reed’s narrative
experiments, signifying and parodying practices, and syncretic flexibility represents a new
direction in African American letters. Though detractors have criticized Reed for the eclec-
tic and provocative nature of his works, Reed remains one of the most controversial and
original voices in the contemporary African American literary scene and, therefore,
deserves special critical attention.

See also From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry across the Americas,
1900–2002

FURTHER READING
Dick, Bruce, and Pavel Zemliansky, eds. The Critical Response to Ishmael Reed. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 1999.
Fox, Robert Elliot. Conscientious Sorcerers: The Black Postmodernist Fiction of LeRoi Jones/Amiri
Baraka, Ishmael Reed, and Samuel R. Delany. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987, 39–92.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. “On ‘The Blackness of Blackness’: Ishmael Reed and a Critique of the Sign.”
In The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1988, 217–238.

Sathyaraj Venkatesan

REPRESENTING: HIP HOP CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION

OF BLACK CINEMA (1999). S. Craig Watkins’s first book offers a critique of
hip hop’s impact on the black film industry.
S. Craig Watkins begins the first sentence of his book, “Black youth are not the passive
victims of history but are instead actively involved in its making” (1999, ix). The idea that
black youth have both produced a distinct brand of culture and influenced many others is
at the heart of this book. In particular Watkins looks at the rise of black cinema since the
1980s and sees in the filmmakers, who for Watkins are largely black men, the same sensi-
bility of rap performers and producers. There is a no-holds-barred approach to art produc-
tion that is brash, irreverent, and highly marketable.
This texts examines black film from 1986–1993 and looks primarily at the work of
Spike Lee and what Watkins terms “ghetto action films.” Watkins sees Spike Lee’s mete-
oric rise to success as indicative of a larger need by black youth to “represent” themselves
in popular culture. Like hip hop, black cinema of this time period is in part a reaction to
the conservative discourse that often sought to theoretically undo the gains of the Civil
Rights Movement. In the face of Reaganomics and a society that became highly individu-
alized, black youth culture invented ways to make themselves heard. Spike Lee’s initial
 “THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED” 201

foray into moviemaking was as an independent. Lee found a way to “represent” the issues
and themes he found problematic, and his success at finding an audience captured the
attention of mainstream Hollywood. Lee’s success was pivotal to, and opened the door for,
filmmakers such as John Singleton and the Hughes Brothers.
In the chapter entitled “The Ghettocentric Imagination” Watkins critiques ghetto action
films in light of their adherence to Eurocentric models of family, masculinity, and femi-
ninity as indicative of some of the ambivalence present in the minds of the Hip Hop Gen-
eration. In this case, filmmakers Matty Rich and John Singleton are praised for being
young black male directors who are able to make tangible their creative force. Yet, accord-
ing to Watkins although they seek to create strong, honorable depictions of black males in
particular, they often reinvigorate other stereotypes that are just as detrimental. He cites the
dichotomy of parenting featured in Singleton’s Boyz N The Hood by noting how the film,
though “hip-hop inflected,” managed to receive the endorsement of the then Governor of
California Pete Wilson.
The book purports that Wilson liked the film because there were familiar elements with
which he could identify; there were messages being promoted in Boyz that the Governor
wanted to be reinforced. Watkins references David Brinkley’s interview with Pete Wilson
as the governor used the message in the film to soothe the public’s reaction to the Rodney
King verdict in 1992. Wilson saw the father figure in Boyz as “strong.” He saw him as
strong enough to pluck his son out of gang warfare and keep him safe. He saw the Furious
Styles (Laurence Fishburne) character as a successful father because his son was able to
get out of South Central LA and go on to college (1999, 223–224). What Governor Wilson
does not see is that saving black youth from themselves and from systemic racism requires
more than one strong father.
S. Craig Watkins’s book is important to understanding the connection between hip hop
as performance and hip hop as film. Although the films he critiques are those created prior
to 1994, his insights prove helpful in studying contemporary film productions that feature
or are created by members of the Hip Hop Generation.

See also Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement;
Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema

FURTHER READING
Roach, Ronald. “Decoding Hip-Hop’s Cultural Impact.” Black Issues in Higher Education, Vol. 21
Issue 5 (22 Apr. 2002): 30–32.
Tate, Greg. “The Color of Money.” Nation, Vol. 282 Issue 8 (27 Feb. 2006): 23–26.

Tarshia L. Stanley

“THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED.” One of the first impor-

tant recordings of the hip-hop genre.
When Gil Scott-Heron recorded the iconic hip-hop classic “The Revolution Will Not Be
Televised” in 1970, perhaps for the want of an appropriate label, critics referred to it simply
as a “song-poem.” However, the cultural importance of this poem in both its written and
oral forms was acknowledged in its 2005 selection to the Library of Congress National
Recording Registry.
202 ”THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED”

The recorded version first appeared on Scott-Heron’s first recording, “Small Talk at
125th and Lenox” (1970). However, the poem was not published in written form until the
1990 publication of the poetry volume So, Far, So Good. The initial recorded version was
performed as a spoken word piece that simply featured the poet reciting his poem over the
pulsating staccato of bongo and conga drums. The most well-known recorded version
appears on his sophomore recording effort, “Pieces of a Man,” and features the distinct,
eloquent, confident, and somewhat confrontational voice of Scott-Heron backed by a bass
heavy jazz-funk melody punctuated by the shrill, haunting notes of renowned flutist
Hubert Laws.
The inspiration for the piece can be found in The Last Poets spoken word recording
“When the Revolution Comes.” Scott-Heron builds upon this work in an attempt to grasp
the revolutionary energy, the spirit of change, and the heightened levels of consciousness
and black pride engendered by the various social upheavals of the 1960s and, using music
as both a tool of communication as well as a unifying force, bring about a new under-
standing of the dynamics of change. In other words, through “The Revolution Will Not Be
Televised” he seeks to redefine the meaning of revolution.
Whereas the fiery rhetoric of the Cultural Liberation Movement with its concomitant
demand for black power seemed to define revolution as a violent seizure of power through
pitched bloody battles in the street, Scott-Heron seeks to define revolution as more local,
located not in violent struggle but in individual self-enlightenment and revision. However,
the requisite level of self-evaluation is not possible because Americans, particularly African
Americans, have allowed themselves to become wholly disconnected from reality and lulled
into a benign complacency by the superficiality of the alpha beam of television, resulting in
a generation inebriated and incapacitated by the crass commercialism of television.
In lines alternating between genuine hope and compassion and soaring anger and
despair, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” delineates the poet’s vision of this revo-
lution of self. The revolution that Scott-Heron describes will not be inspired by superficial,
popular media-contrived images or superficial gestures. Popular television sitcoms, soap
operas, and motion pictures will lose their opiatelike appeal and will not serve as a dis-
traction. The revolution of self will not depend on corporate sponsorship for its continu-
ance, thus removing the influence of a sprawling, dominating industrial complex and the
empty promises of commercialization. Impetus for revolution will originate from within
the individual and not be motivated by political gain. Likewise, varied social movements
will have no bearing on the form and path the revolution takes. And finally, the revolution
will not make any outrageous promises or product claims it cannot live up to. It will, how-
ever, affect real and lasting change.

See also Black Poetry; Scott-Heron, Gil

FURTHER READING
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Dir. Don Lett. BBC, 2006.
Scott-Heron, Gil. Now and The . . .: The Poems of Gil Scott-Heron. New York: Canongate Books,
2000.
———. Pieces of a Man. Flying Dutchman, 1971.
———. Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. Flying Dutchman, 1970.
———. So Far, So Good. Chicago, IL: Third World Press, 1990.

James Arthur Gentry

 RIVERA, RAQUEL Z. 203

RICHARDSON, ELAINE B. (1960–). One of the premier scholars studying

hip hop as a rhetorical engine, Elaine B. Richardson, Ph.D., acknowledges that there is a
distinct language within this cultural movement. As a well-respected and highly published
scholar specializing in African American rhetorics and communications, Dr. Richardson,
among other scholars of African American vernacular English (AAVE), argues for an
understanding of African American rhetorical traditions that challenge notions set forth
within mainstream paradigms.
Richardson earned her B.A. and M.A. at Cleveland State University and her Ph.D. at
Michigan State University. Throughout her academic career, Richardson’s scholarship
highlights the importance of engaging in and understanding the linguistic diversity and
viability of African American literacies.
As hip hop is an element of the oral culture of African American experiences, the
breadth of Richardson’s scholarship is doubly important. Reading hip hop through her
scholarship provides a way to offer critical inquiry into the ways that hip hop has been
shaped by and in turn shapes the rhetorical underpinnings of the African American literary
and to a much larger extent socio-cultural experience. To that extent, Richardson’s schol-
arship stresses the importance of understanding the relationship between the vernacular
traditions of African American/hip hop culture and wider cultural intersections.

See also Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminism Anthology

FURTHER READING
Pough, Gwendolyn, Elaine B. Richardson, Rachel Raimist, and Aisha Durham Home Girls Make
Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminism Anthology. Mira Loma, CA: Parker Publishing, 2007.
Richardson, Elaine B. African American Literacies. New York: Routledge, 2003.
———. African American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illi-
nois University Press, 2004.
———. Hip Hop Literacies. New York: Routledge, 2006.
———. Understanding African American Rhetoric: Classical Origins to Contemporary Innova-
tions. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Terry Bozeman

RIVERA, RAQUEL Z. (197?–). Hip hop scholar and journalist.

One of the positive aspects of hip-hop music is its ability to appeal to individuals across
many different racial and ethnic backgrounds and its ability to inspire people from all
walks of life to express themselves through the prism of hip-hop while adding their own
unique flavor. What is also interesting is the way in which some hip-hop fans take the var-
ious aspects of the culture and incorporate those elements into academic pursuits, pre-
serving the essence of hip-hop while still being rooted in a quest for knowledge and
intellectual exploration. Writer and professor Raquel Z. Rivera, Ph.D., embodies this hip-
hop intellectualism, and the music has been an underlying motivation for many of her
scholastic endeavors.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Rivera has lived in New York City since 1994. It is fit-
ting that the city that gave birth to hip-hop would be home for Rivera, especially given the
intertwining presence of hip-hop culture and a strong Puerto Rican community. With her
cultural and academic background, Rivera consistently showcases her educational and
204 RIZE

artistic pursuits through numerous media outlets, all the while infusing her work with a
hip-hop sensibility. Rivera’s unique perspective on hip-hop and Latin culture has earned
her an abundance of respect on the lecture circuit, with many colleges, community-based
organizations, and conferences frequently seeking her out to conduct presentations and
take part in panel discussions throughout the United States, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
All through her career, Rivera has remained a freelance journalist, contributing to such pub-
lications as Vibe magazine and Urban Latino magazine. She also has a weekly column, which
appears each Wednesday in El Diario La Prensa, the largest and oldest Spanish-language
newspaper in New York City and the oldest Spanish-language daily in the United States. In
2008 Rivera was working on her first novel, a story infused with the rhythms of Caribbean,
reggaeton, and hip-hop music. Additionally, Rivera is collaborating with artist Tanya Torres in
writing a book of essays and images dedicated to “Our Lady, Mary Magdalene.”
As a hip-hop enthusiast, it is a natural extension of her creative abilities that Rivera is
also a singer/songwriter, adding to her writing, presentation, and academic work. She is a
founding member of Boricua roots music group Yerbabuena, a group where she was once
also a member. To keep her musical energy flowing, Rivera is a member of an all-women’s
Bomba group Yaya, as well as a member of another Bomba group Alma Moyó. Bomba is
one of Puerto Rico’s most popular musical styles, originating centuries ago in West Africa.
Rivera has taught courses in sociology, anthropology, and Africana and Latino Studies at
Columbia University, Hunter College, and Tufts University. In fact, it was at Columbia
University where Rivera taught a course entitled “From Hip Hop to Reggaeton: New
Directions in Latino Youth Cultures.” As of early 2008, Rivera was a Research Fellow at
the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York City.

FURTHER READING
Rivera, Raquel Z. New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Nneka Nnolim

RIZE (LIONS GATE, USA, 2005). Rize is a 2005 documentary film directed
by well-known fashion photographer and music video director, David LaChapelle. The film
traces the development of clowning and krumping, two vibrant, athletic, competitive, and
constantly-evolving dance forms that developed in Los Angeles during the 1990s. Framing
the documentary with newsreel footage of the 1965 Watts riots and the 1992 Rodney King
riots, LaChapelle locates these dance forms as positive outlets within Los Angeles’s often
dangerous, gang-ridden inner-city neighborhoods. Similar to breakdancing battles,
dancers form groups and compete nonviolently against their peers. They adopt nicknames
(Dragon, La Niña, Tight Eyez, Miss Prissy) and paint various designs on their faces for
performances and competitions. Dance groups therefore provide kids with a constructive
and nonviolent alternative to joining a gang. Further, the dance groups disabuse many
stereotypes surrounding black, inner city youth—particularly the association of black men
with violence and athletics. As several interviewees note, the dance groups provide an
opportunity for community building and creative expression that the neither the schools
nor gangs offer. For instance, a clown named Larry states, “In other neighborhoods, they
have dance schools and prestigious academies. There’s nothing like that around here for
us. So we invented this.” Dragon, a krumper, poignantly describes the dances as “our
ghetto ballet.”
 ROBY, KIMBERLA LAWSON 205

Clowning’s development is attributed to Tommy Johnson (Tommy the Clown), a former

drug dealer and convict who, after being released from jail and noticing the devastated
state in which many inner city youth were living, sought to spread a positive message. He
began performing as a clown at local birthday parties and eventually started Tommy the
Clown’s Hip Hop Clown Academy, an informal school in which kids could learn to dance,
and, after developing their skills, perform with Tommy at birthday parties and other local
events. Far more than just a teacher, Tommy is presented as a rare positive male role model
who cares for, looks after, and lovingly disciplines his students.
After clowning became established within the community, different groups splintered
from Tommy’s core group of clowns. Though an estimated 50 dance groups existed at the
time in which Rize was being filmed, the major and most identifiable division occurred
between the clowns and krumpers. Krumping, though based on and seemingly very simi-
lar to clowning, is a more aggressive, overtly confrontational style specifically meant to
provide an emotional release. Krumping battles often resemble fights as dancers push and
flail their arms and legs at competitors.
Rize is structured in a straightforward, interview-driven form that outlines clowning’s
beginnings, krumping’s development from clowning, and the dance forms’ various func-
tions within the community. LaChapelle intersperses the interviews with musical inter-
ludes of dance footage and a montage sequence that compares clowning and krumping to
African rituals. The film’s climax examines Tommy the Clown’s Battlezone, an annual
competition between the clowns and krumpers in which dozens of dancers participate in
front of hundreds of spectators.

See also Cinema

FURTHER READING
Franklin, V. P. “Send in the Clowns . . . Please!” Journal of African American History, Vol. 90 Issue
3 (Summer 2005): 187–189.

Travis Vogan

ROBY, KIMBERLA LAWSON (1965–). Novelist, publisher.

Like other African American novelists, Kimberla Lawson Roby found it tough going to
find a publisher for her work initially. She developed her own publishing company, Lenox
Press, to publish her first book, Behind Closed Doors, when she could not get anyone to
publish her. Since then, Roby has found great success as a New York Times bestselling
author who has published ten books. Her example of perseverance in the face of indiffer-
ent white publishers follows in the footsteps of other African American writers such as
Sutton Griggs, E. Lynne Harris, and her contemporary Stephanie Perry Moore.
Roby takes pride in centering the concerns of her fiction on issues that are real to her
readers. This is a central belief from hip hop culture that she has sought to embrace in her
work. Various issues relevant to African American culture, such as single motherhood, infi-
delity, addictions, abuses, and corruption within the African American church have all found
expression in her fiction. Besides her self-published first work, she has written other nov-
els, Here and Now, A Taste of Reality, It’s a Thin Line Changing Faces, Love and Lies, and
the Curtis Black books, Casting the First Stone, Too Much of a Good Thing, The Best-Kept
206 ROSE, TRICIA

Secret, and Sin No More. Her willingness to showcase the “less-than-pious” preacher Curtis
Black as a central character in several of her books shows how Roby embraces African
American religious life, but she is not afraid to offer a critique of it. As someone who was
raised as a Christian and admitting that she herself has lived through weight issues and
overeating addiction, Roby continues to capitalize on a wide fan base and her work can be
classified as hip hop literature to African American chick lit while also being fiction that has
serious religious and moral concerns.
Roby started writing in 1995 while working in the corporate world. Her marketing and
finance background contributed to her ability to self-publish and sell Behind Closed Doors.
After her success, Roby was able to stop working in business and concentrate on writing
full time. Roby’s writing is very popular and has garnered various sales awards, and she
won a substantial publishing contract with Dutton after receiving offers from seven pub-
lishers. She noticed an increase in her male fan base due to her Curtis Black books and is
glad that she is writing a character that engages the interest of all kinds of reading popu-
lations. Curtis Black represents the kind of difficult yet realistic situations that Roby, and
her audiences, find repeatedly appealing. She will soon publish her fourth Curtis Black
book. She currently lives and writes in Illinois.

FURTHER READING
Roby, Kimberla Lawson. Casting the First Stone. New York: Kensington Publishing, 2000.
———. Love and Lies. New York: William Morrow, 2007.
———. Sin No More. New York: William Morrow, 2008.
———. Too Much of a Good Thing. New York: William Morrow, 2004.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

ROSE, TRICIA (1963–). Preeminent hip hop theorist, hard hitting sociocultural
critic, groundbreaking scholar, professor.
Born into an era of heightened black consciousness and raised in Harlem and the “Boogie
Down” Bronx, Dr. Tricia Rose came of age in a working-class family during the burgeoning
of hip hop culture. Rose’s contributions to the corpus of African American Cultural Studies
encompass a wide range of interrelated subjects, including, but not limited to, the politics
of desire, the relationship between public and private space, science fiction and fantasy,
and the socio-political ramifications of de-industrialization and urban renewal. In an arena
dominated by white men, Rose talks openly about race in order to transform knowledge
production in and outside of the academy.
Rose earned her B.A. at Yale University in sociology in 1984 and her Ph.D. in american
civilization at Brown University in 1993. She currently serves as a professor at Brown and
specializes in twentieth century African American cultural politics. Before joining
Brown’s faculty, Dr. Rose held teaching positions at the University of California-Santa
Cruz and NYU.
Rose’s highly acclaimed and award winning text, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black
Culture in Contemporary America, is the first scholarly examination of hip hop music and
culture in relation to the use and repurposing of technology. In this text Rose also celebrates
the haven that women carved out for themselves as successful and socially relevant artists in
the male-dominated space of rap music. She also challenges scholarship to constantly extend
beyond U.S. borders to explore international reverberations of hip hop culture more broadly.
 ROSE, TRICIA 207

Since the publication of this work, Rose continues to challenge scholars and artists to
actively engage the many contractions and layers enmeshed in hip hop music. Concerning
the controversy surrounding the potentially detrimental affects of hip hop music on youth
in America, Rose makes a pointed and important distinction between true artists, such as
those who continue to focus on the recreation and expression of new possibilities for
understanding the world, and those who abuse rap music by treating it solely as a com-
mercial product.
Rose also challenges popular misconceptions about black women’s sexuality in her sec-
ond work, Longing to Tell. This unmistakably avant-garde text is the first undertaking of
its kind. Longing to Tell is a collection of twenty oral histories based on Rose’s interviews
with African American women from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Their stories focus on multivalent experiences of intimacy and sexuality with men and
other women. Although Longing to Tell centers on African American women, the work
enables all women to discuss issues affecting their spiritual, psychological, and physical
health by fostering conversations ranging from virginity to homosexuality to polygamy to,
importantly, HIV/AIDS.
Rose lectures before broad audiences, which include high school and university students
as well as the general public. She maintains contact with community and often weighs in
on current events and issues affecting African Americans through various media forums
such as National Public Radio, Vibe, The Village Voice, Essence, The New York Times, Art
Forum, and Time Magazine. In so doing, Rose transcends the breech that often exists
between communities and academic institutions invested in African American culture.
As a scholar and critic Rose is a necessary, charismatic, unafraid, and authoritative
voice. Continuing in the scholarly traditions established by pioneering and revolutionary
African American women in the academy, such as Angela Y. Davis, Nikki Giovanni, and
Hazel Carby, Tricia Rose is brave and experimental in the field of American Cultural Stud-
ies. Her work is essential and crucial to maintaining the centrality of African American
Studies and the richness of African American humanity more generally in the ever expand-
ing field of American studies and culture. Most importantly, Rose is always innovative,
honest, genuine, and hopeful in her quest for social justice and change.

See also Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America

FURTHER READING
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH:
Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
———. “Flow, Layering, and Rupture in Postindustrial New York.” In Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin’, &
Slam Dunking: A Reader in African American Expressive Culture. Gena Dagel Caponi, ed.
Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
———. Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy. New York: Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 2003.
–——. Microphone Fiends: Youth Music and Culture. Tricia Rose and Andrew Ross, eds. New York:
Routledge, 1994.
———. “Race, Class and the Pleasure/Danger Dialectic: Rewriting Black Female Teenage Sexual-
ity in the Popular Imagination” In Sociology of Culture. Elizabeth Long, ed. Malden, MA: Black-
well Press, 1998.

Christin M. Taylor
 S
SANCHEZ, SONIA (1934–). Sonia Sanchez is a poet, playwright, essayist, edu-
cator, and activist who was a central figure in the Black Arts Movement of the mid-1960s
and early 1970s and also participated in the Civil Rights Movement through her member-
ship in the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE).
Born Wilsonia Benita Driver in Birmingham, Alabama, Sonia Sanchez has played a
significant role in African American literature and culture. After her mother died in 1935,
Sanchez went to live with her paternal grandmother until her death and then she joined her
father and stepmother in Harlem. She attended public schools there, and in 1955 she
earned a B.A. in Political Science at Hunter College. She later did postgraduate work in
poetry at New York University, where she studied with Louise Bogan. Shortly after,
Sanchez began a writer’s workshop with Nikki Giovanni, Etheridge Knight, and Don L.
Lee (now Haki Madhubuti)—Sanchez called the group the Broadside Quartet of Poets.
Although the date is unknown, she married Puerto Rican immigrant Albert Sanchez,
whose name she retained throughout her career. By 1968, she had divorced Sanchez and
married her Broadside Quartet colleague, Etheridge Knight, and then had three children
with him, but they later divorced. Sanchez published her first anthology of poetry, Home
Coming, in 1969, and that same year her achievement was recognized with the PEN Writ-
ing Award. By 1972, Sanchez had left the Broadside Quartet to write and give poetry read-
ings on her own. She also joined the Nation of Islam the same year, but later left the
organization in 1975, not because of their stance on women’s rights as is often cited but
because her political affiliations were not well received. She asserts that she was not
“greeted well in the Nation, because they said I was a Pan-Africanist, a revolutionary Pan-
Africanist and a socialist . . . so I understood, truly that my days in the Nation were num-
bered” (Kelly 2000, 683).
Sanchez is perhaps more widely known as a poet than a playwright, but her work in
both genres share common themes and devices that emphasize her oeuvre’s concern
with challenging institutional racism and the struggle to resist racial and economic
oppression. Both her plays and poetry utilize what Haki Madhubuti has called urban
black English, and he credits her with helping to legitimize its use as a poetic form by
putting it in the context of world literature (1984, 420). He further contends that her
work reflects a blending of African American cultural aesthetics and political issues,
arguing that “she has effectively taken black speech patterns, combined them with the
internal music of her people, and injected progressive thoughts in her poetry” (1984,
422). Madhubuti also locates Sanchez’s work within African American literary history,
asserting that long before other writers, she “set the tone and spaces of modern urban
written Black poetry” (1984, 421).
 SANCHEZ, SONIA 209

Highlighting the links between Sanchez’s poetry and drama in his assessment of Home
Coming and I’ve Been A Woman, critic David Williams posits that her poetry in those vol-
umes are “characterized by an economy of utterance that is essentially dramatic, like lan-
guage subordinated to the rhythms of action” (1984, 434). Further arguing that the poems
in these volumes are “overtly dramatic, designed to be spoken as part of a larger perform-
ance in which silences and an implied choreography say as much as the actual words,”
Williams figures her poetry as part of an ongoing critical trajectory that “use[s] a sense of
history as a liberating device” (1984, 445).
Though the thematic connections between her poetry and drama are apparent, her drama
has not gained the same critical attention that her poems have enjoyed. In his discussion
of Sanchez’s Sister Son/Ji (1969) and Malcolm/Man Don’t Live Here No Mo (1972) along-
side the plays of other Black Arts Movement dramatists including Ed Bullins and Amiri
Baraka, critic Mike Sell argues for the plays’ rejection of the primacy of literary texts and
their emphasis on the immediacy of performance as vital tools in advancing the Black Arts
Movement’s concerns with black acculturation, self-criticism, and liberation. Suggesting
that Sanchez’s plays participate in this larger project to build black community through
culture, Sell asserts that they “utilize monologue and movement to highlight personality
without celebrating individuality” (2000, 71). He further contends that unlike the works of
the predominantly male Black Arts Movement playwrights and critics, her plays articulate
“a rigorously feminist attitude that one rarely encounters among the plays and critical
works of the movement,” and additionally, they foreground “the importance of community
cooperation and collective beauty” (2000, 72).
As an educator, Sanchez has also made significant contributions to the fields of African
American Studies and African American literary scholarship. In 1969, she was the first college
professor in the country to offer a seminar on literature by African American women, which
was taught at the University of Pittsburgh. She also taught the first black studies curriculum in
the United States at San Francisco State University that same year. Sanchez has also taught as
a professor at eight colleges and universities across the country and retired as the Laura Car-
nell Chair of English at Temple University in 1999 after 22 years of teaching there.
In addition to her PEN Award in 1969, she has also been honored with the National
Education Association Award 1977–1988, the National Academy and Arts Award, and
the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award in 1978–1979. In 1985, she won
the American Book Award for Homegirls & Handgrenades. Her 1997 book Does Your
House Have Lions?, which details her brother’s struggle with AIDS, was nominated for
both the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and the NAACP Image Award.
Finally, Sanchez remains an engaged political and social activist. She and ten other
women who were part of an organization called the Granny Peace Brigade were acquitted
on charges of defiant trespassing following an anti-war protest in Philadelphia in June
2006. Sanchez along with the other grandmothers staged a peaceful protest against the war
in Iraq outside of the Armed Forces Center in Philadelphia. All of the women were
detained and arrested, but the charges were dropped because they protesting at a public
building and exercising their rights to free speech.

SELECTED POETRY
A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1973.
Does Your House Have Lions? Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1997.
Home Coming: Poems. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1969.
210 SAPPHIRE

Homegirls & Handgrenades. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1984.

It’s a New Day: Poems for Young Brothas and Sistuhs. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1971.
I’ve Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems. Sausalito, CA: Black Scholar Press, 1981.
Love Poems. New York: Third Press, 1973.
Shake Loose My Skin: New and Selected Poems. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1999.
We a BaddDDD People. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1970.

SELECTED PLAYS
The Bronx Is Next. In A Sourcebook of African American Performance: Plays, People, Movements.
Annemarie Bean, ed. New York: Routledge, 1999.
Sister Son/Ji. In New Plays from the Black Theatre. Ed Bullins, ed. New York: Bantam, 1969.
Uh, Uh; But How Do It Free Us? In The New Lafayette Theatre Presents: Plays With Aesthetic Com-
ments by Six Black Playwrights. Ed Bullins, ed. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday,
1974.

See also Black Poetry

FURTHER READING
De Lancey, Frenzella Elaine. “Refusing to be Boxed In: Sonia Sanchez’s Transformation of the
Haiku Form.” In Language and Literature in the African American Imagination. Carol Black-
shire-Belay, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Jennings, Regina B. “The Blue/Black Poetics of Sonia Sanchez.” In Language and Literature in the
African American Imagination. Carol Blackshire-Belay, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Joyce, Joyce Ann. Conversations with Sonia Sanchez. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press,
2007.
Kelly, Susan. “Discipline and Craft: An Interview with Sonia Sanchez.” African American Review,
Vol. 34 Issue 4 (Winter 2000): 679–687.
Madhubuti, Haki. “Sonia Sanchez: The Bringer of Memories.” In Black Women Writers (1950–1980):
A Critical Evaluation. Mari Evans, ed. Garden City, NY: Anchor/Doubleday Press, 1984.
Sell, Mike. “The Black Arts Movement: Performance, Neo-Orality, and the Destruction of the
‘White Thing.’” In African American Performance and Theatre History: A Critical Reader. Harry
J. Elam Jr. and David Krasner, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Williams, David. “The Poetry of Sonia Sanchez.” In Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical
Evaluation. Mari Evans, ed. Garden City, NY: Anchor/Doubleday Press, 1984.

Carol Davis

SAPPHIRE (1950–). Author of the controversial book Push: A Novel.

In 1950 Sapphire was born Ramona Lofton in Fort Ord, California. Both of her parents
were in the army, and she was the second of four children. On the surface, their family life
was very normal, at least for a family that moved regularly from one military post to
another. But under the surface, there were all sorts of unsettling family secrets that Sapphire
has explored directly or indirectly in her poetry and prose. In her more openly confessional
works, Sapphire has acknowledged drawing on the models provided by Sylvia Plath and
Anne Sexton. But she has also cited the influence of the songs of Smokey Robinson and
Bob Dylan, not just on her consciousness but more directly on her work.
When Sapphire was thirteen years old, her mother deserted the family. So as she was
entering adolescence, she had to deal with her abusive father and her siblings, including a
 SAPPHIRE 211

brother who was schizophrenic, without her mother to confide in or to provide any kind of
buffer. Indeed, it would be another thirteen years before Sapphire would see her mother
again, and by that time, the two of them had established such completely separate lives that
they were as strange to each other as familiar. Haunted by several deaths, her mother
declined into alcoholism, passing away in 1988. Her father died in 1990.
In the early 1970s, Sapphire attended San Francisco City College majoring in chemistry.
In 1977 she moved to New York City, where she supported herself in jobs ranging from
house cleaning to topless dancing. While studying modern dance at the City University of
New York, she was attracted to performance poetry and began to read at the Nuyorican
Café and at similar venues. In 1991, one of her poems, “Wild Thing,” was published in a
literary journal funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The poem was
written in the voice of one of the teenaged rapists of the Central Park jogger, and it caused
such a furor that John Frohnmayer, the chairman of the NEA, was forced to resign.
Still, Sapphire would not publish her first book until 1994, when she was in her mid-
forties. That book, American Dreams, is a collection of poems, many of which look iron-
ically but poignantly at the experiences that shaped Sapphire’s own development as a
woman and a poet and, by extension, the lives of many other women of her race and gen-
eration. Her second collection of poetry, Black Wings and Blind Angels, was published in
1999 and received much notice because it followed on the success of her first novel. It
focuses on the experiences of young African Americans coming of age in urban environ-
ments and juxtaposes their premature streetwise knowledge of their world with the terri-
ble limits that their world imposes on their perspectives.
After the success of American Dreams, Sapphire enrolled in the graduate program in
creative writing at Brooklyn College, working under the novelist Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
and producing the manuscript that would become her first novel. That novel, Push, was
published in 1996, and it almost immediately created a sensation. An initiation narrative,
the novel focuses on a teenaged African American girl named Claireece Precious Jones.
Her father has been physically and sexually abusing her for years, and she has given birth
to two of his children, one of whom is afflicted with Down’s Syndrome. Rather than being
sympathetic toward Precious or regretful about what she has permitted to happen to Precious,
her mother also verbally and sometimes physically abuses her. So the fact that Precious is
very overweight is more a reflection of her horribly dysfunctional home environment than
any sort of reflection of “normal” adolescent issues of identity.
Still, Precious is not simply a victim. Despite the scars that her upbringing has left on
both her body and her psyche, she is a survivor. In fact, her life has been so completely
defined by material and spiritual impoverishment that she, ironically, has remained
resilient—that is, she has had no opportunity to step outside of her experience and assess
how impossible her situation would seem to be. As she tries to improve herself, she meets
a tutor at an adult literacy center. This woman, a lesbian named Blue Rain, becomes the
closest thing to a positive role model that Precious has ever had. In interviews, Sapphire
has indicated that Blue Rain is an alter-ego and that Precious was based on a particular
young woman whom she herself tutored in the early 1990s, though she could have been
based on any number of similar young women whom the author met.
Sapphire has variously described her second novel, still in progress, as a fictional explo-
ration of her mother’s life and as a fictional portrait of a young man driven by the sort of
pathologies that resulted in the Columbine massacre.

See also Push: A Novel

212 SCOTT-HERON, GIL

FURTHER READING
Powers, William. “Sapphire’s Raw Gem; Some Say Her Novel Exploits Suffering. She Says They’re
Reading It All Wrong.” Washington Post, 6 Aug. 1996, B1.
Smith, Dinitia. “For the Child Who Rolls with the Punches.” New York Times, 2 July 1996, C11.
Taylor, Alan. “Blue Steel.” Sunday Herald [Glasgow], 26 Aug. 2001, 9.
Tran, Mark. “Portrait: The Novel Approach to Bleak Lives; A 45-Year-Old African-American Is
Taking New York Literary Society by Storm.” Guardian [London], 18 July 1996, T13.

Martin Kich

SCOTT-HERON, GIL (1949–). Poet, novelist, political activist, composer, and

musician; credited as one on the chief progenitors of hip-hop.
Born in 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, Gil Scott-Heron grew up in the southern city of Jackson,
Tennessee, in the home of his maternal grandmother. He lived there until his grandmother’s
death soon after his thirteenth birthday. He then moved to the Bronx in New York City where
he resided in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Chelsea. He later went on to earn
a B.A. from Lincoln University and an M.F.A. from Johns Hopkins University.
Many have attempted to affix labels to Gil Scott-Heron—avant-garde poet, street poet,
modern griot, godfather of rap music, or progenitor of rap music. He once characterized
himself as simply, “a black man dedicated to expression of the joy and pride of Blackness.”
However, although reluctantly accepting many of these labels and acknowledging his role
as a major influence on the hip-hop genre, he has expressed his preference to be known
simply as a bluesologist, one who studies the blues.
He counts what he refers to as the blues poets, African American poets Paul Laurence
Dunbar, Sterling Brown, and particularly Langston Hughes among others, and the blues
tradition as major influences of his artistic works. He asserts that the blues poets and musi-
cians serve the historical function of modern community griots, keepers and purveyors of
information, myths, and history. Also, from the Black Arts Movement and figures such as
Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, and Larry Neal, Scott-Heron seized upon the notion of uti-
lizing art as a major weapon to attack an oppressive system as well as the use of several
forms to get one’s message and ideas across.
Thus, the poet or artist functions not simply to entertain but to inform, to provide the
masses with honest insight and information. Poetry not only constitutes an art form but a
mode of communication meant to convey the ideas and attitudes of the community in the
very language of the community so that it may be understood by all. Across Scott-Heron’s
oeuvre of two novels, three overlapping volumes of poetry, and fifteen albums, this prin-
ciple is very much in evidence. Armed with an engaging, sardonic wit, Scott-Heron has
produced works in a variety of forms, which, in the tradition of the griot, serve to inspire,
inform, and push forward.
He emerged in the early 1970s as a distinct new voice with a unique talent for the pre-
cise use of language in composing sparing works teeming and alive with the ideas,
images, and ideologies of black cultural nationalism. He was and remains unapologeti-
cally political and possesses a keen and respectful knowledge of African American history
and culture. Built around themes of social justice, race, economics, love, and addiction, his
works range from the biting satire to the violent polemic and give meaning and voice to
the socio-politics of the moment in such a way that they might be understood by the
masses in creating a heightened awareness of the forces shaping their lives.
 SCOTT-HERON, GIL 213

His career began with the publication of a novel, The Vulture, a whodunit about the
death of a drug dealer, while still a student at Lincoln University. He later published a sec-
ond novel, The Nigger Factory, centered around a student rebellion on a black college
campus and the resulting tension between the conservative, old-guard administration and
the students impatient for change. The Vulture was well received by critics and led to the
publication of his first volume of poetry Small Talk at 125th and Lenox: A Collection of
Black Poems, which was published simultaneously with a spoken word album of the same
name; within this cultural moment, the foundations of the hip-hop genre can be located in
the powerful interaction between oral and the written word. Though in written form Scott-
Heron’s poems are powerful, when infused with the author’s personality and delivered in
the deep, expressive baritone of the author’s voice with the intended tone and cadence and
backed by the stampeding percussion of bongo and conga drums, the poems achieve max-
imum efficacy.
The first poem of this seminal volume shares the volume’s title. “Small Talk” serves as
Scott-Heron’s formal introduction to his audience and seeks to develop consanguinity with
that audience. It begins with the simple imperative, “Tell me.” In the next four lines, he
closes the perceived gap between himself and his audience by asking encoded questions
that identify him as a cultural and communal insider. After having established this con-
nection, he delivers the imperative “Listen.” And in the lines that follow, he delivers poetic
riffs in the form of snippets of conversation that might be heard on any street corner or any
street in the African American community. The volume then follows an artistic agenda
informed by street politics and delivered in the form of poetry and evinces an artistic matu-
rity beyond the poet’s years.
Although his message is informed by a cultural nationalist platform, he displays a
decided insight and intrepidity in criticizing that platform. The poem “Brother” criticizes
the aspects of the platform that exclude participation by community members based on
external notions of “Blackness” while chiding his audience to each take responsibility for
the uplift and well-being of the other.
In his later volumes of poems, his poetic vision expands as he takes up the themes of the
lack of political awareness and activity, the connectedness of the diasporic experience, gun
control, nuclear war, and an increasingly arrogant and corrupt government. The popular
“Winter in America” bemoans the loss of focus on issues of social justice and uplift and
the turn toward a rampant materialism. The term winter suggests a metaphor describing the
lives of African Americans and other marginalized groups in the period following the great
social upheavals of the 1960s. The death or incarceration of the great thinkers and leaders
of that period results in a directionless mass of people devoid of the spirit of revolution and
change that drove an earlier generation. However, there exists a vein of hope, an eager
expectation that things will get better, that spring will return and with it, change. The same
hope that the revolutionary spirit will be reignited is the driving theme for the iconic “The
Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” which is widely considered to be the first major record-
ing of the hip-hop genre.
“Johannesburg,” a poem celebrating the South African struggle for freedom, works not
only to connect that struggle with the African American struggle for freedom and social jus-
tice but also to inform African Americans, many of whom were oblivious to the South
African struggle and the atrocities committed against the black South Africans. A later
poem, “Alien,” connects the African American struggle for dignity with that of illegal aliens.
He also introduces several political poems in the form of humorous poetic monologues,
stepping up his virulent attacks on governmental corruption and hypocrisy, which presage
214 SHAKUR, TUPAC “2PAC”

the George W. Bush presidency and reveal the timelessness of his poetic vision. Perhaps
the most well-known and easily recognized are the “‘B’ Movie Poems,” “‘B’ Movie” and
“Re-Ron,” attacking the Ronald Reagan presidency and his conservative policies. Frequently
referring to Reagan as “Hollyweird,” alluding to Reagan’s stint as an actor, Scott-Heron
characterizes the Reagan presidency as defining an era of runaway greed and neglect of
the great masses of people. Reagan symbolizes the ingenuity of American democracy.
America, animated by fears of an ascending third world, attempts to reach backward in
time to a historical moment in which all fears are assuaged by the arrival of the proverbial
“‘B’ Movie” hero wearing a white hat and sitting astride a white steed. Not finding that
hero, America settles instead for Ronald Reagan.
As a by-product of Reagan’s presidency and his economic policy, Reaganomics, the rich
got decidedly richer as the poor got poorer. Crack ravaged the inner cities and many of the
gains of the civil rights era were trod underfoot. Out of this crucible, the hip-hop genre
emerges. Perhaps the “‘B’ Movie” poems enact a symbolic passing of the torch to another
generation.
Through one of his later poems “Message to the Messenger,” Scott-Heron acknowledges
his contribution to the genre of hip-hop. Speaking to hip-hop artists, he apprises them of
the power of language and music and admonishes them to wield that power responsibly as
a tool of uplift for their communities. He implores these young artists to increase their level
of artistry and be more articulate in their delivery and act as agents of change.
In many instances, Scott-Heron’s life and philosophy reflect the history and sensibilities
of hip-hop. His novels, poetry, and music reflect not only his life and experiences but the
lives and experiences of his people as well. His artistic offerings are as much about the
people as they are for the people. His works address many of the themes addressed by hip
hop and embodies much of the rage, the anguish, and the truth embodied in the genre.

See also “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

FURTHER READING
Scott-Heron, Gil. Now and Then . . . : The Poems of Gil Scott-Heron. New York: Canongate Books,
2000.
———. Small Talk at 125th and Lenox: A Collection of Black Poems. New York: The World Pub-
lishing Company, 1970.
———. So Far, So Good. Chicago, IL: Third World Press, 1990.
———. The Vulture and The Nigger Factory. 1970, 1972. New York: Canongate Books, 2001.

James Arthur Gentry

SHAKUR, TUPAC “2PAC” (1971–1996). Poet, actor, rapper, writer, and

activist.
Tupac Amaru Shakur burst onto the music scene during the early 1990s and quickly
became one of hip hop and popular culture’s most influential and adored artists. To date,
he has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Shakur was born in New York City
on June 16, 1971, to Afeni Shakur, an active member of the New York chapter of the Black
Panther Party and part of the “New York 21,” a group of activists arrested on conspiracy
charges to bomb several New York City businesses. A month before Shakur was born,
Afeni, acting as her own lawyer, helped her fellow defendants get acquitted of all charges.
 SHAKUR, TUPAC “2PAC” 215

Shakur’s mother named him in honor of a famous Inca chief; Tupac Amaru translates into
“shining serpent, blessed one,” and in Arabic, Shakur means “thankful to God.” Afeni later
said in an interview for the black community site “The Talking Drum” that she gave her
son the name so that he might feel connected to the indigenous people of the world and to
their struggles. She said she wanted him “to know he was part of a world culture, not just
from a neighborhood” (2008). Largely due to his mother’s influence, from an early age,
Shakur was deeply immersed in community activities, politics, and the performing arts.
When he was 12 years old, he joined the 127th Street Ensemble, a theatre group in Harlem.
In his first stage performance, Shakur played the role of Travis from Lorraine Hansberry’s
A Raisin in the Sun, a play set in the 1950s about a family living on the south side of
Chicago and struggling with competing visions of success and the American dream.
Shakur was later accepted to the Baltimore School for the Arts in Baltimore, Maryland,
where he studied acting, poetry, music, and the work of William Shakespeare. In 1988 his
family relocated to Marin City, California, where he attended but later dropped out of
Tamalpais High School.
Shakur first worked professionally in the music business as a member of the Oakland-
based rap group, Digital Underground, appearing on their 1991 single, “Same Song.” Later
that year, his debut solo album, 2Pacalypse Now, caused national controversy due to its
explicit content and “graphic language.” Former Vice President Dan Quayle publicly dis-
paraged the album, declaring that it had “no place” in society. In interviews, Shakur vehe-
mently defended his artistic intention as well as his political views, arguing that the
dramatization of violence on the album represented what he had witnessed. The album
introduced listeners to many of the themes and motifs that would become central to
Shakur’s later work. In songs such as “Brenda’s Got a Baby” and “Trapped,” he rhymed
about the psychological and generational effects of racism, systemic poverty, police
brutality, and the over-imprisonment of young black men.
His second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993 and debuted at
number 24 on Billboard’s 200. Similar to his first album, Strictly portrayed a range of top-
ics and points of view, including an ode to single mothers, “Keep Ya Head Up,” and the
now-classic party song, “I Get Around.” Shakur would repeat this formula (politics plus
party) again on his 1995 follow-up, Me Against the World, with its successful singles
“Dear Mama” and “Temptations.” The album debuted at number 1 on the charts, and at
the time of its release, Shakur was serving a sentence for aggravated assault in Clinton
Correctional Facility. Shakur was later released from prison when the CEO of Death Row
Records, Marion “Suge” Knight, posted bail in exchange for contracting three records
with the label.
Shakur’s first album released by Death Row, All Eyez on Me, was the first double-disc
recorded by a hip hop artist. Released in 1996, All Eyez on Me reached number 1 on the
Billboard 200 chart, largely propelled by the Dr. Dre produced single “California Love”
and its Mad-Max themed video. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot in a drive-by
shooting following a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas, Nevada. Shakur died six days later on
September 13, 1996, at University Medical Center, Las Vegas. At the time of his death, he
had already completed The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, which was released by
Death Row Records later that year.
Since his death, critics, journalists, and more recently, academics, have become increas-
ingly intrigued by the enduring quality of Shakur’s work. Poets and scholars, including
Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni, have honored Shakur’s artistic legacy by penning
poems of their own about Shakur. Academics and filmmakers have also contributed to a
216 SHAKUR, TUPAC “2PAC”

growing body of serious critical work on the late artist, including Michael Eric Dyson’s
seminal biography of Shakur, Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur (2001),
Jamal Joseph’s multi-media book, Tupac Shakur: Legacy (2006), and the Academy Award
nominated documentary, Tupac: Resurrection (2003).
These recent efforts have differed considerably from early journalistic accounts of
Shakur’s life, which tended to focus on his involvement in what was framed as an “East
Coast vs. West Coast” feud in hip hop, stemming from a dispute between Shakur and
Notorious B.I.G. Shakur is also associated with the genre of hip hop known as gangsta rap.
Shakur himself consistently denied that there was any such musical genre as gangsta rap,
telling reporters, “I’m not a gangsta rapper. I rap about things that happen to me,” and
“This is what I do. I’m an artist. I rap about the oppressed taking back their place. I rap
about fighting back” (Hoye and Ali 2003, 132). Shakur’s songs held in productive tension
such labels as “gangsta,” “revolutionary,” and “thug,” and in fact, he is one of very few
artists able to consistently convey the complexity of human experience as a dance of oppo-
sites. Shakur often questioned the logic that his work was singled out by politicians as
“inappropriate,” when the work of white artists was not. Indeed much of Shakur’s work as
a poet and activist was concerned with thinking through the burden of racial representa-
tion placed upon black artists.
Shakur’s lyrics might be better understood if we look at not just his musical influences
but also his literary ones. At times, Shakur explicitly drew on books and plays in order to
explain his own writing method. Leila Steinberg, who mentored a teenage Shakur during
the late 1980s and early 1990s and kept many of his poems (poems that would later be
compiled in The Rose that Grew from Concrete), told Michael Eric Dyson in an interview
that Shakur’s personal library boasted hundreds of books, on “psychic science, yoga, alter-
native health, metaphysical science, painting, philosophy, psychology and meditation”
(Dyson 2001, 99). According to Steinberg, Shakur planned to “use rap to get kids reading
again. They were going to analyze and destroy all the great theorists and philosophers”
(Dyson 2001, 93). Shakur planned to utilize the medium of hip hop to encourage reading,
critical thinking skills, and political engagement.
If we read Shakur’s music (or “storytelling”) within the genealogical framework of the
books he claims influenced his writing style, we can begin to piece together a better under-
standing of his work. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet provides one such example. The pro-
tagonist of the play, Hamlet, is visited by the ghost of his dead father and afterward
believes that his uncle and his mother conspired to murder his father so that Hamlet’s uncle
could seize power. Hamlet devises a strategic plan in order to make his uncle confess to
his crime. He organizes a group of traveling actors to perform a play in which they reen-
act the scene of the murder. For Hamlet, “the play’s the thing” that will “catch the con-
science of the king,” forcing the guilty parties to confess to their treason.
Shakur often described his own politics of performance in much the same way. Explain-
ing to an interviewer that the violence portrayed in his music was put there deliberately to
expose what was happening in America’s poorest neighborhoods, Shakur argued, “It’s like,
you’ve got the Vietnam War, and because you had reporters showing us pictures of the war
at home, that’s what made the war end, or that shit would have lasted longer . . . but
because we saw the horror, that’s what made us stop the war . . . so I thought, that’s what
I’m going to do as an artist, as a rapper. I’m gonna’ show the most graphic details of what
I see in my community and hopefully they’ll stop it quick” (Hoye and Ali 2003, 132). Like
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shakur enlisted various actors/personas to tell his stories, hoping to
draw out the conscience of the listener, hoping they would be called to act and to “stop it
 SIMMONS, RUSSELL 217

quick.” In songs such as “Brenda’s Got A Baby,” Shakur attempts to expose—through a

kind of staged dramatization—the plight of poor, single mothers. He showed reality in the
hopes that it would elicit collective political and individual response.
Shakur also read and referenced the writings of military and political philosophers, such
as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. After Shakur’s mur-
der, some fans and conspiracy theorists argued that Shakur adopted the alias Makaveli
because he planned to fake his own death, a strategy supposedly condoned by the fifteenth
century political theorist. However, Machiavelli’s work provided Shakur with much more
than an alias or an alibi. Machiavelli was especially interested in thinking about how mod-
ern power functioned (because right of the sovereign no longer required inherited right but
could be achieved by strategic will and war). According to Machiavelli, this required the
prince to learn the arts of social maneuvering and public performance. This might include
deceitfulness and manipulation but not always. In this way, Machiavelli’s work served as
a pragmatic framework through which Shakur could think about performance as a politi-
cal strategy in the struggle for power. Shakur’s final album, The Don Killuminati: The
7 Day theory, includes several songs that explore these themes, including “Bomb First”
and “Me and My Girlfriend.”
Shakur left several unfinished projects that gesture at the scope of his literary talents.
While in jail in 1995, he began writing a screenplay called “Kindred Spirits,” a story he
noted would be “loosely” based on the novel by Octavia Butler. He had also begun an auto-
biography entitled Mama’s Boy. He completed at least one screenplay, Live to Tell.

FURTHER READING
“Afeni Shakur.” The Talking Drum. 5 September 2008. <http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/afeni.
html>.
Dyson, Michael Eric. Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. New York: Basic Civitas
Books, 2001.
Hoye, Jacob, and Karolyn Ali. Tupac: Resurrection 1971–1996. New York: Atria Books, 2003.
Jones, Quincy. Tupac Shakur, 1971–1996. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.
White, Armond. Rebel for the Hell of It: The Life of Tupac Shakur. New York: Thunder’s Mouth
Press, 1997.

Georgia M. Roberts

SIMMONS, RUSSELL (1957–). As a businessman and visionary, Russell

Simmons was named one of the “Top 25 Most Influential People of the Past 25 Years.” It
was his visions as the CEO of Rush Communications that launched hip hop as a force in
American music, business, media, and fashion.
Simmons, coupled with Rick Rubin, was responsible for launching Def Jam Records at
the dawn of the first wave of hip hop, which is seen as the founding music label for hip
hop music. His literary contributions have included a magazine and the phenomenon of
Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, a spin-off of his Def Comedy Jam concept. Poets of
all stripes were motivated to get together and read their poetry aloud to one another in vivid
new ways. Simmons used the program to showcase poets from “poetry slams”—no small
accomplishment in the first part of the twenty-first century, when poetry appeared to be dis-
dained as an elitist pastime by mainstream culture. Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry is
credited with single-handedly reviving the interest in poetry among young people. He later
218 SIMMONS, RUSSELL

furthered the Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry success into a tour and a Broadway
show. While on Broadway, Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam won a Tony award.
In addition to his successes in these innovate arenas, Simmons also authored two non-
fiction books, which put down on paper his vision and business philosophies, thus passing
on his wisdom to another generation. In both books, the college-educated Simmons is
intent on using his street smarts coupled with his life knowledge to create advice books for
the younger hip hop generation. Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and God was Sim-
mons’s first book. Published in 2002 and co-written with music journalist Nelson George,
the book is an intriguing blend of memoir and business philosophies. The book’s contents
are in line with the necessity in hip hop to “be real,” and Simmons does that in the book.
He included valuable, hard-core truths about how the music industry works. He cites Sony
in particular with a critique on how major record labels exploit the small, more innovative
ones. Seeing himself as a father of the hip hop phenomenon, he summarizes his formula
for success in five lessons as well as taking time to convey his life story in an “as-told-to”
kind of quality. Simmons tells about developing his business skills by organizing parties,
street-hustling with Kurtis Blow, and attending parties with big celebrities such as Naomi
Campbell and Robert De Niro. The inclusion of the advice, coupled with pertinent autobi-
ographical details, make Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and God necessary reading just
because Simmons wrote it.
His second book, published in 2007, is called Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in
You to Achieve Happiness and Success. This book is apparently an expansion on the five
laws that he wrote about in Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and God. Forwarded by
Donald Trump, Do You! 12 Laws to Access The Power In You To Achieve Happiness and
Success obviously positions Simmons as a mogul who wants to make a positive contribu-
tion to young people. Much of what Simmons portrays in the book points out how being
open to opportunity and responsibility can lead to success. For example, Simmons relates
how his practice with yoga and his vegetarianism help prepare his mind and body for his
work. These are topics that are not frequently discussed in any kind of African American
literature, much less from a hip hop perspective. Readers have cited the book’s specific
steps as helpful to achieving an understanding of their own pathways to success. Simmons
discusses how basic respect for others, rather than obnoxiousness, can also assist in a suc-
cessful career path. Some of his suggestions may seem common or small, but Simmons is
aware that he is writing to an audience who may not have had strong role models or solid
parental influences to already understand his “12 laws.” Simmons uses concrete examples
from his own life and understanding to exhort his audience to expand their viewpoint and
to “do more” to become themselves.

FURTHER READING
Berfield, Susan. “The CEO of Hip-Hop.” BusinessWeek (27 Oct. 2003): 90.
“Def Poetry Jam.” 16 June 2008. <http://www.hbo.com/defpoetry/episodes>.
Ogg, Alex. The Men Behind Def Jam: The Radical Rise of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. London:
Omnibus Press, 2002.
“Russell Simmons.” 16 June 2008. <http://www.russellsimmons.com>.
Simmons, Russell. Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success.
New York: Gotham, 2007.
———. Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and God. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
 SOLOMON, AKIBA 219

SLAM (OFFLINE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, USA, 1998). A film

highlighting the spoken word movement of the latter twentieth century and its direct link
to rap and the African American oral tradition.
Written and directed by Mark Levin, Slam received the Cannes Film Festival’s Golden
Camera and the Sundance Film Festival’s Dramatic Feature Grand Jury Award. Slam is the
story of Ray Joshua (Saul Williams), an inner-city Washington, D.C., poet who struggles
to, as the movie’s tag line notes, make “words make sense in a world that won’t.” Gifted
with an ear and heart for rhythm and rhyme, Ray wants to be a rapper, but drugs and wrong
associations have other plans for him.
After being sent to prison Ray chooses words to help him deal with the pressure of being
locked up and locked out of a future. Encouraged by prison writing instructor Lauren Bell
(Sonja Sohn), Ray begins to see and speak himself free. After he is released from prison,
Bell invites Joshua to a poetry slam, and while on stage he delivers a diatribe concerned
with the difficulties of being a black man.
This film, like several others of its ilk, functions not only to document the terrors of nav-
igating manhood for black youth but to document the cultural impact of art created by and
for young people of color. In this instance spoken word and the particulars of its exhibition
reached a broader audience because of the film’s popularity. Spoken word is performance-
based poetry said to have originated in 1984 at the night club operated by poet Marc Smith.
According to a Washington Post article by Teresa Wiltz, Smith’s open mic nights gradually
evolved into the performing of poetry rather than a typical reading.

FURTHER READING
Demby, Eric. “The World According to ‘Slam’ Star Saul Williams.” Rolling Stone, Issue 799 (12 Nov.
1998): 40.
Ressner, Jeffrey. “Aiming for the Heart.” Time, Vol. 152 Issue 16 (19 Oct. 1998): 107.
Schwarzbaum, Lisa. “Poetic Justice.” Entertainment Weekly, Issue 455 (23 Oct. 1998): 49.
Wiltz, Teresa. “Slam-Dunked: Poets Duke It Out Chicago Contest.” Washington Post, 18 August
1999.

Tarshia L. Stanley

SOLOMON, AKIBA (1974–). Hip hop journalist and former politics and senior
editor at The Source; Solomon is the co-editor of Naked, an anthology of black women dis-
cussing body image.
As politics editor at The Source, Solomon made some of the most important news events
of the late 1990s and early 2000s accessible to the hip hop generation. At The Source,
Solomon wrote and edited several articles about the prison industrial complex—an issue
that disproportionately affects the hip hop community—and she helped to produce the
magazine’s 2000 Voters’ Elections Guide that informed readers of candidates’ stances on
topics ranging from immigration to health insurance.
Solomon’s Source stories demonstrate how her mordacious, dynamic language brought
readers’ attention to issues that could be easily drowned out by the magazine’s lighter fare.
In “American Politrix,” for example, Solomon chooses to open the story with a quotation
from “The What,” a song by Notorious B.I.G. and Method Man. The quotation is a fitting
one: the story describes how the 2001 United Nations World Conference against Racism—
a collaborative effort to fight racism on a global scale—was largely ignored by the United
220 SOUL BABIES: BLACK POPULAR CULTURE AND THE POST-SOUL AESTHETIC

States; likewise, “The What” quotation glorifies the power of individual goals over com-
munal ones. “American Politrix,” too, is representative of Solomon’s ability to mix SAT-
type vocabulary (“raucous”) with hip hop slang (“a $10 ho”).
Readers of The Source may best remember Solomon for her popular “What the F#@k”
columns—brief, satirical, and humorous streams of consciousness about social issues that
affected hip hop. In these columns, Solomon passionately defends hip hop while also
pointing out ways in which the music is problematic. In one “What the F#@k” column,
Solomon took on Harvard University scholar Ronald Ferguson’s argument that rap music
is to blame for black children’s low test scores. Solomon objected to what she saw as an
oversimplification of a complex problem and explained that Ferguson was wrong to ignore
the roles that “poverty, drugs, the increasing criminalization of our youth, [and] piss-poor
public schools” played in these children’s academic achievement. Furthermore, Solomon
ended her column ironically, by pointing out just how popular hip hop has grown with
white children.
Solomon’s later publications reveal how she grew more concerned with hip hop’s gen-
der politics. Solomon wrote a story for Vibe Vixen, a magazine aimed at young women
of color, that explored how the “ride or die chick” popularized in rap music has led to
some women’s imprisonment. Also, in a story Solomon wrote for HoneyMag.com, an
online version of a magazine geared toward young women of color, Solomon described
Assata Shakur’s work to free political prisoners and the ways that this woman is still
revered by the hip hop community (Solomon mentioned that Shakur’s words are featured
on Common’s album Like Water for Chocolate). Finally, in 2005, Solomon coedited
Naked, a book that featured hip hop artists, rap video vixens, and other black women dis-
cussing their bodies.

See also The Source Magazine

FURTHER READING
Byrd, Ayanna, and Akiba Solomon, eds. “American Politrix.” The Source (December 2001): 147–148.
———. Naked. New York: Penguin, 2005.

Rochelle Spencer

SOUL BABIES: BLACK POPULAR CULTURE AND THE POST-

SOUL AESTHETIC. This is a scholarly book that examines the contemporary black
popular cultural experience in the United States. It employs the term post-soul, which
Mark Anthony Neal tells us is the way he describes the political, social, and cultural expe-
riences of the African American community after the civil rights movement.
Neal’s book engages primarily with the ways in which black masculinities in the cul-
tural framework are contested upon racial and gendered anxieties. Examining film, televi-
sion, and music, Neal posits that only when the African American community engages
with all images produced by society (both positive, negative, and marginalized) will recog-
nition and empowerment become the future of that community.
Chapter one “‘You Remind Me of Something’: Toward a Post-Soul Aesthetic,” begins
with a controversial examination of an equally controversial African American figure in
contemporary popular culture, musician R. Kelly, whose reputation for engaging in sexual
 SOUL BABIES: BLACK POPULAR CULTURE AND THE POST-SOUL AESTHETIC 221

acts with young women, as well as promoting an overt black male sexuality, has over-
shadowed his strength as a performer and a voice for the African American experience.
However, Neal argues that, unlike other popular African American musicians, including
Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and Luther Vandross, the performance, music, and lyrics of
R. Kelly’s music videos are a unique social space where positive and possibly more pro-
gressive critiques and subjectivity of contemporary black life, culture, and experience
exist. Specifically examining the music video of the title, Neal argues that R. Kelly is con-
sciously aware of the inherent contradictions of his music and feels that is a strategic ploy
by R. Kelly to relate to his audience, as well as open a space for the critique of black
female sexuality, black male subjectivity, and the black community.
Chapter two “Sweetback’s Revenge: Gangsters, Blaxploitation, and Black Middle-Class
Identity,” begins with an examination of images of African American men and women in
the 1960s and 1970s film era, including Sidney Poitier’s and Bill Cosby’s portrayals in a
number of films dedicated to bringing sanitized versions of black male sexuality into the
white mainstream, which Neal contrasts with the overt image of black male and female sex-
uality introduced in Melvin Van Peebles 1971 blaxploitation film Sweetback’s Baadasssss
Song in 1971. Neal’s analysis is one that examines the divisiveness of race, class, and gen-
der that exists within a fractured black community as a result of dual images in the black
popular culture framework, one that is reminiscent of earlier African American struggles
with leaders W. E. B Dubois and Booker T. Washington. Neal follows these contradictions
through to the 1980s image of Bill Cosby on The Cosby Show and asks his audience to
consider the ways in which these transcendent images reflect a desire and achievement of
the mainstream American dream, while negating the realities of race, class, and gender felt
by the African American community, and asks what obligations a popular artist may have
to reflect a wider and more diverse level of representation.
Chapter three “Baby Mama (Drama) and Baby Daddy (Trauma): Post-Soul Gender
Politics,” begins by examining images of African American women and black female
sexuality present in the cultural framework of the 1960s through the 1990s. Beginning
with the image of Aunt Esther in Sanford and Son, who Neal argues is one that embod-
ies the emasculating independent black woman of the 1960s, Neal follows the trajectory
of these negative black women images—from “mammy” to “matriarch,” from “jezebel”
to “welfare mother,” and finally the contemporary image of “baby mama,” which infiltrates
its way into the social lexicon and imagery of African American women today—onto the
contemporary arena, where the images of black women are often silenced in lieu of black
male father images, such as James Evans Sr. in Good Times or Cliff Huxtable in The Cosby
Show. Neal argues that taking a look at contemporary images of the baby mama will allow
the black community to come to terms with a history of silence and oppression faced in a
gender battleground within a racialized community.
Chapter four “The Post-Soul Intelligentsia: Mass Media, Popular Culture, and Social
Praxis,” examines the generation of black urban intellectuals living through a waning post-
Civil Rights Movement to whom urban and hip-hop aesthetics, mass media, and popular
culture are the spaces for social interaction, resistance, and subjectivity. Nostalgic for ear-
lier historical frameworks of struggle, Neal argues that hip-hop is a New Black Aesthetic
and a place for a contemporary historical negotiation with black identity politics, which
includes issues concerning hypermasculinity, homophobia, misogyny, language, and more.
Chapter five “Native Tongues: Voices of the Post-Soul Intelligentsia” tackles the con-
troversial usage of the word “nigger” by hip-hop artists of the last decade and asks the
audience to consider the ways in which the word is a divisive one for African American
222 SOULJAH, SISTER

communities struggling with issues of race and class. As he examines this divisiveness,
Neal takes a look at the space and responsibility of ethnographers responsible for accu-
rately representing and understanding black life and culture and how that is fractured by
questions of authenticity and who can claim such authenticity within a black popular
cultural framework. From there, Neal takes a look at hip-hop feminism as a new space
of resistance in the larger African American community and follows with a careful
critique of twenty years of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and whether they have
achieved their goals in representing the concerns and cultural practices of the black
community.
Ultimately, Mark Anthony Neal’s book opens a progressive space of possibility, resist-
ance, agency, and subjectivity for African American communities struggling with today’s
confusing cultural matrix and posits that hip-hop is a space that should not be ignored but
reveled in the possibilities of representation offered.

See also Neal, Mark Anthony; That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader

FURTHER READING
Neal, Mark Anthony. New Black Man. New York: Routledge, 2006.
———. Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation. New York: Taylor and Francis,
2003.
———. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004.
———. What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture. New York: Routledge,
1998.

Rosa Soto

SOULJAH, SISTER (1964–). Hip hop activist, speaker, and novelist.

As one of the most vocal and influential members of the hip hop generation, Sister
Souljah (born Lisa Williamson) is credited for increasing the American public’s awareness
of sexism, racism, and poverty in the twentieth and twenty-first century. Like many of her
contemporaries who broke new ground on the hip hop scene in the 1980s and 1990s,
Souljah grounded her adaptation of the hip hop art form within the important realms of
intellectualism, politics, global awareness, and black empowerment. Unlike many of
today’s hip hop notables, the longevity of her career and influence as a hip hop artist,
author, activist, and film producer can be measured by her unwillingness to succumb to the
mainstream music industry’s demand for entertainment and spectacle. Souljah’s lyrical
content is most recognized for its conscious rhymes and messages that extend beyond the
entertainment industry to serve as a catalyst for social, political, and economic change. Her
work as an activist and lecturer mirrors the legitimacy and authenticity of her musical con-
tributions without any contradiction or digression.
Born in the Bronx, New York, and raised on the welfare system for fifteen years,
Souljah’s early years were shaped by the government subsidized housing in which she
resided. Despite her humble beginnings, she was determined to excel beyond her envi-
ronment, and her academic success during high school led to numerous achievements
that reaffirmed her belief that young African American women from poverty stricken
backgrounds could succeed. She was the winner of the American Legion’s Constitu-
tional Oratory Contest, a Legislative intern in the House of Representatives for the
 SOULJAH, SISTER 223

Republican Party, a participant in Cornell University’s Advanced Placement Studies

Summer Program, and a participant in a study abroad program in Spain at the University
of Salamanca. After enrolling at Rutgers University, Souljah enhanced her knowledge of
global issues through her travels to England, France, Spain, South Africa, Portugal,
Zambia, Finland, and Russia. In addition to exposing herself to new cultures, Souljah
utilized these opportunities to work with refugee children in Mozambique and serve at
a Zimbabwean medical center located in Mtepa Tepa village.
Throughout her matriculation at Rutgers University she became a well-known and
respected student leader. Her growth as a young scholar and activist is represented in her
service as a writer and political commentator for the university newspaper. Staying true to
her love for community uplift, Souljah organized numerous rallies against police brutality,
racially charged crimes, apartheid in South Africa, and for education of inner-city youth,
thus raising the awareness of relevant issues among college students. Souljah’s travels
abroad and her first-hand experiences in relief efforts provided her with a sophisticated
world view possessed by few of her peers. These experiences led to Souljah becoming the
founder of the African Youth Survival Camp during her senior year at Rutgers University.
Her collaboration with Reverend Benjamin Chavis of The United Church of Christ Com-
mission for Racial Justice resulted in the development of a shared vision to make an impact
on the lives of children. Located in Enfield, North Carolina, the African Youth Survival
Camp was financed by Souljah and provided 200 children of homeless families with six
weeks of academic, cultural, and financial curriculum for three consecutive years. While
completing her studies at Rutgers University, she focused on cultural and historical sub-
jects that helped to enhance her knowledge of an African American centered curriculum
that she felt was lacking in the New York Public education system. Equipped with a new
perspective on history and world issues, Souljah graduated from Rutgers University with
degrees in American history and African studies. Many of the subjects discussed within
these disciplines would later become some of the most prevalent themes in her albums and
videos.
Souljah’s in-depth study of American and African histories, along with extensive expe-
rience in social organization, provided a sound backdrop for her emergence into the hyper-
conscious hip hop music arena of the early 1990s. During the early stages of her career as
an activist and lecturer in local prisons, she began to attract a following of both African
American youth and accomplished producers in the hip hop music industry. Impressed by
Souljah’s pro-black rhetoric and afrocentric themes, producer Eric Sadler produced her
first and only solo album to date, “360 Degrees of Power.” Additionally, the videos “The
Final Solution: Slavery’s Back in Effect” (1991), and “The Hate that Hate Produced”
(1992), were barred from music video channels such as MTV. Despite the album’s focus
on community building, quality education, and economic independence, it received poor
reviews from mainstream music media because of a perceived insensitivity to whites and
American race relations.
In 1992 Souljah’s views on American race relations became more pronounced when
Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Clinton expressed his disapproval of statements
made by Souljah in regard to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. The impetus of Clinton’s
attack on Souljah was a controversial quote featured in a May 13, 1992, interview in the
Washington Post. During the interview Souljah made a controversial comment in response
to the Rodney King beating, stating, “If Black people kill Black people every day, why not
have a week and kill white people?” Clinton’s attack on Souljah’s statement lacked any
reference to the interview in its entirety and led to a scathing media blitz against her. In
224 SOULJAH, SISTER

addition to his original complaint, Clinton went on to publicly criticize the Reverend Jesse
Jackson for allowing Souljah to serve as a guest of the Rainbow Coalition’s Leadership
Summit. As a result of this exchange, Souljah obtained a more intimidating presence in
white American political consciousness and established what is commonly known in polit-
ical circles as a “Sister Souljah Moment.” A term used to describe the public repudiation
of an extremist statement, person, or group, a Sister Souljah Moment often results in the
irretrievable loss of allies due to the original effort to obtain the support of centrist voters.
Continuing to rise above this series of negative media attention, Souljah moved on to
increase her community outreach work within the African American community.
Unfortunately, Souljah’s career as a hip hop artist was short lived and much of the
media attention generated as a result of the Clinton attack faded from public interest.
Unshaken by the backlash of this affair, Souljah’s career has continued to move in a pos-
itive direction. Moving beyond the confinements of a music industry that had not pre-
pared itself to support or digest her take on racism and sexism, Souljah returned to the
community uplift efforts that have always been most dear to her heart. Through her desire
to make a difference in the lives of black youth, Souljah continued to speak publicly to
youth about the dangers of gang violence and the importance of education. Her ability to
reach the masses of young people struggling with these issues includes an array of media
outlets, such as speaking at the Million Woman March in Philadelphia and television
appearances on Phil Donahue, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, MTV, BET,
Geraldo, and her acting debut on the sitcom A Different World. Souljah also became an
influential voice for hip hop audiences as a political commentator on New York City radio
station 98.7 KISS-FM.
Transitioning from her active role as a voice of the hip hop generation, Souljah went on
to establish herself in the urban literary genre. She made her first attempt as an author in
1995 with the publication of her autobiography, No Disrespect. An intriguing story of her
life, No Disrespect is a candid account of experiences that molded her into the woman she
is today. Souljah followed the success of her memoir with the publication of her first and
only novel to date, The Coldest Winter Ever in 1999. A national best seller, The Coldest
Winter Ever was praised in reviews, making it a significant contribution to the urban
literary genre.
Today she remains true to her commitment to serve the black community. In recent years
she has led the effort to encourage celebrities in the entertainment industry to participate
in community outreach and giveback programs. She has worked closely with Sean
“Diddy” Combs, Lauryn Hill, and Doug E. Fresh to establish events for youth and sum-
mer camps. Souljah also serves as the executive director of Bad Boy Entertainment’s
Daddy’s House Social Programs Inc., an urban youth development program financed by
Sean “Diddy” Combs. Although she is far removed from her early image as a controver-
sial hip hop artist, Souljah remains a voice of social and moral integrity. Currently, Souljah
writes for various magazines and is in the production process of the film version of The
Coldest Winter Ever in conjunction with Souljah Story, Inc. with actress Jada Pinkett
Smith as executive producer.

See also The Coldest Winter Ever; No Disrespect

FURTHER READING
Mills, David. “Sister Souljah’s Call to Arms.” Washington Post, 13 May 1992, B1.
Souljah, Sister. The Coldest Winter Ever. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1999.
 THE SOURCE MAGAZINE 225

———. No Disrespect. New York: Times Books, 1994.

White, Jack E., Jr. “Sister Souljah Capitalist Tool.” Time (29 June 1992): 88.

Chaunda A. McDavis

THE SOURCE MAGAZINE. Once referred to as the “Bible of Hip Hop,” The
Source was founded in 1988 as music newsletter and grew into one of the premier publi-
cations of hip hop music and culture. In recent years The Source has been in decline due
to internal management issues.
In 1988 Harvard undergraduate students David Mays and Jon Shecter upgraded their
music newsletter to The Source magazine. With Mays acting as publisher and Shecter as
chief editor they, along with friends James Bernard and Ed Young, used their knowledge
of rap music from their time as deejays to establish the magazine.
One of the controversies surrounding the magazine began with its establishment of The
Source awards in 1994. In the second year of the awards show, Suge Knight, then CEO of
Death Row Records, made a controversial comment aimed at Bad Boy Records CEO Sean
Combs (Puff Daddy, P Diddy). Knight invited those rappers who did not want their exec-
utives to appear in all their videos to defect to Death Row Records. This moment is often
quoted as one that intensified the coming feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers.
The awards ceremony again faced difficulty when a fight broke out during its filming in
Pasadena, California, in 2000. The show has not aired in recent years.
Yet another controversy haunting the magazine occurred when the rap artist Benzino
(Raymond Scott), suddenly became co-owner of The Source. Even staff members at the
magazine were critical of Benzino’s handling of his power when performers and rap
groups affiliated with him personally began to receive preferable treatment at the awards
shows and in the magazine reviews. The Source suffered further injury when in 2002
Benzino released a rap recording that began a lyrical feud with rapper Eminem. Accord-
ing to an article in Rolling Stone:

“Eminem is the culture stealer, and I’m coming for him,” says Raymond “Benzino” Scott, a
Boston-bred rapper who touched off a war of words with Eminem late last year that culminated
in a volley of dis tracks between the two artists. In Benzino’s “Pull Your Skirt Up” and “Die
Another Day,” Em gets called “2003 Vanilla Ice” and “the rap Hitler.” (Eliscu 2003)

Several raps were released back and forth between Benzino and Eminem amidst accu-
sations that Benzino used The Source as his own personal instrument to attack Eminem.

Hip-hop business insiders suggest that Benzino, who is also a co-owner of hip-hop magazine
The Source, is taking on Eminem in a desperate attempt to increase his own profile. (Eliscu
2003)

The battle culminated in The Source’s February 2004 issue, which was devoted to out-
ing Eminem as a misogynist and a racist—on an early tape Eminem rapped racist and sex-
ist lyrics. Eminem apologized and claimed his vehement rant was caused by his angst at
having broken up with a black girlfriend. By 2005 lawyers for Benzino were preparing to
face Eminem’s defamation of character lawsuit when the suit was dropped.
However troubles did not end for The Source or Benzino. Kimberly Osorio, the former
editor-in-chief was awarded more than 15 million dollars after winning a sexual harassment
226 SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION IN HIP HOP LITERATURE AND CULTURE

lawsuit against the magazine. Finally the Benzino years at The Source came to an end in
2006 when both he and David Mays were fired. The Source was forced into bankruptcy
and according to its most recent issue is successfully rebuilding its staff, audience, and rep-
utation. The source.com claims that it will relaunch soon.

See also Mayo, Kierna; Solomon, Akiba

FURTHER READING
Carlson, Peter. “Hip-Hop Editor Wins Suit over Her Firing.” Washington Post, 25 Oct. 2006,
retrieved 30 June 2008.
Eliscu, Jenny. “Benzino, Eminem Feud Heats Up: Boston Rapper Goes After Slim Shady.” Rolling
Stone, 3 Jan. 2003, retrieved 30 June 2008.

Tarshia L. Stanley

SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION IN HIP HOP LITERATURE AND

CULTURE. Hip-hop culture functions as a political force and as a creative space where
youth express their individual identities and the concerns of the communities from which they
come. Although hip-hop music with its roots in political and social protest would seem to
some to be completely divorced from spiritual and religious life, hip-hop also serves as a
spiritual and religious force for inward and communal change in the lives of artists and fans.
In the United States and beyond, hip-hop artists use the elements of breakdancing,
emceeing, DJing, and graffiti art to express their criticism of political, economic, and
social dynamics that continually threaten the livelihood of marginalized people of color.
Some artists, such as Dead Prez and Public Enemy, have also utilized hip-hop music and
culture as a means to express their discontent with and criticism of traditional and institu-
tionalized spiritual and religious practices. Others, such as KRS-One, view hip-hop as an
alternative spiritual space in and of itself. Furthermore, hip-hop musicians such as Cross
Movement and Blakstone bring a specific religious background and sensibility to their hip-
hop practices through an expression of their Christian and Muslim beliefs, respectively.
References to and practices of religion and spirituality are as varied in hip-hop as the music
and culture itself.
Despite the widespread attention given to the spiritual and religious references and prac-
tices in hip-hop music in media outlets from MTV to The New York Times, a relevantly
small amount of scholarly work addresses this phenomena. The earliest known academic
texts to explore the religious and spiritual dynamics of hip-hop music are two special edi-
tions of Black Sacred Music: A Journal of Theomusicology published in 1991 and 1995.
The 1995 edition entitled The Emergency of Black and the Emergence of Rap includes
essays by authors such as Michael Eric Dyson and Jon Michael Spencer (the journal’s edi-
tor) in an exploration of how rap music and culture continue in the tradition of black
theological critique and protest. Following these special editions was Michael Eric
Dyson’s Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture (1996), an
autobiographical exploration of his experiences as an ordained Baptist minister and public
intellectual with a fan’s enthusiasm about the transformative power of hip-hop culture.
A more recent work, Anthony B. Pinn’s Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual
Sensibilities of Rap Music (2003), is the first edited collection to explore gradients of spir-
ituality and religion evoked in rap music in a variety of traditions, from the evolution of
 SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION IN HIP HOP LITERATURE AND CULTURE 227

African American Islam in contemporary hip-hop, to spiritual and religious metaphors,

ideologies, and allusions in rap music by artists such as Tupac Shakur, to the exploration
of rap music as a spiritual practice. Robin Sylvan’s Traces of the Spirit: The Religious
Dimensions of Popular Music (2002) includes a chapter entitled “The Message: Rap
Music and Hip-Hop Culture” that consists of an ethnographic study of rap music and its
function as a transcendent, spiritual, or religious experience for devout fans. Additionally,
musicologists Felicia Miyakawa, Teresa L. Reed, and Christina Zanfagna and anthropol-
ogist Ted Swedenburg have each published recent works that examine the spiritual or
religious nature and function of hip-hop music and culture.
Whereas many hip-hop fans would embrace the idea of the spiritual or religious func-
tion of the music and culture for fans and for the artists themselves, the hip-hop that stems
from a clearly defined, theologically distinctive context has encountered opposition from
both fans of mainstream hip-hop and the religious circles from which these artists belong.
In an African American context, Christian hip-hop artists in particular have faced strident
opposition from African American Pentecostal churches, who believe that hip-hop
music—Christian or not—has no place in the church. “Holy hip-hop” is a term that prac-
titioners of Christian hip-hop use to distinguish their work from mainstream, secular hip-
hop. But this distinction does not preclude a cultural and religious battle over what musical
practices should be used for sacred or religious purposes.
Not unlike the backlash against gospel blues in the first half of the twentieth century and
against Christian rock in the 1970s, Christian hip-hop has been derided and often excluded
from certain African American Pentecostal churches as “the devil’s music.” In particular,
Elder G. Craige Lewis of EX Ministries is one of Christian hip-hop’s strongest critics and
says that hip hop and Christianity cannot mix. Despite rejection from many conservative
Christian churches and church leaders, Christian or “holy” hip-hop music artists such as
Japhia Life, Cross Movement, and Mahogany Jonz have continued to use hip-hop as a
medium for evangelizing to youth and for expressing their Christian beliefs. Some artists
also see themselves as rehabilitating the negative images and practices that, over time, have
come to be associated with mainstream hip-hop culture, including misogyny, drug use,
gangster life, violence, and immorality.
Muslim hip-hop artists have also met with opposition in circles of Islam that question
the use of the music in religious practice. Some Islam practitioners believe that music,
especially hip-hop music, is haram (forbidden) completely, whereas others take the posi-
tion that it is halal (permissible) as long as the music does not contain content that violates
the principles of Islam. Still, there is a struggle over the acceptance of the melding of Islam
and hip-hop culture because both religious circles and mainstream hip-hop fans see these
cultures as diametrically opposed to each other for a variety of reasons.
Whereas Christians, Muslims, and other religious groups have used hip-hop music and
culture within their religious practices, some hip-hop artists, such as KRS-One, consider
hip-hop a spiritual practice. KRS-One is due to release his book The Gospel of Hip-Hop,
which shows an approach to hip-hop as a spiritual as well as a cultural art form. The Tem-
ple of Hip-Hop, established by KRS-One, Professor Z, Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane, Kool
DJ Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Fat Joe, and other hip-hop artists in 1996, functions as a hip-
hop preservation society. KRS-One states, “We believe that not only is hip-hop divine, but
the temple is divinely ordained, because we accept it as that. And in accepting that hip-hop
is of divine origin, our temple becomes sanctioned by our God.”
In the world of hip-hop there are wide-ranging spiritual and religious beliefs and
ideologies that come into play within the music and culture. Whereas some artists may
228 SPOKEN WORD MOVEMENT

choose to either allude to their personal spiritual and religious beliefs or to keep them sep-
arate from their musical and performance careers, other artists choose to foreground their
beliefs in their music, as in MC Hammer’s rap single “Pray” (1990) and Kanye West’s
wildly popular hip-hop track, “Jesus Walks” (2004), which was a crossover hit that
appealed to Christian and nonreligious fans. As hip-hop music and culture continues to
take on different forms throughout the world, so do the religious and spiritual manifesta-
tions therein. With such a wide variety of musical, spiritual, and religious influences in hip-
hop music and culture, this is a rich arena for more study, exploration, and scholarship.

FURTHER READING
Dyson, Michael Eric. Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1996.
Miyakawa, Felicia. Five Percenter Rap: God Hop’s Music, Message, and Black Muslim Mission.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005.
Pinn, Anthony B., ed. Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap Music. New
York: New York University Press, 2003.

Shanesha R. F. Brooks Tatum

SPOKEN WORD MOVEMENT. Spoken word is essentially a type of perform-

ance poetry. Once seen as an art form on the printed page, the spoken word movement has
made poetry an aural art form, often combining orality, music, verbal performance, and
intense messages.
At the very core of the spoken word movement is the belief that poetry should have a
democratic sound; it should be the voice of the people and it should voice the concerns,
thoughts, and beliefs of those people. It is also a personal form of expression. It is a para-
doxical form of making an individual, and yet public, statement.
The spoken word, or spoken poetry, has manifested itself in numerous and varied ways
throughout history. The current spoken word movement was clearly given new life, flavor,
and style by the African American community, but the roots of the modern spoken word
movement are many. One can find traces of this art form in Jewish cantors, minstrel bards,
and even Biblical psalms, all channels leading to spoken word as we now know it. Indeed,
in the Western/Christian tradition it is believed that the spoken word created life: “And God
said ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” Some trace rebirth of spoken poetry, or the
current spoken word movement, to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, with such
artists and activists as Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanches, and The Last Poets attempting to
move people to political action through verbal creative expression. Baraka is widely
referred to as one of the original spoken word artists. He was also one of the original jazz
poets. Many modern spoken word artists cite Baraka as one of their direct influences.
The influence of the Beat Generation cannot be underestimated, particularly Allen
Ginsberg’s performance of his poem “Howl” at the San Francisco Six Gallery reading in
1955, a great moment where the written word left the page, becoming alive and real for
a whole new generation. Jack Kerouac’s “spontaneous prose” jazz aesthetic exemplifies
another variation in the new directions poetry would take. Kerouac’s use of jazz as a
model for how poetry should “sound,” as well as his appreciation for the spontaneous
and the genuine in writing have direct ties to the musicality and authenticity that are so
valued in the spoken word community. Allen Ginsberg’s brand of shockingly confessional
 SPOKEN WORD MOVEMENT 229

and highly performative poetry can also be seen as planting a very important seed in the
growth of spoken word. His persona and celebrity after his reading at the Six Gallery
also has clear ties to the performances and relative celebrity of current spoken word
poets. Further, the high modernist movement that preceded the Beat Generation was cer-
tainly not an easily accessible or attainable voice. T. S. Eliot footnoted The Waste Land.
A footnoted poem is not accessible to the common reader. And it has been said that to
fully comprehend Ezra Pound’s Cantos one needs an encyclopedic mind for all of
human history. Pound, in fact boldly declares in ABC of Reading that he knows and pres-
ents within the pages of that book the “RIGHT WAY to study poetry, or literature, or
painting.” The Beat Generation rejected those rules and they did so with the kind of defi-
ance and enthusiasm that many spoken word artists maintain today. Far from being an
elitist movement, the Beat writers (and the spoken word community) often speak for the
disempowered and the voiceless members of our society. The telling of an individual
story, as well as the one voice speaking for many, is a task that many current hip-hop and
spoken word artists have undertaken, becoming the modern-day bards and minstrels for
a new generation.
The contemporary spoken word movement has been greatly influenced by hip-hop.
Spoken word poetry can often be described as lyrics that are spoken and not sung, sim-
ilar to hip-hop lyrics. Music is sometimes used in spoken word performances, though the
lyrics and the speaker are always at the forefront of these performances. In the mid-
1990s the connection between hip-hop and poetry was undeniable. Notable spoken word
artists such as Jessica Care Moore, Sarah Jones, and Saul Williams infused their spoken
word performances with hip-hop elements. Amiri Baraka has said that hip-hop and spo-
ken word have very strong connections to one another: “It’s the same continuum; it just
depends on where you get on the train.” Of course, Yusef Komunyakaa also notes that
some spoken word pieces “are more akin to the blues tradition than to hip-hop. They
seem to be saying, what you see is what you get.” Further, he notes that there are poems
“straight out of the R&B tradition of crooning and swooning on the edge of heartbreak.”
Certainly then, this movement has many roots and influences that are both literary and
musical.
One thing that often separates a spoken word performance from a more traditional
poetry reading is audience participation. The audience is actually an integral part of a
spoken word performance. Audiences are known to interject periodically, both to
acknowledge that they understand and/or agree with the content of the poem and to
demonstrate that they know where the poet is coming from. In fact, sometimes at a read-
ing, if the audience is unresponsive, it isn’t unheard of for the poet to make sure that the
message is being heard. “Check-ins” such as “you know what I’m saying?” can facili-
tate audience response and ensure that a connection is being made. The audience also
serves as a safe space and support system for the reader. The poet can share radical and
revolutionary ideas that would not necessarily be embraced by the outside world. Spo-
ken word etiquette dictates that audiences applaud after each piece as a show of encour-
agement and appreciation.
The spoken word movement gained popularity not only in coffee shops and poetry ven-
ues around the country but also in the media. MTV had a spoken word edition of their hit
show Unplugged in 1993 that featured such prominent spoken word artists as Henry
Rollins, Reg E. Gaines, and Maggie Estep. Two more spoken word Unplugged shows fol-
lowed in 1994, featuring Jim Carroll, MC Lyte, Danny Hoch, and 1970s spoken word icon
Gil Scott-Heron. The motion picture industry wasn’t far behind. In 1998, Saul Williams
230 SPOKEN WORD MOVEMENT

starred in Slam, a film about a drug dealer who discovers the transformative and healing
powers of the spoken word. His character, Ray Joshua, finds that being able to name that
which oppresses, being able to name one’s enemy, allows room for change and victory.
This film won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. In 1998,
director Paul Devlin released a documentary titled SlamNation, which looked at the 1996
National Poetry Slam held that year in Portland, Oregon. This documentary also starred
Saul Williams as a member of the Nuyorican slam team, along with Jessica Care Moore,
Beau Sia, and Mums the Schemer. In 2002, HBO premiered Def Poetry Jam, an original
series produced by Russell Simmons and hosted by hip-hop artist Mos Def in which estab-
lished spoken word artists, actors, and musicians, as well as relatively unknown talents,
showcased their poetry before a television audience. A live stage production of the show
ran on Broadway from November 2002–May 2003. The popularity of the spoken word
movement and the proliferation of coffee-shop poetry readings was also famously spoofed
in the 1993 Mike Myers comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer.
It is not merely the entertainment value but also the political urgency of spoken word
that makes it so powerful and appealing today. Poetry has always been at the vortex of
social change. Poets are, as Pound declared, the antenna of the race. But for too long, this
voice had been distant and removed from the people. Poetry for too long shied away from
the confessional and the political. It would of course be inaccurate to claim that all spoken
word poetry is political in nature. Spoken word artists are not driven by a collective agenda
like artists of the Black Power Movement, for example, were. The poems run the gamut
from political to romantic to humorous. Even performances run the gamut from the
theatrical to the musical to the traditional. Spoken word artists themselves know that their
genre is complicated and genre-bending in many ways. It is an art form that thrives on per-
formance, yet many spoken word artists publish books, indicating that their arts can trans-
late from the stage to the page. On the other hand, many spoken word artists put out CDs
instead of books, emphasizing the aural aspect of this art form. Still others merely partic-
ipate in the performance without books or CDs to promote, emphasizing the temporal
nature of this art form: once the moment is gone, it is gone forever, and those who were
there to see it should count themselves as fortunate.
The idea of the slam, or poetry-as-competition, a verbal boxing match of sorts, also
emerged from the spoken word scene. The modern poetry slam is widely believed to have
been started by Marc Smith in Chicago in November 1984. Although not exclusively a
form of hip-hop poetry, many slam poets do draw their sense of delivery and lyricism from
hip-hop. Slam poets draw from a wide variety of influences, though. Performers are gen-
erally judged by random audience members, making the slam process as democratic an art
form as possible, though preselected judges can sometimes vote on a winner, depending
on the venue. The Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City, for example, has a popular
weekly slam, where audience members are selected at random to judge the poets.
It is not merely the judging process that makes the spoken word movement so demo-
cratic but also the very performance of it. Generally, poets will sign up to read on a sign-
up sheet. They will then take the stage on a first-come, first-serve basis. There may be a
“featured” poet or performer, but the sign-up sheet is a staple in the spoken word scene,
ensuring that anyone who has a voice and has something to say will be given a platform
on which to say it.

See also Black Poetry; Slam

 STEFFANS, KARRINE 231

FURTHER READING
Anglesey, Zoe, ed. Listen Up!: Spoken Word Poetry. New York: One World, 1999.
Elevald, Mark, and Marc Smith, eds. The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of
a New Generation. Naperville, IL: MediaFusion-Sourcebooks, 2003.

Beth Lagarou

STEFFANS, KARRINE (1978–). Karrine Steffans is a former video girl whose

memoir, Confessions of a Video Vixen (2005), is considered the first major hip-hop
confessional.
The autobiography debuted at number seven on The New York Times bestseller list and
remained on the list for twenty-two weeks after peaking at number five. As a result of the
book’s popularity, Steffans was signed to a lucrative two-book publishing contract with
Warner/Hachette. The first of those books, The Vixen Diaries, was published in September
2007.
Steffans recounts the first twenty-five years of her life in Confessions of a Video Vixen.
She was born on the island of St. Thomas and lived there until she was ten years old.
Because of her academic prowess, young Karrine was well-liked on the island. She was
also quite attractive, which won her the favor of her grandmother and others. Her attrac-
tiveness, however, was a point of contention between Karrine and her mother, Josephine.
At several points in the text Karrine hints that her mother, who was beautiful herself, was
jealous of the attention Karrine received. Karrine goes so far as to say that she and her
mother were in competition and had been since her birth (2005, 12). She also describes
her mother as physically and emotionally abusive. Steffans provides vivid details of her
mother’s beatings, which would often leave her young body badly bruised. In contrast
to her mother is her grandmother, whom she fondly recalls as a source of protection,
encouragement, and comfort.
When Karrine is ten, her mother moves the family to Tampa, Florida. Without her
grandmother to protect her, Karrine reveals that her mother’s abuse amplifies. She says her
mother calculatingly defames and degrades her character. Karrine gives the example of
when she is thirteen and raped. Her mother does not express concern about the ordeal’s
affect on Karrine; instead, she beats Steffans and makes her feel as if the incident was her
fault. This and other events cause Steffans to run away from home when she is 14 years
old. She lives on the streets for a month until the police pick her up. She refuses to return
home to her mother and goes to Arizona to live with her father. For a while she enjoys a
normal, happy life with her father but runs away from his home when she is 16. At this
point she lives with her boyfriend and his mother, who is a stripper. She introduces Steffans
to stripping and Karrine develops her alter ego, Yizette Santiago, who quickly becomes a
highly paid and sought after exotic dancer.
When she is invited to a home to provide private entertainment, Yizette meets Kool G
Rap who takes her as his concubine. Initially they live a charmed life, but he becomes emo-
tionally and physically abusive. She admits that she loses forty pounds four months into
their relationship. In 1998 she gives birth to their son, and a year later, with the help of
some of his friends, moves to Los Angeles.
Yizette is able to make a life for herself in Los Angeles with the help of Ice T and some-
one she refers to as “Papa.” She is introduced to the rap video scene when she is cast for
Jay-Z’s “Hey Papi” video. She quickly assimilates into the business and becomes one of
232 STREBOR BOOKS

its most requested and top paid video dancers. Her rise to the video girl throne includes
trysts with A-list rappers, R&B artists, and athletes, such as Sean Combs, Ja Rule, Usher,
Bobby Brown, and Shaquille O’Neal as well as abuse of alcohol and drugs. A near fatal
overdose at an upscale Chinese restaurant, however, causes her to rethink her life and
reject the lifestyle she embraced. She reclaims her son and at the urging of Damon Dash
decides to write about her experiences to sway other young girls from the lure of the
video girl lifestyle.

See also Confessions of a Video Vixen

FURTHER READING
Steffans, Karrine. Confessions of a Video Vixen. New York: HarperCollins/Amistad, 2005.
———. The Vixen Diaries. New York: Warner Books/Hachette, 2007.

Yolanda Williams Page

STREBOR BOOKS. Strebor Books International is an African American owned

publishing house that specializes in producing “popular” urban fiction and nonfiction for
the fast-growing, hip-hop audience.
Started in 1999 by the bestselling author Zane, Strebor Books was established, like
many other African American publishing houses and imprints where African American
authors self-published their works at their own expense, to allow minority voices to be
heard without the editorial judgments of those who do not understand or who are not inter-
ested in African American culture and experiences. As a result, Strebor Books became one
of the few African American-owned publishing companies that published stories about the
young, African American urban experience and culture.
Since the revitalization of urban fiction in the 1990s, Strebor Books has dominated the
urban fiction category by producing numerous bestsellers under the imprint, including the
three erotica novels Zane originally self-published: Addicted: The Novel, The Sex Chronicles:
Shattering the Myth, and Shame on it All. Because of its success, the mainstream publishing
house, Simon and Schuster, decided to bring the Strebor Books imprint in-house. As a result
of a distribution deal with Simon and Schuster, Strebor Books was acquired by Simon and
Schuster in 2003 and became an imprint of Atria Books, a division of Simon and Schuster,
where some of Zane’s books were already distributed. Now all of the Strebor Books titles are
included in Atria’s catalog under the Strebor Books imprint.
Although Zane sold Strebor Books to Simon and Schuster, she still retained ownership
of the publishing company and decides which titles are published. As a result, 15–25 titles
are acquired under the Strebor Books imprint each year.
Since the acquisition, Strebor Books has produced a variety of fiction, and not just the
erotica associated with Zane. Strebor Books’ list of titles covers a wide range of popular
fictions, ranging from mysteries, crime stories, historical fiction, pulp fiction, science fic-
tion, urban fiction, nonfiction, fictionalized biographies, and erotica, as well as romantic
and suspense novels. Strebor Books also features gay and lesbian-themed books (Lee
Hayes’s Passion Marks: A Novel and A Deeper Blue: Passion Marks II) as well as religious-
themed books, including Dr. James Deotis Roberts’s Roots of a Black Future: Family and
Church and Christian Beliefs.
 STYLE WARS 233

Some of the bestselling authors published under the Strebor Books imprint include
Shonda Cheekes (Another Man’s Wife), Allison Hobbs (Pandora’s Box and Double Dippin’),
Darrien Lee (All That and a Bag of Chips and Been There, Done That), Tina Brooks
McKinney (All That Drama), and Franklin White (Money for Good and Potentially Yours).
Strebor Books publications are predominantly aimed at a mass audience of urban
African Americans; however, because of the diversity, many of its publications appeal to a
wide audience, including urban teenagers and young, urban professionals.

See also Kensington Publishing Corporation; Old School Books; Triple Crown Publications

FURTHER READING
Campbell, Dwayne. “Already a Hot Name in Erotica, Zane Blooms into Fuller Flower.” Philadelphia
Inquirer, 5 Nov. 2006, M01.
Johnson, Kalyn. “Zane, Inc.” Black Issues Book Review, Vol. 6 Issue 5 (2004): 17–20.

Danielle R. Tyler

STYLE WARS (PBS, USA, 1983). Style Wars, which was originally pro-
duced for PBS by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant, is a 1983 documentary film that
explores the history, culture, aesthetics, and politics of graffiti writing in New York City.
One of hip hop culture’s first visual documents, Style Wars traces graffiti’s evolution from
its crude beginnings in the early 1970s—when writers would simply spray paint or just
write their pseudonyms on various public places—to the elaborate, train-car sized
“pieces” produced in the early 1980s. Further, it situates graffiti within the larger cul-
tural context of New York’s embryonic hip hop movement, which was gaining national
and global attention at the time with the popularity of musical acts, such as The Sugarhill
Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (both of which are featured on the
film’s soundtrack), and break dancing.
Graffiti, an art form that most often doubles as vandalism, was hip hop’s most visible
and controversial form during the time in which Style Wars was produced. As the narrator
states at the film’s beginning, “Graffiti writing in New York is a vocation. Its traditions are
handed down from one youthful generation to the next. To some it’s an art. To most peo-
ple, however, it is a plague the never ends; a symbol that we’ve lost control.” The film
examines this tension through interviews with graffiti writers, city officials, and casual
observers, providing an ultimately sympathetic portrait of this phenomenon that captures
and emphasizes its vital importance to hip hop and American culture.
The film’s interviews with graffiti writers—most notably Seen, Skeme, and Case—
demystify the many stereotypes surrounding graffiti and its practitioners, presenting an
intelligent, multi-racial community of young people who are engaged with and commit-
ted to their art. Graffiti provides a unique opportunity for writers to gain status through
their creative talents. Using Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) trains as their
primary canvases, writers “bomb” the trains after hours with the goal of going “all-city,”
or having their pieces displayed on train lines that travel throughout all of New York’s
neighborhoods.
On the other hand, Mayor Edward Koch, the NYPD, the MTA, and others viewed graffiti
as an eyesore and an offense against New Yorkers’ quality of life that represented youthful
234 STYLE WARS

unruliness and the city’s decay. In tandem with its celebratory examination of graffiti, then,
Style Wars traces the city’s various efforts to eradicate this art form—from implementing
an unsuccessful train-washing system to surrounding train yards with razor-wired fences.
Aside from simply providing a history and examination of graffiti and hip hop, Style
Wars began a continuing conversation surrounding hip hop’s conflicted position as an
exciting American art form and a symbol of urban decline—a tension that is still pervasive
today. Style Wars received the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 1984 Sundance Film
Festival and, in 2003, was re-released on a two-disc DVD edition.

See also Cinema

Travis Vogan
 T
TAYLOR, CAROL. As a long-time editor and short story writer, Carol Taylor saw
Zane single-handedly reinvigorate a publishing genre and wanted to expand that readership
and keep them satisfied between Zane projects.
Taylor became committed to showcasing the very best writing that she could find. She
became the main force and organizer behind the Brown Sugar series, of which there are
four volumes. Starting the Brown Sugar series for Simon and Schuster has given her an
opportunity not only to be published but also to publish the very best in developing writers
who write black erotica. The popularity of the Brown Sugar series keeps Carol Taylor as a
force in hip hop literature.
Brown Sugar: A Collection of Black Erotic Fiction, the first book in the series, got
attention when it became a Los Angeles Times best seller and won a Gold Pen award for
short story writing. This designation pointed to the quality of Taylor’s selections in the
collection and was widely seen as an unusual award for “genre” material. The other
books in the series were centered around a particular theme: Brown Sugar 2: Great One
Night Stands, Brown Sugar 3: When Opposites Attract, and Brown Sugar 4: Secret
Desires.
Taylor’s introductory story “The Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice” in Brown
Sugar 4 incorporates desire as well as global themes with the inclusion of an African
Chinese heroine who speaks of her fondness for Dutch people. As she deals with her
ambivalent feelings about her own color, Taylor’s heroine meets an African Dutch man
who helps her learn to accept herself for who she is. This collection helped Taylor to further
her global reach in her next collection and to deal with pertinent issues of colorism at
the same time.
When witnessing the popularity of these collections, other publishers wanted to be part
of the action. Taylor edited Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales for Penguin in 2005. By using
different worldwide settings, Taylor organized this collection around a theme that reaches
toward globalization and continues her reach toward attaining critical respect for this area
of writing in African American and hip hop literature. Apparently, Taylor is working on a
short story collection of her own, which is bound to be good news for her readers who love
the softer, more literary appeal of the Brown Sugar series.

FURTHER READING
Taylor, Carol, ed. Brown Sugar: A Collection of Black Erotic Fiction. New York: Simon and Schuster,
2001.
———. Brown Sugar 2: Great One Night Stands, Vol. 2. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002.
———. Brown Sugar 3: When Opposites Attract, Vol. 3. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.
236 TEARS FOR WATER: SONGBOOK OF POEMS AND LYRICS

———. Brown Sugar 4: Secret Desires, Vol. 4. New York: Washington Square Press, 2005.
———. Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales. New York: Penguin Group, 2005.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

TEARS FOR WATER: SONGBOOK OF POEMS AND LYRICS

(2004). Published in 2004 by Penguin/Putnam, Alicia Keys’s first book is a deeply
soulful look at Keys’s inner self with themes of loneliness, hope, and love in poems such as
“Unfulfilled Keys” (2004, 35) and “Love in Chains” (2004, 33).
Keys describes the work as her most “delicate thoughts” in the book excerpt, combin-
ing the stylistic genres of such great African American poets as Maya Angelou and Tupac
Shakur. Keys’s experiences growing up in poverty with a single mother and her struggles
to have her inner music heard by larger audiences is apparent in this touching volume taken
from Keys’s own journals.
Born Alicia J. Augello-Cook to unmarried parents, Irish-Italian mother, Terri Augello,
and Jamaican father, Craig Cook, on January 25, 1981, Alicia grew up in Hell’s Kitchen,
New York City. Her first piano was an old 1920s player piano given to Keys’s mother by a
friend. Keys began playing piano at age five and went on to study at the prestigious
Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan, where Keys was classically trained.
Graduating from high school at age 16, Keys won a scholarship to attend Columbia
University. Keys was first signed by the So So Def label, distributed by Columbia Records,
and then followed her mentor, Clive Davis, to Arista and his new label, J Records, pro-
ducing her first multi-platinum album, Songs in A Minor (2001). The album won five
Grammys, one for Best New Artist, as well as sold eleven million copies worldwide. Her
second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003), was also a multiplatinum hit in America,
selling eight million copies worldwide. Keys recorded an MTV concert entitled Alicia
Keys Unplugged in 2005. Her third studio album was released in late fall of 2007. Keys’s
neo-soul sound has earned her eleven Billboard Music Awards, nine Grammys, four American
Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and two Soul Train Awards. Her poetry in
Tears for Water reflects her experiences as a young recording artist being raised by a single
parent, but it also shows Keys’s compassion for human life.
Keys is part of Keep a Child Alive, an agency that helps deliver medicine directly to
African children and their families afflicted with HIV/AIDS. Keys offers a vital look at her
work in Africa through a moving photo journal published by Umbrage in 2006 entitled,
How Can I Keep From Singing? Transforming the Lives of African Children and Families
Affected by Aids. She also is part of two other charitable foundations, Frum Tha Ground
Up and Teens in Motion; both help deliver hope and help to underprivileged teens.
Keys is a multitalented producer, songwriter, singer, artist, poet, photographer, and
actress. Her first television appearance was in a March 1985 episode called “Slumber
Party” on The Cosby Show. Most recently, Keys has branched into film, playing assassin
Georgia Sykes in the sleeper hit Smokin’ Aces (2007), starring Hollywood heavy hitters,
Jeremy Piven and Ben Affleck. Her next role was with Scarlet Johanssen in The Nanny
Diaries, released in fall 2007.
Keys’s work is just beginning. Part of Bakari Kitwana’s definition of the first Hip Hop
Generation born between 1965 and 1984, Keys is flexing her powerful, and personal, cre-
ative muscles through multi-dimensional formats, including her palpable, neo-soulful
work as a poet and writer in Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics.
 TEEN FICTION 237

FURTHER READING
Keys, Alicia. How Can I Keep From Singing? Transforming the Lives of African Children and
Families Affected by AIDS. New York: Umbrage, 2006.
———. Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics. New York: Penguin/Putnam, 2004.
Nash, Alanna. “Face to Face with Alicia Keys: Heart and Soul.” Readers Digest (December 2005):
116–121.

Rebecca Housel

TEEN FICTION. The term teen fiction or teen literature refers to works written for
and about young adult audiences.
Traditional understandings of teen fiction mark the genre as angst-filled problem
works that affirm adolescent identity and experience. The American Library Associa-
tion (ALA) expands the definition of teen fiction to include works marketed toward
adult audiences that have realized a teen following as well as works that include an ado-
lescent protagonist. From the 1960s until the early 1970s, Donald Goines and Robert
“Iceberg Slim” Beck (Maupin) wrote stories that are anxious in tone and intensity;
these novels are popular among teens. Later, Ohio-based Triple Crown Publications,
founded in 2001, began publishing contemporary urban fiction for adult audiences as
well. Triple Crown’s founder, Vicki Stringer, who published the press’s first novel, Let
That Be The Reason (2002), landed the designation as “the queen of hip-hop literature”
for her pioneering efforts in the contemporary hip-hop publishing world. However,
whereas the ALA’s definition of young adult literature would include these original hip-
hop storytellers, publishers of teen fiction realized that young adults needed a literature
to call their own.
Frequently described as sub-par because of its perceived lack of quality and rigor, teen
fiction is often geared toward reluctant readers in many classrooms. A closer look at teen
fiction, however, yields a different understanding of its scope and purpose. If one considers
young adulthood to be an unstable moment in the coming-of-age process, then it would
seem logical that texts that address the concerns and experiences of teens be the Balm in
Gilead for adolescent strum und drag.
Readers of adolescent literature often notice that the characters in these books are on a
quest for autonomy from both adults and the social institutions that guide adult decision
making. Characters in these books explore their sexuality and all of the consequences that
result. Finally, characters in teen fiction question the fragility of life and the finality of
death. According to Roberta Trites, the overriding themes in adolescent literature are
linked to power. The level at which teen novels convey the trauma involved in surviving
the teen years has just as much to do with the central conflict of a work as it does with the
dénouement of the story. If, for instance, a novel charts a character’s growth from childhood
to adulthood, then that work is considered a Bildungsroman. However, works where the
teen protagonist conveys the didactic message of the text but does not reach adulthood are
defined as Entwicklungsroman, or novels of growth.
In teen fiction for urban, hip-hop adolescents, the distinction between novels of
growth and novels of maturation matters greatly. Early writers, such as Louise Meriwether,
Alice Childress, and Rosa Guy, gave readers an early glimpse into the experiences of urban
teens. These novels, set mostly in Harlem, created the context for what would later be called
teen urban fiction. Meriwether’s work, Daddy Was a Number Runner, for instance, focuses
238 TEEN FICTION

on a black teen who navigates her way through her rough neighborhood, but not
without the help of the support of her close-knit family. Childress’s protagonist in A Hero
Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich tests his family’s bond by experimenting with drugs and
skipping school. Eventually, the protagonist gets rescued from his destructive behav-
ior by his parents. Rosa Guy’s Friends trilogy is best known for the first installment,
The Friends. The novel is set in Harlem and focuses on a Jamaican American family.
The novel’s protagonist learns the value of friendship as she faces the realities of grow-
ing up black and female in a harsh environment. In each of these novels, readers wit-
ness the protagonist’s gaining of self-understanding. Thus, although the characters do
not mature into adults, they gain new knowledge that pushes them further toward
adulthood.
By the late 1970s through the mid-1990s, urban fiction moved into a more mainstream
spotlight. Along with the proliferation of the hip-hop genre in 1980s film, teen fiction
echoed the concerns of urban youth. For instance, Walter Dean Myers’s work examines the
impact that gang violence and fragile family structures have on the survivability of teens.
Myers’s cautionary tales revolve around gang activity or basketball. His protagonists are
predominantly black and male, and the storylines often address the social constraints that
are perceived by urban youth to oppress them. By novel’s end, readers are confronted with
the decision to do the right thing or to be prepared to suffer the consequences of bad deci-
sions. Sharon Draper’s Tears of a Tiger explores the emotional state of a high school
basketball star who is in turmoil after driving drunk, which results in the death of a friend.
In Rita Garcia Williams’s Like Sisters on the Homefront, a fourteen-year-old, streetwise,
angry teen mother comes to understand the importance of family and friendship. The novel
gives the audience insight into how the environment from which they come can either
empower or destroy them. Other prolific authors of fiction aimed at teens include Janet
McDonald and Elisha Miranda.
The increasing demand for literature that is specifically geared toward hip-hop youth
culture resulted in the proliferation of urban-themed publishing houses. One publisher,
New Jersey–based Townsend Press, publishes young adult fiction that is culturally and
socially relevant to urban teens. The goal of the series editors is to create stories for
every reader. In doing so, the Bluford Series editors carefully researched the needs of
their target audience. They discovered data that supports the notion that in order to cre-
ate ardent readers, the literature needs to reflect the diversity of its audience. There
must be a balanced number of male and female heroes and villains; the storylines must
reflect current trends in popular culture; the storylines should be sophisticated in a way
that appeals to intermediate and advanced readers; and finally, each novel should be no
longer than two hundred pages so as to encourage sustained reading without over-
whelming teens.

See also McDonald, Janet; Miranda, Elisha; Myers, Walter Dean

FURTHER READING
Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 2005.
Sims Bishop, Rudine. Free Within Ourselves: The Development of African American Children’s
Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007.

Catherine Ross-Stroud
 THOMAS, BRENDA L. 239

THAT’S THE JOINT!: THE HIP-HOP STUDIES READER (2004).

Co-edited by Murray Foreman and Mark Anthony Neal is a collection of essays exploring
the origins, meanings, and messages in hip hop.
Often referred to as “Hip Hop 101,” this collection is a broad-based approach to under-
standing the history of hip hop in all its forms as well as some of the major conceptual
issues that frame debates about the genre. The first section of the text is largely dedicated
to explications of the pillars of hip hop, including DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti. Sub-
sequent essays are especially adept at dealing with issues of authenticity in hip hop cul-
ture. The critics contributing to the subject include Michael Eric Dyson, Paul Gilroy, and
Robin D. G. Kelley. The third section looks at the complexity of hip hop in terms of space
and place. Although the boroughs of New York are well known as the home of hip hop,
its influence has been global. As such, hip hop has changed and transformed as it has been
embraced in various places by a range of people.
Joan Morgan, Gwendolyn Pough, and Tricia Rose are among the scholars who bring a
critical interrogation of the spaces occupied by women in rap music. Although there are
the usual questions of misogyny and exploitation of women’s bodies and brains in the
genre; there are thoughts on the ways black women and girls have created and/or wrested
a place for themselves in a remarkably male space. Of particular interest is an essay by
Kyra D. Gaunt called “Translating Double-Dutch to Hip Hop: The Musical Vernacular of
Black Girls’ Play.” Discussions are rounded out with treatises on hip hop as aesthetic, cul-
tural, and capitalist production.

See also Neal, Mark Anthony; Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic

FURTHER READING
Foreman, Murray. The ‘Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip Hop. Middle-
town, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.
Hager, Steven. Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music, and Graffiti. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984.
Melling, Phillip H. Americanisation and the Transformation of World Cultures: Melting Pot or
Cultural Chernobyl? Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996.
Neal, Mark Anthony. New Black Man. New York: Routledge, 2006.
———. Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation. New York: Taylor and Francis,
2003.
———. Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic. New York: Routledge,
2002.
———. What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture. New York: Routledge,
1998.
Perkins, William Eric. Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1996.

Tarshia L. Stanley

THOMAS, BRENDA L. (1957–). Urban fiction author.

Author Brenda L. Thomas has made a name for herself as an authentic voice on the
publishing landscape, writing books that her readers can relate to and also use to escape into
a fantasy world of intrigue, passion, and excitement. Born and raised in Philadelphia,
240 TRIPLE CROWN PUBLICATIONS

Pennsylvania, Thomas’s evolution from an ordinary “Philly Girl,” to a successful novelist is

the classic story of a person taking their passion and turning it into their livelihood. Like
many writers, Thomas was always interested in reading, and she decided at a young age that
she would become a writer and tell stories from her own unique perspective. It was her life
experiences that would prove to be a deep reservoir of ideas that would ultimately shape her
identity as a writer. One of those experiences was a 15-year-long abusive marriage Thomas
endured as a young woman. In addition to the abuse she suffered, Thomas also had to deal
with her husband’s hindrance of her writing, and it was that stifling of her passion that was
an unforgivable burden on her soul. Thomas was motivated to make a change in her life and
did so by climbing the corporate ladder from executive assistant at IBM to a position as a
marketing assistant at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Despite her accomplish-
ments in the corporate world, Thomas had other aspirations, including founding her own
company, Admin Ink. As a result of this personal business venture, Thomas became the
Director of Marketing & Player Relations for AND1 Basketball, the athletic apparel com-
pany founded in 1993. The world of professional sports, superstar athletes, and personal
assistance was the inspiration for Thomas’ first novel, Threesome: Where Seduction, Power &
Basketball Collide. The book tells the story of a woman named Sasha who, as the personal
assistant to an NBA All-Star, gets caught up in the glitz and glamour of the NBA lifestyle.
This book was the catalyst for a series of Thomas’s books chronicling the lives and loves of
on-the-go professional women. Thomas’s other books include Fourplay: The Dance of Sen-
suality, a novel following up with the protagonist Sasha from Threesome, this time detailing
Sasha’s various exploits juggling four men and also being the founder of her own public rela-
tions firm, Platinum Images. The Velvet Rope picks up where Fourplay left off, telling the
story of Tiffany Johnson, a publicist with Platinum Images who decides to enter into a co-
ownership arrangement on a nightclub with her fiancée, sister, and best friend.
In the later part of 2007, Thomas released a very personal book. Unlike her previous
nonfiction efforts, Thomas’s memoir Laying Down My Burdens recounts in gory detail her
experiences with domestic violence. The book serves as a testament to her ultimate triumph
over an abusive past and her subsequent success as an author.

FURTHER READING
Thomas, Brenda L. Fourplay: The Dance of Sensuality. New York: Pocket Books, 2004.
———. Laying Down My Burdens. Philadelphia, PA: Phillywriter.com, 2007.
———. Threesome: Where Seduction, Power & Basketball Collide. New York: Pocket Books, 2005.

Nneka Nnolim

TRIPLE CROWN PUBLICATIONS. One of the leading publishers of hip-hop

literature founded by self-published author Vickie Stringer.
Triple Crown Publications (TCP) in Columbus, Ohio, was founded in December 2002 by
former inmate 63752-061 Vickie Stringer (Let That Be The Reason, 2002) and former
inmate/silent partner Shannon Holmes (Never Go Home Again, 2006). Stringer earned
$10,000 as she sold her first book out of her car and then started TCP with a $5,000 personal
loan. In 2006 TCP earned $1.8 million with 36 titles by 25 authors. With nine full-time
employees, TCP specializes in pulp/urban fiction, street/gangsta/hip-hop literature that
Stringer calls hip-hop fiction because “it’s mirroring the things you saw in the music [rap,
hip-hop music, videos]” (Jones 2004, 1).
 TURNER, NIKKI 241

TCP has a presence on book lists. According to AALBC.com Best Sellers (African
American Literature Book Club), in January–February 2007 TCP had four out of ten
books: Still Sheisty by T. N. Baker; Sheisty by T. N. Baker; A Project Chick by Nikki
Turner; and, Hold U Down by Keisha Ervin.
TCP novels are distinguished by explicit covers, brash language, and profanity fused
with black dialect that equals non-standard English, black English, “Ebonics,” African
American vernacular English (AAVE), or “black vernacular idiom” (Gates 2004, 79). For
example, the standard English word “with” would become the AAVE word “wit,” and the
words “is going to” would become “gone.”
The accomplishments of TCP challenge black culturalists. Paul Coates, publisher of
Black Classic Press, enjoys reading the type of literature TCP manufactures. “I love it,” he
says. “After reading [urban fiction], people become interested in their history, and that’s
when they come to us. [Black Classic Press] wouldn’t publish any of that stuff, but I love
to see people read” (Foxworth 2005, 1). Poet Sterling Plumpp from the 1960s Black Arts
Movement says that hip hop writing “is the most inventive thing happening to the language
in a long time.” But, “They [hip hop writers] did not inherit the legacy of W. E. B. DuBois
or Frederick Douglass in terms of literacy” (Weeks 2004, 2–3).
To critics who accuse TCP of glorification of life with immoral sex to criminal behav-
ior Stringer defends TCP by saying “our books have consequences. . . . We encourage them
(readers) not to live like that” (Marech 2003, A1). Stringer is very conscious of outselling
the Simon and Schusters of the world in hip hop genre and hopes to convert her titles into
films in the future.

See also Kensington Publishing Corporation; Old School Books; Strebor Books

FURTHER REFERENCES
Foxworth, Darryl R. “Urban Legends: Paul Coates and Rudolph Lewis Offer Alternatives to the Cur-
rent Crop of Contemporary Literature.” Baltimore City Paper, 14 September 2005. <http://www.
citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=10505>.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 2nd edition. New
York: W. W. Norton, 2004.
Jones, Vanessa E. “Hip-hop’s New Plot Urban Novels Get a Read on Literary Success.” The Boston
Globe, 2 March 2004. <http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2004/03/02/hip_hops_new_plot/>.
Marech, Rona. “‘Hip-hop Lit’ Is Full of Grit: New Literary Genre Emerging from Underground
Authors.” San Francisco Chronicle, 19 October 2003. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/19/MNGP72ERMV1.DTL&type=printable>.
Weeks, Linton. “New Books In the Hood: Street Lit Makes Inroads with Readers and Publishers.”
Washington Post, 31 July 2004. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29121-
2004Jul30.html>.

Sandra L. West

TURNER, NIKKI (1973–). Novelist, publisher, and the proclaimed “princess”

of hip hop fiction has done much to cultivate appreciation of the street life into read-
able forms of fiction. As an early protégé of Vickie Stringer, Turner has capitalized on
the success of the early self-publishers of hip hop literature and she has become very
popular.
242 TYREE, OMAR

As a single mother, Turner was more than motivated to write. She started out writing
journal entries when she was young, but life intervened and she ended up working in a
cookie factory. Encouraged by an uncle at a picnic, Turner produced her seminal work, The
Hustler’s Wife, as a rough draft in just 37 days. Published by Stringer’s Triple Crown
Publications, she never dreamed that The Hustler’s Wife would stay on Essence’s best
seller list for two years in a row and would have to be “practically retired” from the list.
Following the business model set up by Stringer, Turner went to Random House, where
she began to extend her own unique brand.
Like other African American writers, Turner sought opportunities to encourage other
African American writers with the establishment of two Street Chronicles anthologies that
would tell extensively raw and gritty stories in short story form. Once they saw how Turner
was encouraging other writers by being the lead writer on the project, Random House
wanted to be part of her vision. Her publisher made a deal with Turner that was very prof-
itable. In just a few short years, Turner’s instincts had lead to the success of the Street
Chronicle volumes, which then spawned an imprint and more lucrative deals for Turner’s
original novels. Turner’s business acumen has played a role in the continuing success of
her career.
Besides encouraging other writers, her own novels, “Nikki Turner Originals,” were also
published: A Project Chick, The Glamorous Life, Riding Dirty on I-95, the forthcoming
Black Widow, and the highly awaited sequel project Forever a Hustler’s Wife: A Novel.
Writers such as Turner have been credited with furthering the vision of hip hop literature
and with also making companies like Random House profitable in years when they might
not be otherwise.
Turner continues to use her business acumen to expand her horizons into other publish-
ing opportunities. She collaborated with 50 Cent on Death Before Dishonor, Kashumba
Williams and Joy Turner on Girls from Da Hood 2, and Chuchini in Girls in Da Hood.
Within her MySpace page and other places, Turner encourages submissions to her Street
Chronicle volumes, including from prison. Her submission guidelines point to the charac-
ter of these highly successful anthologies: “We are looking for ONLY original, fresh,
ghetto theatrics, romances, and tragedies with mayhem, madness, confusion, and chaos
written all over it. We want hot, hood drama that can only leave the readers smelling gun-
powder!” There are, of course, critics who object to the material and the presentation of
the content, but Turner is another writer who has gotten many people who might not have
otherwise opened a book to read and to participate in various literary formats.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

TYREE, OMAR (1969–). Popular adult fiction novelist.

The self-proclaimed “Urban Griot” is an African American male who has put hip hop
literature on the map. His experiences growing up in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.,
gave him the perspective to comment on life in the urban inner cities of America. He has
had a distinctive career in cultivating a new aesthetic and has used “the real” to showcase
his take on African American life.
After graduating from Howard with a degree in journalism, Tyree took the route that
many other African American writers have had to and he sought to self-publish, forming
his own publishing company MARS Publications. He published an unsuccessful roman
á clef novel called Colored, On White Campus in 1992. This book, although not a sales
 TYREE, OMAR 243

success, enabled him to publish the book that set the standard for the hip hop literature
genre: Flyy Girl.
Released in 1993, Flyy Girl focused on the maturation process of Tracy Ellison as a
new kind of heroine who grew up middle class but turned to the streets for comfort.
Tyree’s re-imagining of the bildungsroman focuses on capturing the way that African
Americans spoke and related to one another and gave insight and validation into the way
that the youth culture emerged in the early 1990s. Even though Flyy Girl had its detractors,
critics have to keep in mind that Tyree is an educated writer who knows and draws upon
inspiration from his literary predecessors, such as Richard Wright, Chester Himes Ralph
Ellison, and Iceberg Slim. His following novels reflected these influences. His next novel,
Capital City has been referred to as a revisioning of Ellison’s Invisible Man.
Tyree’s career has been prolific, and he has had varying success with his follow-up
novels: A Do Right Man, Single Mom, Sweet St. Louis, For the Love of Money, Just Say
No!, Leslie, Diary of a Groupie, Boss Lady: A Novel, What They Want: A Novel, The Last
Street Novel, and as the “Urban Griot,” One Crazy A** Night and College Boy. Tyree’s
attempts to “change up” by developing the “Urban Griot” pseudonym are interesting, but
he will not be able to escape the long standing influence of Flyy Girl. He acknowledged
this by developing a sequel, For the Love of Money, in 2000 and features Tracy again as a
mentor in Boss Lady: A Novel.
Although some of his novels have suffered critically, they still continue to sell. Tyree
is actively developing his works, especially Flyy Girl, for the big screen to continue to
shape portrayals of African American life in the mainstream media. His influence has
been widespread and deserves more critical attention.

See also Flyy Girl

FURTHER READING
Henderson, Carol. “Omar Tyree.” In Twenty-First Century American Novelists. Dictionary of Liter-
ary Biography. Lisa Abney and Suzanne Disheroon-Green, eds. Detroit, MI: Thompson Gale,
2004, 425–430.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
 U
ULEN, EISA NEFERTARI (1968–). Ulen is the author of Crystelle Mourn-
ing: A Novel, a novel about the pain and healing black women—the entire black com-
munity, in fact—must experience in response to the violence prevalent in the black
community.
The novel follows the story of a young woman who is haunted by the spirit of her slain
best friend and first love. According to Ulen, the novel was inspired by an overheard con-
versation between two young black women who were discussing the desire, the need, to
have a lover’s baby before he was imprisoned or killed.
Ulen’s debut novel speaks to and for those two women and the many nameless African
Americans who go on living and surviving in spite of the struggles of poverty and racism,
heartaches and hardships. Giving voice to the voiceless seems to be Ulen’s passion. An
African American Muslim, Ulen has written several articles and essays, which have
appeared in Essence, Ms., and the Washington Post that have focused on telling the sto-
ries of women, blacks, and Muslims. A talented writer who uses the written word to bring
sensitive subjects, such as equality in Islam, to the forefront, Ulen has also contributed to
periodicals such as Azzizah, a magazine for Muslim women, and Health.
Recognized for her talent and skill, Ulen has been nominated by Essence magazine for
a National Association of Black Journalists Award. She is also the recipient of the Freder-
ick Douglass Creative Arts Center Fellowship for Young African American Fiction Writ-
ers and a Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship.
In 1990 Ulen, a resident of Brooklyn, New York, graduated from Sarah Lawrence Col-
lege. She soon went on to earn her Master’s degree from Columbia University in philos-
ophy and education in 1995. Having worked as an elementary school teacher at one point,
she currently teaches English at Hunter College in New York.

See also Crystelle Mourning: A Novel

FURTHER READING
Ulen, Eisa Nefertari. Crystelle Mourning: A Novel. New York: Atria Books, 2006.
———. “Letter to Angela Davis.” In Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching. Debo-
rah Menkart, Alana Murray, and Janice View, eds. Washington, DC: Teaching for Change/PRRAC,
2004.
———. “Letter to Angela Davis.” In Step into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black
Literature. Kevin Powell, ed. New York: Wiley, 2000.
———. “Muslims in the Mosaic.” In America Now: Short Readings from Recent Periodicals.
Robert Atwan, ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002.
 URBAN FICTION 245

———. “Tapping our Strength,” In Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out! Fawzia
Afzal-Khan, ed. New York: Interlink Books, 2005.

RaShell R. Smith-Spears

URBAN FICTION. Traditionally referred to as street lit, gangsta lit, hip-hop lit,
ghetto realism, or ghetto fiction, urban fiction reflects the brutal realities of urban life in
American inner cities.
Marketed toward young African Americans and Latinos living in the inner cities, these
largely self-published stories are characterized by dark, fast-paced stories of violence, hus-
tling, crime, sex, drugs, and other unsavory aspects of street life. These stories are satu-
rated with the language, clothes, and cultural references of the hip-hop culture and are told
from a first-person point of view through young African American or Latino male and
female protagonists. Urban fiction characters often use slang and graphic language to con-
vey their stories of triumph and tragedy. The protagonists experience some form of hard-
ship in the ghetto or inner city and often struggle against opposing forces, whether against
their hostile environment, against another person, against society, or against themselves.
The protagonists also experience some form of a rite of passage, such as puberty, child-
birth, marriage, or death.
Urban fiction stories usually take place in the ghettos of major United States cities,
where the action is centrally located to that city or a neighborhood in that city, and contain
realistic descriptions of urban life with detailed descriptions of neighborhoods, popular
song and movie titles, and popular brand names.
Often drawing from their experiences on the streets in the inner cities, urban fiction writ-
ers present realistic representations of urban life with themes and topics such as violence,
hustling, rape, death, premarital sex, pregnancy, teen parenthood, prostitution, drugs, and
incarceration.
Urban fiction is similar to a number of genres including the 1940 urban realism novels
(Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ann Petry’s The Street) that described the hardships and
tragedies of life in the large American cities, as well as the African American autobiogra-
phies of the 1960s, particularly, the autobiographies by both Malcolm X (The Autobiogra-
phy of Malcolm X) and Claude Brown (Manchild in the Promised Land). Like some urban
fiction, these autobiographies provide vivid, factual details about urban street life and com-
ing of age in the city. However, urban fiction often includes the graphic details and lan-
guage used in the inner city and hip-hop culture. Thus, the term is often closely associated
with the African American pulp fiction writing of Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines.
Urban fiction emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s with Iceberg Slim’s Pimp: The
Story of My Life (1967) and Donald Goines’s Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp
(1972), which were both autobiographical accounts of African American life on America’s
inner-city streets. Both Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines wrote gritty tales about the dark
side of the inner city and unexpectedly created the new genre. Although Iceberg Slim and
Donald Goines were not the first to write and describe the harshness of city life, arguably,
they were the first African American authors to reflect the harsh realities of street life in
fiction form in the 1970s.
Both Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines became prolific writers in the genre, producing
dozens of urban fiction novels. However, the genre experienced a period of inactivity in the
1980s. Then in the 1990s, with the rise of the Internet and inexpensive, print-on-demand
246 URBAN FICTION

technology, more writers had the opportunity to tell their stories and self-publish their nov-
els. Now considered classics in the genre, Omar Tyree’s Flyy Girl (1993) and Terri
Woods’s True to the Game (1994) were the first novels published about the dark side of
the inner city since Iceberg Slim’s and Donald Goines’s novels. However, it was not until
the late 1990s that urban fiction became popular with a mass, African American audience
and became recognized as a literary genre.
The revitalization of urban fiction occurred in the late 1990s with Sister Souljah’s fic-
tional biography, The Coldest Winter Ever (1999). This dark, graphic novel about Winter
Santiaga inspired a new generation of urban fiction writers as well as a demand for novels
that authentically conveyed the urban African American experience.
As a result of this increased interest, more urban fiction writers self-published their writ-
ings with “hand-to-hand” and “word-of-mouth” sales and/or published their writings with
the newly created urban fiction publishing companies (Strebor Books International, Urban
Books, and Triple Crown Productions), imprints, and mainstream publishing houses.
This increased interest in urban fiction also encouraged publishing companies to pro-
duce teen urban fiction (Jennifer Burton’s Topeka Heights or The Bluford Series book
series). Because most of the “adult” urban fiction novels contain explicit, graphic content,
publishing companies began to produce urban fiction to cater to the interest of teenagers
living in the inner city, including African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics.
Publishing companies also catered to the interests of Hispanics living in the inner cities
by publishing urban fiction specifically for the Latin population. By the mid-2000s, writ-
ers such as Jerry Rodriguez (Devil’s Mambo) and Jeff Rivera (Forever My Lady) took their
urban readers into the dark, dangerous world of street life from the Latino perspective.
Like the African American writers, some of the Latino writers even wrote autobiographies
about their lives as former gang members. In Reymundo Sanchez’s My Bloody Life: The
Making of a Latin King, Sanchez discusses the violence, abuse, and drug use that led him
to join the Latin Kings.
Although the literature varies from autobiographical fiction to fictional biographies,
urban fiction has produced numerous best sellers and best-selling authors and has become
one of the fastest growing of all “popular” literature.
Representative works include LaJill Hunt’s Drama Queen, T.N. Baker’s Sheisty,
KaShamba Williams’s Blinded: An Urban Tale and Grimey: The Sequel to Blinded, Zane’s
Addicted: The Novel and Afterburn, K’wan’s Gangsta and Hoodlum, Vickie Stringer’s Let
That Be The Reason and Dirty Red: A Novel, and Thomas Long’s A Thug’s Life.

FURTHER READING
Morris, Vanessa J., Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Denise E. Agosto, and Darren T. Cottman. “Street Lit:
Flying off Teen Fiction Bookshelves in Philadelphia Public Libraries.” Young Adult Library Ser-
vices, Vol. 5 Issue 1 (2006): 16–23.
Venable, Malcolm, Tayannah McQuillar, and Mingo Yvette. “It’s Urban, It’s Real, but Is This Liter-
ature? Controversy Rages over a New Genre Whose Sales Are Headed off the Charts.” Black
Issues Book Review, Vol. 6 Issue 5 (2004): 24–25.

Danielle R. Tyler
 V
VERNACULAR TRADITION. Hip hop vernacular is a genre of African American
vernacular English or black discourse popularized by hip hop music and culture.
Rooted in the black oral tradition and African American discursive patterns, hip hop
vernacular is a constellation of syntactic structures evolving continuously and distinctly by
region; discursive and communicative practices shaping what words are spoken and how
they are pronounced; rhythmic beats driving the pace and creative arrangement of expres-
sions; and pervasive attitudes revealing belief in the power of language, namely, its ability
to construct a sense of community, to resist the dominant culture, to display linguistic skill,
and to communicate verbally and conceptually.
Hip hop vernacular has several key discursive features: call and response, signification/
signifyin’, the dozens/playin’ the dozens, tonal semantics, narrative sequencing, and
grammatical and phonological forms. Initiated by the rapper or emcee, call and response
is a communicative strategy used to engage the audience/listeners in the performance.
The emcee uses signature phrases like “Say ‘Hoooo!’” to call for a response. The hip
hop audience, quite familiar with the call, responds as expected with “Hoooooooo!”
(Alim 2006, 79). Signification/signifyin’ is an indirect and typically humorous verbal
insult directed toward an individual, either playfully or seriously, to inform, correct, or
critique. Similarly, the dozens/playin’ the dozens is also a verbal insult, but unlike sig-
nification, these insults are humorous as well as fictitious slurs against an opponent’s rel-
atives, most often his/her “momma.” Tonal semantics refers to rhythmic creativity in
word choice and inflection. Through “talk-singing” (Alim 2006, 84) and word play, most
commonly marked by repetition and alliteration, emcees demonstrate lyrical aptitude,
emphasize central points and themes, educe audience/listener response, and tell moral
narratives.
Narrative sequencing or narrativizing, a central feature of black discourse and commu-
nicative practices, is likewise prevalent in hip hop vernacular. Akin to the African griot
who skillfully retains and narrates cultural history, today’s rappers use narrative sequenc-
ing to elucidate ideas, to convince others of their point of view, and to illustrate their every-
day observations through word imagery. Narrativizing also includes braggadocio, boasting
about the emcee’s sexual prowess, verbal skill, physical ability, masculinity, and fearless-
ness. Female rappers, such as Lil’ Kim, also exemplify this tradition.
Hip hop vernacular’s grammatical and phonological forms primarily stem from black
discourse or African American vernacular English. Prevalent features include aspectual or
habitual be—“They be trippin”; zero copula—“This bus on time today, but most times it be
late” (Smitherman 1986, 273); past participle been—I been done that; go to indicate future
tense—He gon do it; intersyllabic /r/ vocalization—Hey shawty [shorty], zero r—“th’ow
248 VIBE MAGAZINE

the Porsche at you” (Richardson 2006, 17); and /Ang/ and /ank/—“It’s a Black Thang”
(Smitherman 1986, 274).
In addition to its linguistic features, hip hop vernacular is a resistance art expressing
contempt for the socioeconomic conditions of African Americans, especially those living
in American ghettos. Unemployment, poverty, powerlessness, incarceration, racism, racial
profiling, police brutality, and educational disparity are among the social ills that rappers
decry. Contrastingly, hip hop vernacular is also known to include misogynistic, material-
istic, violent, and vulgar lyrics. Despite rappers’ glorification of gangster living, hip hop
scholars and linguists revere hip hop vernacular for its embodiment of the black oral tra-
dition and its opposition to white American racism and cultural oppression.

FURTHER READING
Alim, H. Samy. Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Campbell, Kermit. Gettin’ Our Groove On: Rhetoric, Language, and Literacy for the Hip Hop Gen-
eration. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2005.
Richardson, Elaine. Hip Hop Literacies. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover: Wesleyan
University Press, 1994.
Smitherman, Geneva. Talkin that Talk: Language, Culture and Education in African America. London:
Routledge, 1999.
———. Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University
Press, 1986.

Zandra L. Jordan

VIBE MAGAZINE. Hip hop music and culture magazine.

Published by Vibe Media Group and founded by Quincy Jones, Vibe Magazine has been
dedicated to bringing its audience an insider’s view of hip hop music and culture since
1993. In addition to staple articles on celebrity rappers and R&B artists, Vibe’’s content
includes features on Caribbean and Reggae music, new artists, and music reviews.
Nearing its fifteenth anniversary, Vibe Magazine continues to be a popular and viable pub-
lication because of the way in which it connects to hip hop music, culture, fashion, and news.
The cover photographs of Vibe have often been innovative and some of them even legendary.
Vibe Media Group has expanded its brand to include the vibe.com Web site, Vibe Vixen
Magazine, Vibe-On-Demand cable channel, and its signature Vibe Awards telecast. VX: Ten
Years of Vibe Photography and The Vibe History of Hip-Hop are among its publications.

See also The Source Magazine; Vibe Vixen Magazine

FURTHER READING
Jones, Quincy, and Vibe Magazine. The Vibe Q: Raw and Uncut. New York: Kensington Publishing
Corporation, 2007.
Kenner, Rob, George Pitts, and Quincy Jones, eds. VX: Ten Years of Vibe Photography. New York:
Harry N. Abrams, 2003.
Light, Alan, and Vibe Magazine. Vibe History of Hip Hop. New York: Random House, 1999.
Vibe Magazine. Hip Hop Divas. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2001.

Tarshia L. Stanley
 VIBE VIXEN MAGAZINE 249

VIBE VIXEN MAGAZINE. Vibe Vixen Magazine is published bi-monthly, with six
issues produced per year by VIBE Media Group LLC. It is a spin-off of the highly suc-
cessful Vibe Magazine.
Although Vibe Magazine’s readership is almost evenly split between men and women,
it has just slightly more male readers than females, hence the need for a magazine like Vibe
Vixen, which is geared exclusively towards young women. With a subscriber base of more
than 300,000, and a newsstand readership rate of 70,000, Vibe Vixen has carved out a
unique spot in the publishing industry, recognizing a key demographic of consumers who
are trendsetters and innovators and who dictate much of what is considered new and fresh.
The magazine bills itself as the “sophisticated life and style guide for the most diverse,
tech-wise, brand-savvy generation of women in history.”
African Americans comprise 80 percent of the magazine’s readership. The median age
of Vibe Vixen readers is 28, and 79 percent of its readers are identified as single. This group
of young, single, fashion and beauty conscious women is a highly coveted demographic
by advertisers, especially those companies advertising cosmetics and other beauty mainte-
nance products. The magazine’s readers have typically gone unrecognized by the maga-
zine publishing industry, which offers Essence magazine as one of the few periodicals
geared towards African American women. However, younger African American readers
are left with very few choices for magazines offering information that speaks to their
unique needs and tackles issues that are facing their generation. Vibe Vixen contains
numerous ads for popular urban fashion designers and hair care products. The magazine
routinely runs ads that feature African American, Latina, and Asian models, something that
is not typically seen in mainstream publications.
In addition, similar to other magazines that cater to females between the ages of 21 and
35, Vibe Vixen provides information on fashion, hair, cosmetics, entertainment, and rela-
tionships. However, unlike mainstream publications, Vibe Vixen offers its predominantly
African American readers a unique perspective on the issues that matter to them most.
From an editorial piece by an African American woman fed up with having to explain
every nuance of her hair, culture, and race to unnecessarily inquisitive strangers, articles
about cosmetic surgery and the specific concerns about surgery that African Americans
might have, and profiles on celebrities popular in the African American community, such
as actress Tracee Ellis Ross, star of the hit television sitcom Girlfriends, Vibe Vixen covers
stories and provides representation for topics that appeal to the hip-hop generation of
young women.
The magazine is representative of a generation of women who encompass many differ-
ent aspects of femininity, women who care about fashion, beauty, politics, advice on rela-
tionships, and all the issues young women confront each day. Vibe Vixen magazine is equal
parts lifestyle how-to guide, fashion bible, entertainment publication, and a hip-hop gen-
erational narrative with a decidedly feminine flair.

See also Vibe Magazine; The Source Magazine

FURTHER READING
Chance, Julia. “Made to Fit.” Vibe Vixen (June–July 2007): 53–54.
King, Aliya S. “The Anti-Diva.” Vibe Vixen (Fall 2006): 104–111.
Williams, Nia R. “You Can’t Handle the Truth.” Vibe Vixen (Holiday 2006): 54.

Nneka Nnolim
 W
WALLACE, MICHELE FAITH (1952–). Michele Wallace is a black feminist
writer and scholar whose work highlights issues of race and gender particularly as it relates
to black women in American society in general and in popular culture in particular. Wal-
lace is best known for the controversial feminist polemic she published in 1979 titled Black
Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman. Black Macho is a critique of the male-dominant
Civil Rights and misogynistic Black Power Movements and a scathing exposé of sexual pol-
itics within the African American community. She also debunked the myth of black women as
“superwomen” who have no need for feminism (Guy-Sheftall 1995, 219).
Although Wallace is not a member of the Hip Hop Generation, four of Wallace’s
essays published in the early 1990s, the golden age of “hip hop culture,” particularly
relate to it. In the same critical direction as Black Macho, Wallace utilizes a feminist
approach, and the predominant themes in these essays are the status of black women
in popular culture including their images and invisibility, hip hop culture, and black
female–black male relations.
Wallace’s examination of rap music in “When Black Feminism Faces the Music, and the
Music Is Rap” (1990) was most likely the first feminist reading of rap music that high-
lighted the presence of sexism in rap lyrics and videos. She argues that black women are
always shown as desiring sex and that their bodies are always on display in rap videos. Sim-
ilar to what she found in the early hip hop films, Boyz N The Hood (1991), Jungle Fever
(1991), and Poetic Justice (1993), Wallace notes that black women do not really have a
voice even when it appears that they should, as in the case of Poetic Justice. In essence, if
black women do not have a voice (if they do not speak for themselves or if the characters
are not fully developed), then they are invisible.
In “The Search for the Good Enough Mammy” (1994), Wallace’s brief analyses of two
hip hop films, Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. and Poetic Justice, applaud the fact that they
feature black female (hip hop) protagonists. However, these black female protagonists
remain in dialogue with the mammy stereotype of the nineteenth century and she suspects
that films with black female protagonists produced and directed by persons who are not
black females play an important role in determining how the characters evolve and develop
and, consequently, help to influence how black female audiences will respond to them.
When addressing black female–black male relations, Wallace shows that black
female–black male relations are not particularly favorable based on what is heard in rap
lyrics and seen in rap videos. Since rap remains male-dominated, Wallace believes the
sexism in rap will only be subverted by women rappers. Regarding Boyz N The Hood
and Jungle Fever (1991), Wallace finds these films to be “visually irresistible” but
assesses that both hip hop films “demonized black female sexuality as a threat to black
 WEBER, CARL 251

male heterosexual identity” (2004, 215–222). As such, these relations are always con-
flicted and strained.
Ultimately, what we find in Wallace’s earliest writings related to the Hip Hop Generation
is that sexism in popular culture affects black women by oppressing them from three fronts:
sexual objectification (rap lyrics and videos), voicelessness (underdeveloped black female
film characters), and sexual scapegoatism. Wallace’s feminist approach to primary sources
in popular culture is significant to hip hop literature because her work contextualizes the sta-
tus of black females and black female-black male relations, which, then, help to historically
ground the cultural expressions of today’s Hip Hop Generation.

FURTHER READING
Dent, Gina. Black Popular Culture: A Project by Michele Wallace. Seattle, WA: Bay Press, 1992.
Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought. New
York: New Press, 1995.
Wallace, Michele. Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman. New York: Dial Press, 1979.
———. “Boyz N The Hood and Jungle Fever.” In Dark Designs and Visual Culture. Michele Wallace,
ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004, 215–222.
———. Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory. New York: Verso, 1990.
———. “When Black Feminism Faces the Music, and the Music is Rap.” In Dark Designs and
Visual Culture. Michele Wallace, ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004, 134–137.
———. “Why Women Won’t Relate to ‘Justice’: Losing Her Voice.” In Dark Designs and Visual
Culture. Michele Wallace, ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004, 147–148.
———. “The Search for the Good Enough Mammy: Multiculturalism, Popular Culture, and
Psychoanalysis.” In Dark Designs and Visual Culture. Michele Wallace, ed. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2004, 275–285.

Angela M. Nelson

WEBER, CARL (1967–). Popular novelist, entrepreneur, and publisher.

One of the African American male writers to have emerged in this first wave of hip hop
literature is Carl Weber. Prolific, Weber’s books have leaned toward the emphasis of the
positive as well as using his talents to appeal to the aesthetic of his largely female reading
population by beginning a line of “Big Girls Book Club” books to show that larger women
have adventure too. This awareness of his audience, coupled with the popularity of his
books, make him an intriguing addition to hip hop literature.
Like some other contemporary African American writers, Weber has a business back-
ground with an M.B.A. He started out as a business and finance teacher. He gave his stu-
dents an assignment to create a book store model, which he then found out that worked.
Now, he owns a chain of three bookstores in the greater New York area. Owning these
bookstores gave Weber insight to gathering material and data to craft stories that would
appeal to his target audience. With his publishing connections, Weber was able to get his
first book, Looking for Luv’, picked up within three months. At the rate of one per year,
Weber continued to write Baby Momma Drama, Married Men, Preacher’s Son, Player
Haters, A Dollar and a Dream, So You Call Yourself a Man, and others. Not willing to just
rest on his laurels as a bookstore owner and novelist, he joined with Kensington to become
a publisher with a new imprint. In Weber’s vision, the establishment of Urban Books in
2004 sought to fill a void that existed in the publishing world. Like Vickie Stringer, Weber
seeks to appeal to audiences in a varied, and for him, profitable way.
252 WHAT THE MUSIC SAID

Like Stringer, he seeks to collaborate with other authors; for example, he collaborated
with Mary Morrison in She Ain’t the One. Through Urban Books he has been responsible
for fostering the careers of La Jill Hunt, Dwayne S. Joseph, and Jihad, among others. His
influence has continued to perpetuate the African American fiction market with the estab-
lishment of the Big Girls Book Club books: The First Lady and Something on the Side,
which is soon to be published.
Weber’s vivid imaginings of real life situations, which he ascribes to his inclusion of real
events that have happened to him or to friends, have helped to secure his popularity in the
annals of hip hop literature. His sense of business and need to encourage other African
Americans to publish has also done much to increase his reach beyond the New York area.
Weber travels extensively, citing that he spent every penny of his first two book advances
on the promotion of his books. The trajectory of his career and the cultivation of his busi-
ness opportunities give other writers much to study and emulate.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

WHAT THE MUSIC SAID: BLACK POPULAR MUSIC AND BLACK

PUBLIC CULTURE (1998). In his book, What the Music Said, Mark Anthony
Neal argues that black music continues to play a crucial role within black communities as
a “public aural space” in which blacks remember, celebrate, endure, protest, subvert, and
triumph. For Neal, styles such as bebop, soul, and hip-hop are important markers of black
consciousness and response to issues in society.
The book consists of an introduction and six chapters. The introduction previews the
various black public spheres—black church, dance halls, and so on—as avenues to trans-
mit communal values, traditions of resistance, and aesthetic sensibilities. Then, the chapters
examine 1) the impact of Civil Rights, Black Power, and the struggle for black musical
hegemony; 2) Black Power, state repression, and black communities of resistance; 3) the
marketing of black musical expression; 4) authentic black voices in an age of deterioration;
5) black popular music at the crossroads; and 6) the digitized aural urban landscape.
For his argument that the history of black music mirrors discourses in the larger society,
Neal considers the impact of developments like Reconstruction, mass migration, the Civil
Rights Movement, and the rise of the black bourgeoisie (Jones 1963). The section on soul
music is examined within the context of the Civil Rights Movement, whereas the discus-
sion on hip-hop is prefaced with the following: “The emergence of the postindustrial city
radically altered black communal sensibilities in the late 1970s and 1980s. Intense poverty,
economic collapse, and the erosion of viable public space were part and parcel of the new
urban terrain that African Americans confronted. Culled from the discourse of postindus-
trial city, hip-hop reflected the growing visibility of young, urban, and often angry so-called
‘underclass’” (Neal 1998, 125).
Throughout the discussion we are reminded of how politics, gender, class, religion, and
other issues shaped and are shaped by the lives and contributions of musicians. Neal also
examines the impact of commercialization on black popular music and culture. Soul music
was an important symbol for the Civil Rights/Black Power Movements for racial and
social equality during the 1960s and early 1970s. However, once co-opted, soul went “for
sale.” The larger meanings of soul were “deconstructed for use within mass culture by
divorcing it from its politicized and organic connotations to become a malleable market
resource” (Neal 1998, 94). Hip-hop, despite its intense commodification, Neal writes, has
 WHEN CHICKENHEADS COME HOME TO ROOST 253

managed to “continuously subvert mass-market limitations by investing in its own philo-

sophical groundings” (Neal 1998, 137).
There are no musical analyses of the styles discussed, nor are there any extensive lyrical
analyses of specific songs. Some discussion of the latter would have added more depth to
the book. Overall however, this text is well researched, weaving together the voices of
scholars, critics, and artists.

See also Neal, Mark Anthony; That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader

FURTHER READING
Gilroy, Paul. “Living Memory: An Interview with Toni Morrison.” In Small Acts. Paul Gilroy, ed.
London: Serpent’s Tail, 1993, 175–182.
Jones, Leroi (Amiri Baraka). Blues People. New York: William Morrow, 1963.
Neal, Mark Anthony. New Black Man. New York: Routledge, 2006.
———. Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2003.
———. Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic. New York: Routledge, 2002.
———. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004.
———. What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture. New York: Rout-
ledge, 2004.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH:
Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum

WHEN CHICKENHEADS COME HOME TO ROOST: A HIP HOP

FEMINIST BREAKS IT DOWN (2002). Feminist and hip hop critic Joan
Morgan’s book problematizes the act of young black women developing a critical
consciousness.
The title of Joan Morgan’s book of personal essays is an allusion to a controversial state-
ment made by Malcolm X following the assassination of JFK; she alters its meaning with
the derogatory term “chickenheads,” a reference to women who trade on their sex appeal
in order to get financial support from men. This interplay of concepts related to race and
gender indicates the focus of Morgan’s analysis. She uses her own experiences with fam-
ily, friends, and relationships to detail the complications and contradictions faced by young
African American women trying to balance the demands of feminism and nationalism. She
delineates the forces that shape this perspective by referring to it as “the post-Civil Rights,
post-feminist, post soul, hip-hop generation” (Morgan 2000, 57).
Morgan, having honed her credibility as a hip-hop journalist through articles for Vibe
and Essence, is more concerned with how hip-hop operates as a cultural force that
expresses a contemporary mindset than she is with rap music. As a daughter of a second
wave feminist, Morgan acknowledges the ways that her perspective has been shaped by the
gains of the prior movement. She rejects an oppressor/victim model in order to position
hip-hop feminism as a space in which women and men take responsibility for their own
choices and the implications of their own lives. The personal nature of her essays reflects
the overall goal of contributing to a spectrum of voices on the nature of identity.
The main theme that Morgan develops is that women must be willing to acknowledge
the complex and contradictory ways that they relate to feminism and nationalism and
254 WHEN CHICKENHEADS COME HOME TO ROOST

examine how these allegiances have contributed to their individual circumstances. She
illustrates how feminism has underestimated the appeal of clearly delineated gender roles
to both sexes, adeptly illustrating how feminist calls for equality within relationships can
have a chilling effect on male-female interpersonal dynamics. Men and women have dif-
ferent social measures of self-worth, and this entrenches a gendered power imbalance.
Morgan explores this by challenging accepted cultural notions about black womanhood,
debunking the “strongblackwoman” myth and the “endangeredblackmen” stereotype that
she views as its counterpart. She argues that black women participate in the construction
of these mythologies by according their sense of self-worth with their ability to shoulder
multiple burdens without complaint or assistance.
Chickenheads was critically well-received, but aspects of the author’s tendency to theorize
through personal experience did raise some controversy. Critics noted a lack of theoretical
analysis in the work as a whole, best exemplified by Morgan’s inclusion of everyone in her
age group as the Hip-Hop Generation and her lack of attention to defining hip-hop for the
reader. Although she acknowledges an older generation of black feminists who have shaped
her thinking, she does not contextualize her work within hip-hop literature. She does not ref-
erence notable contemporaries, including Rebecca Walker and Tricia Rose, although she
engages with similar subject matter.
One of the most controversial aspects of the book is Morgan’s call for male reproductive
rights, offering men the opportunity to renounce parental responsibility within six months
of a child’s birth. She argues that this is necessary to produce gender equity; the current sys-
tem can be employed to force men to be financially responsible for children they do not
want, while the system ostensibly offers women choices. Ideas such as this one led critics
to charge Morgan with theorizing a “masculinist” feminism, more attuned to the needs of
men than of women. Her focus on positing a feminism that allows black women to love
themselves (feminism) and to love black men (nationalism) contributes to a heterosexual
bias in the book; although the discussion of relationships is extensive, there is minimal
acknowledgement of gays and lesbians.
Morgan herself has stated that some black feminists responded negatively to Chickenheads,
arguing that it reinforces negative stereotypes about black women that are common among
white feminists (Carpenter 2006, 767). Those who challenged Morgan’s work perceived that
in her attempts to evade an oppressor/victim model, she was laying blame on black women
for their social and material circumstances. Morgan responded to these charges by offering her
personal experiences as proof of her intent, reinforcing her commitment to theorizing the
meaning of feminism through lived experiences.

See also Morgan, Joan

FURTHER READING
Carpenter, Faedra Chatard. “An Interview with Joan Morgan.” Callaloo, Vol. 29 Issue 3 (2006): 764–772.
Hill Collins, Patricia. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racisim, Nationalism, and Feminism. Philadel-
phia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006.
Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down. New
York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2000.
Springer, Kimberly. “Third Wave Black Feminism?” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Soci-
ety, Vol. 27 Issue 4 (2002): 1059–1082.

Caryn Murphy
 WHO'S GONNA TAKE THE WEIGHT 255

WHORESON: THE STORY OF A GHETTO PIMP (1972). Written by

Donald Goines (1937–1974), Whoreson was the first of sixteen black pulp fiction novels writ-
ten by Goines and the second to be published by Holloway House after Dopefiend: Story of a
Black Junkie in 1971.
While in prison, Goines began reading the work of Iceberg Slim, which inspired him to
forsake the western stories he had previously been writing and to begin penning Whoreson.
This novel tells the compelling story of Whoreson Jones, the child of Jessie, a strong black
prostitute, and a nameless white john, who was born to pimp. As Goines vividly portrays
the street education that Whoreson receives from his mother and others, he creates an urban
bildungsroman, in which Whoreson’s coming of age is achieved through attaining material
wealth and abusing women. Even after Whoreson’s incarceration, he continues to live by
the code of the street, seeking revenge on a former friend, which lands him back in prison.
The news of his second incarceration comes shortly after Whoreson begins his transforma-
tion from a street hustler, pimp, and criminal to a husband, father, and citizen.
As is the case in almost all of Goines’s novels, the glory of the street life in Whoreson is
short lived and ends tragically as Whoreson is jailed for a crime that he did not commit.
Despite the proliferation of sex, drugs, and violence in Whoreson, Goines does a remarkable
job of artistically commenting on the social issues that contribute to the problem. The choice
of “Whoreson” as the protagonist’s name is a prime example of this, “his name is the visual
sign of an unadulterated oppression of blackness . . . he is no one, just the son of a whore,”
(Stallings 2003, 195). Whoreson’s name is his proverbial scarlet letter. His name, like his
race, sex, and socioeconomic status, are not chosen and presumably cannot be changed.
Moreover, the relationship between Jessie and Whoreson, mother and son, teacher and
student, whore and pimp, is loaded with social commentary. Jessie provides her son with
“the tools for survival that he will need for the streets and at the same time teaches him to
exploit herself and other women” (Stallings 2003, 196). Goines’s use of Jessie in this text
is a direct critique on the cyclical nature of the destruction that exists in the ghetto as
inner-city dwellers often find themselves trapped, without an opportunity for upward
mobility, only survival. Such is the case for Jessie who replies “as well as any nigger
woman can hope to be,” after being asked how she is, suggesting that her current situation
as a whore is the best she can hope for (Goines 1972, 42).
Whoreson is a complex narrative that not only observes ghetto life but analyzes it from
an insightful and realistic viewpoint. The significance of Goines’s work cannot be ignored
because his work has become an integral part of hip hop culture.

See also Dopefiend: Story of a Black Junkie; Goines, Donald

FURTHER READING
Goines, Donald. Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp. Los Angeles, CA: Holloway House Pub-
lishing, 1972.
Stallings, L. H. “‘I’m Goin Pimp Whores!’ The Goines Factor and the Theory of a Hip-Hop Neo-Slave
Narrative.” The New Centenial Review, Vol. 3 Issue 3 (2003): 175–203.

Karley K. Adney

WHO’S GONNA TAKE THE WEIGHT: MANHOOD, RACE, AND

POWER IN AMERICA (2003). Functioning as autobiography and cultural
criticism, Kevin Powell’s book springs from the tradition of Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice
(1968) and James Baldwin’s No Name in the Street (1972).
256 WHY WHITE KIDS LOVE HIP HOP

Eschewing the often-criticized tendency of such texts to associate “freedom with

manhood” and forge common bonds between black men and white oppressors, Powell offers
an account of his emergence as a feminist (hooks 1990, 58). With attention to bell hook’s
oeuvre as well as his friend Robyn Rogers’s claim that resistant African American men adopt
“bootleg definition[s] of white manhood,” Powell argues for masculinity to be built on
grounds of identification, empathy, and a common drive for social justice (Powell 2003, 92).
Before his emergence as a cultural critic, Powell occupied a number of public roles that
brought him notoriety. As the only African American cast member on the first season of
MTV’s The Real World (1992), Powell’s tenure was troubled and included an on-screen
accusation of violence by a female cast-member. From 1992 to 1996 Powell honed his skills
as a hip hop intellectual at Vibe magazine, where he often interviewed Tupac Shakur. He
indentified the rapper’s troubled relationship with women and sexuality, his constant need
for intellectual query of culture, and his broken bond with a wandering and negligent father.
The book continues with Powell’s reflection on his own history of violence, which was
motivated by a fear of insufficient masculinity. He postulates his violence against men
and women as the influence of toxic acculturation. He subsequently revises W. E. B.
DuBois’s prescient epigram of the color line to argue that “the problem . . . is race and
sex and class operating in tandem to control, bamboozle, violate, divide and conquer” the
majority of people to benefit the elite (2003, 21). Ultimately, his strategy for dismantling
these divisions is to operate with constant self-scrutiny. Though Powell demands that
African American men analyze their failings in relationship to women, he does not solely
burden individuals; he suggests that many of these failings are the product of a national
culture that has never come to terms with its apartheid past and present.
For both scholars and fans of hip hop, Powell’s account of himself as a “recovering misog-
ynist” will inform and illuminate, particularly when he extends the tools of feminist analysis to
the life of Tupac Shakur in the final chapters of the book. Though earlier chapters advocate
cross-gender affiliation, Powell spends the final pages discussing the men who came before him
in both intimate and public contexts, trying to forgive his own father, as well as leaders of prior
black resistance movements who were inhospitable to gender analysis. He ends with an almost
mythic demand for self-creation and rebirth: “I have to be my own father now” (2003, 160).

See also Powell, Kevin

FURTHER READING
hooks, bell. “Reflections on Race and Sex.” In Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics.
Boston, MA: South End Press, 1990, 57–64.
Powell, Kevin. Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?: Manhood, Race, and Power in America. Three
Rivers Press: New York, 2003.

Jennie Lightweis-Goff

WHY WHITE KIDS LOVE HIP HOP: WANKSTAS, WIGGERS,

WANNABES, AND THE NEW REALITY OF RACE IN AMERICA
(2005). A wide-ranging analysis explaining hip-hop music and culture’s cross-racial
appeal and arguing for a new racial politics enabled by hip-hop’s rise.
In Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop, Bakari Kitwana, former executive editor of The Source
and author of the widely acclaimed Hip-Hop Generation, explores such subjects as hip-hop’s
 WILLIAMS, KaSHAMBA 257

primary audience, which the entertainment industry has unfairly assumed are suburban whites;
Hollywood’s representations of white-black relations, which largely rely on older stereotypes;
and the case of white people who identify with hip-hop as a specifically black culture, for exam-
ple, Eminem, whose popularity would be impossible without black youths’ approval. But lying
underneath the surface-level investigation are the questions that make the book truly significant:
What should we understand about hip-hop’s white audience beyond its taste in music? Why is
considering their race relevant? And how can they be mobilized to make positive change?
To answer these questions, Kitwana outlines two political perspectives: the “old racial
politics,” that sees black and white as oppositional categories, and the “new racial politics”
arguing for a more complex view of racial categories. From the perspective of the old
racial politics, white kids’ love of hip-hop is contradictory because it is associated with
African Americans; the only resolution would be for whites to appropriate the culture as
their own, as occurred with rock and roll. That hip-hop remains securely part of black cul-
ture suggests the presence of a fundamental change in the relationship between race and
culture—which Kitwana sees as the key to developing a new racial political movement
with the potential to surpass the successes of the Civil Rights Movement.
Certainly those earlier successes helped change social conditions today. Notably they
led to an increased presence of African Americans in civic life and popular culture. As
Kitwana points out, school curricula now include nondominant histories, such as that of
the Civil Rights Movement, whereas on the popular culture front, television, movies, and
music offer not only black-identified popular culture but entertainment that circulates
beyond racial categories, as does Oprah Winfrey’s media empire.
However, current conditions are not only the product of political successes but of eco-
nomic turmoil. The rise of the global economy and the consequent loss of high-paying
jobs have led to a growing gap between rich and poor, increasing personal debt and
unemployment, and widespread economic insecurity that have resulted in increasing
alienation and “a declining sense of white privilege” (Kitwana 2005, 23).
Americans raised with hip-hop on their cultural radar experience a different America than
that of previous generations, in part because of the conditions listed previously and in part
because they understand hip-hop culture’s inclusiveness. Indeed, Kitwana argues that
although racism stubbornly endures, the Hip-Hop Generation (those born in 1965 and after)
believe on some level that “all men are created equal.” Thus, understanding why white kids
love hip-hop—because they no longer identify with stark racial separations and have incor-
porated the music and culture as part of their everyday lives—actually leads to the possibility
of forming new political coalitions across racial boundaries. Thus, Kitwana concludes, “Hip-
hop is the last hope for this generation and arguably the last hope for America” (2005, 209).

See also The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture

FURTHER READING
Kitwana, Bakari. Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas,Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Real-
ity of Race in America. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2005.

Patricia Ventura

WILLIAMS, KaSHAMBA. Hip hop author, publisher.

Among hip hop authors, KaShamba Williams is no exception to the ability to do it all. She
followed the lead of the incomparable Vicki Stringer, determined to succeed after being
258 WILLIAMS, SAUL

ignored by mainstream authors: publishing, publicity, marketing, and writing. She is the driv-
ing force behind Precioustymes Entertainment, which states on its Web site that the company
has just released the first documentary about hip hop authors, a very timely development
given the extraordinary popularity of these works. As a writer, Williams is a very popular
novelist and has contributed to the popular Around the Way Girls series and other antholo-
gies as well. She has also cowrote and published a line for teenagers called “Platinum Teen.”
Among Williams’s most popular works are Driven and At the Courts Mercy, which focus
on the life of a young black man named Nasir who has to decide what path his life is going
to take and how he is going to be a father to his child. Williams’s handling of writing for a
different gendered perspective, as well as incorporating other aspects of psychological
drama has led these books to be among her most popular titles. Williams has written other
novels as well: Blinded, Grimey, and Mind Games. Blinded and its sequel, Grimey, have also
recently been published in Japanese—Williams is among a select group of hip hop authors
to be so honored. Her works tend to focus on the troubled lives of young people caught in
the crossfire of hardened street life. Readers have responded to her instinct so trustingly,
however, that she writes forewords for many of the other books and authors published by
Precioustymes Entertainment.
Williams sees it as part of her mission to not just write for adults but also for the teenage
audience. Her line of books, “Platinum Teen,” is geared to give teenagers a sense of self-
esteem and worth in their lives. She uses her appeal as an Essence best-selling author to
continue to cultivate a wide readership and to get authors to become more entrepreneurial
and read their contracts. To have both of these objectives as a goal make KaShamba
Williams worth attention in the hip hop literary world.

FURTHER READING
“Interview with KaShamba Williams.” Urban Book Source. March 2007. <http://www.theurban
booksource.com/articles/interviews/kashamba-williams.php>.
Williams, KaShamba. At the Courts Mercy. New York: Urban, 2005.
———. Blinded. Columbus, OH: Triple Crown Publications, 2003.
———. Driven. New York: Urban Books, 2007.
———. Grimey. Columbus, OH: Triple Crown Publications, 2004.
———. If Only Eye’s Knew. Bear, DE: Precioustymes Entertainment, 2003.
———. Mind Games. Bear, DE: Prescioustymes Entertainment, 2007.

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins

WILLIAMS, SAUL (1972–). Hip-hop emcee, actor, and poet.

Saul Williams, originally from Newburgh, New York, received a B.A. in philosophy and
acting from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Masters Degree in acting from
New York University. His poetry collections include The Seventh Octave (1998), She
(1999), Said the Shotgun to the Head (2003), and The Dead Emcee Scrolls (2006). His
albums include Amethyst Rock Star (2001) and Saul Williams (2004). Williams co-wrote
and starred in Slam (1998), winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival
and the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Williams prefaces The Dead Emcee Scrolls with “A Confession,” which appears to be
equal parts autobiography and origin myth for Williams’s poetry. In “A Confession”
Williams describes a subterranean pilgrimage to view graffiti art upon which he discovers
 WILLIAMS, SAUL 259

a spray-paint can filled with unreadable ancient scrolls. Williams “confesses” to slowly
copying and deciphering these scrolls over a period of years and claims that they are the
direct source of much of his poetry. Playing upon the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
Williams imagines himself as the spiritual translator and prophet of “The Lost Teachings
of Hip-Hop.” This narrative brings together many of Williams’s major themes and
expresses his vision of his poetry, especially its relationship to hip-hop.
Williams represents himself as a prophetic vessel for ancient African and feminine
wisdom that carries a direct and ameliorative meaning for contemporary times. “The
changes that I have wanted to see in hip-hop, American society, the black community, and
the world at large, can only unfold at the rate of our evolving consciousness,” he writes
(2006, xxx). For Williams, poetry is an act of copying and deciphering traditional knowl-
edge whose African lineage offers corrective spiritual consciousness for political, racial,
and musical problems. Williams locates hip-hop within this lineage and largely views it as
deeply affirmative and powerful, qualities reflected in his own poetry. Although at times
this poetry exhibits an abstract or elusive spiritualism, at other times it powerfully protests
patriarchy, oppression, and war, evidenced on spoken word tracks such as “The Pledge of
Resistance” on his anti-war EP, Not In My Name (2003).
One senses the strong influence of performance and spoken word in Williams’s
poetry, which is inseparable from his training as an actor. His origin myth about per-
forming the script of Dead Emcee Scrolls underscores these connections to the stage.
The poetry is often strongly rhythmic and alliterative; it uses anaphora, internal and end
rhymes, and puns and wordplay, elements that suggest a script for recitation or even
hip-hop performance. Indeed, those familiar with Williams’s hip-hop delivery on
Amethyst Rock Star or Saul Williams might find it difficult to dissociate Williams’s dis-
tinctive voice and cadences from the poetry on the page, especially when poetic and
lyrical content overlap.
However, Williams also exploits typographical conventions and other visual ele-
ments of the page, emphasizing the written in conjunction with the oral nature of his
poetry. Important elements of the poetry rely on their uniquely textual character and
would be lost in oral performance. Instances of this include the unutterable comma in
the title of, Said the Shotgun to the Head, suggesting, perhaps, an indeterminate
antecedent discourse to which the poem responds, or the juxtaposition of white pages
with black typeface with black pages with white typeface, deepening and reinforcing
the themes of darkness and illumination, whiteness and blackness. Williams’s poetry
contains strong affinities to graffiti art, which may represent language but is at the same
time irreducibly visual.
Williams writes in response to the increasing materialism and misogyny that he senses in
contemporary hip-hop. Materialism is bitterly ironic, for, as Williams writes, “The have-nots
of the African American ghettos had seemingly bought into the heartless capitalistic ideals
that had originally been responsible for buying them as slaves” (2006, xxvii). As the quasi-
mathematical title of She suggests, Williams is also deeply concerned with the relationship
between genders, which is perhaps both “divisible” and “indivisible.” Williams, whose middle
name is Stacey, seems unusually receptive to his own femininity. Indeed, he often positions
himself as the prophet of a female god, reflecting his essentialist view of woman as “great
mother” and social, political, and cultural redeemer.

See also Slam; Spoken Word Movement

260 WILLIAMS, WENDY

FURTHER READING
Williams, Saul. The Dead Emcee Scrolls. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 2006.
———. Said the Shotgun to the Head. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 2003.
———. The Seventh Octave. Atlanta: Moore Black Press, 1998.
———. She. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999.

David Rando

WILLIAMS, WENDY (1964–). Wendy Williams is considered the Queen of

Radio and the Queen of Urban Airwaves because of the more than 20 years she has spent
behind the microphone during her radio career.
Although other professions have seen representation between men and women equalize
over the years, talk radio remains a male-dominated genre. Nonetheless, Williams has
carved out a spot in the highly competitive world of talk radio. Williams’s radio show,
aptly titled “The Wendy Williams Experience,” is broadcast on WBLS 107.5 FM in New
York City. The show is also syndicated across the United States. Williams grew up in
the Wayside section of Ocean Township, New Jersey, a suburb about 45 minutes south
of New York City. Williams got her start working at her college radio station WRBB, at
Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in
communications with a minor in journalism from Northeastern, she secured her first
professional radio job at WVIS, a reggae, calypso, and soca radio station in the U.S.
Virgin Islands in Frederiksted, St. Croix. After spending eight months at WVIS,
Williams’s next stop was Oldies WOL AM in Washington, D.C. After less than a year
in D.C., Williams made her first foray into the New York City radio market at WQHT
HOT 103.5, and then it was on to WPLJ 95.5. From there, Williams was offered a job
at WKRS 98.7 KISS FM, thus giving her the opportunity to work in the urban radio
market. At KISS, Williams had the number one rated radio show that aired from 6 p.m.
to 10 p.m. At some point, KISS changed its radio format, prompting Williams to make
the jump to the afternoon shift at HOT 97, a hip-hop station under the same ownership
umbrella of KISS. Williams consistently beat the competition in the ratings, making a
name for herself as the host of the number one afternoon radio show. For three years,
Williams’s status and visibility steadily increased as she defined her own style of talk
radio. She was part advice columnist, entertainment reporter, and gossip/tabloid jour-
nalist. Williams left HOT 97 in 1998 and was offered a job at WUSL POWER 99 in
Philadelphia. In her three years in Philadelphia, Williams boosted the ratings, taking
her morning show from number fifteen in the ratings to number one. Having reached
the top in the Philadelphia radio market, Williams returned to New York City, landing
a spot at WBLS 107.5. It was at WBLS that Williams made a name for herself in the
world of urban radio. Her show “The Wendy Williams Experience” has been a massive
ratings success, and it has allowed Williams to expand her presence across the media
landscape. The list of celebrities who have been interviewed on the “The Wendy
Williams Experience” is a who’s who of the entertainment industry, from musicians, to
executives, to Hollywood actors, to television stars. Williams has interviewed industry
heavyweights, such as actress/singer Jennifer Lopez, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons,
and multi-platinum recording artist Mariah Carey, just to name a few. Williams is
known for asking the tough questions and grilling her interview subjects to talk about
various gossip items and rumors that may be swirling around at the time. One memorable
 WOODS, TERI 261

interview took place between Williams and renowned singing sensation Whitney Houston.
The December 2002 interview with Houston was an unforgettable discussion, the kind
of exchange that would not typically occur outside of the urban talk radio genre. In her
trademark take-no-prisoners interview style, Williams questioned Houston about her
drug use, plastic surgery, the stress of living under a microscope, her marriage to R&B
singer Bobby Brown, and a host of other interesting subjects during the sometimes
heated interview. Williams has carved out an indelible place for herself in the talk radio
genre. She is relevant and important to hip-hop culture because she speaks to the unique
nuances of the Hip-Hop Generation. In a media environment in which nothing seems to
shock the masses anymore, her persona is bold, unapologetic, sometimes sweet, occa-
sionally over the top, oftentimes controversial, but always keeping it real with an ear to
the streets. Her style is evocative of the fundamental elements of hip-hop: the anti-
establishment, rebellious sounds and expressions of a generation. Although some may
disagree with her in-your-face interview style, Wendy Williams is a one-of-a-kind radio
personality who isn’t afraid to be herself.

FURTHER READING
Williams, Wendy. The Wendy Williams Experience. New York: Penguin Group, 2004.
Williams, Wendy, and Karen Hunter. Wendy’s Got the Heat. New York: Atria Books, 2003.

Nneka Nnolim

WOODS, TERI. Hip hop novelist.

In self-publishing her first novel, True to the Game, Teri Woods joins the ranks of
other notable authors who have self-published their work, among them Margaret
Atwood, e. e. cummings, Henry David Thoreau, and entrepreneur John H. Johnson. Woods’s
venture into self-publishing occurs at a propitious time; for although self-publishing was once
viewed as synonymous with vanity publishing, the success experienced by recent self-
published writers has changed that perception. And similar to the self-published authors
whose ranks she has joined, Woods’s efforts allowed her to test and establish a market for her
work, and eventually to sell the reprint rights to a well-known publishing house.
A Philadelphia native, Woods was employed as a legal secretary when she began writing
True to the Game in 1993. After copyrighting her work in 1994, she began to submit her
work to publishers; however, none of them expressed interest in acquiring the work. By
1998, Woods, determined to market her work, began selling handmade copies of the text
at beauty shops in Philadelphia and out of the trunk of her car in Harlem, New York. The
rest is history: Woods’s innovative marketing strategies led to sales topping 100,000 copies
of her first novel. The immensely popular True to the Game has been described as one of
the best street stories ever penned, and Woods has been crowned the female version of
authors Donald Goines and Robert Beck, both of whom wrote about street life. The success
of her first novel led to a contract with Warner Books; that publishing house released True
to the Game under its imprint in spring 2007 and anticipates release of the sequel, True to
the Game II, in fall 2007.
Since the release of True to the Game, Woods has continued to produce novels that
examine, celebrate, and explicate the experiences of people who inhabit the seamy
underbelly of society. Woods has also started a publishing company, film companies, a
scholarship fund, and a nonprofit organization. Through her publishing company, Woods
262 WOODS, TERI

has made texts by other new authors available to readers. She concentrates on film projects
through her film companies, Teri Woods Films and Tahluu Films, Incorporated. Her non-
profit organization, The Teri Woods Foundation, has been established to donate proceeds
from her novels to a scholarship fund designed to provide financial assistance to inner-city
youth interested in pursuing careers in journalism and the literary arts.

FURTHER READING
Munt, Sally Rowe. Murder by the Book?: Crime Fiction and Feminism. New York: Routledge Press,
1994.
Pepper, Andrew. The Contemporary American Crime Novel: Race, Ethnicity, Class. New York:
Routledge Press, 2001.
Scaggs, John. Crime Fiction: The New Critical Idiom. New York: Routledge Press, 2005.

Mary Loving Blanchard

 X
X, MALCOLM (MALCOLM LITTLE; EL-HAJJ MALIK EL-SHABAZZ)
(1925–1965). Minister of the Nation of Islam, black activist, subject of The
Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Through his speeches, Malcolm X made it clear that the African diaspora and Africans
suffering under colonialism should work together to uplift their race, to form a self-
governing community, to fight against injustice, and to actively engage in the struggle to
overthrow oppressive, exploitative social forces.
The Nation of Islam (NOI) shaped the bulk of Malcolm’s ideology during the
twelve years he spent as one of its top ministers. The NOI’s doctrine mixed teachings from
the Koran and the Bible with Black Nationalism (Robinson 2001, 35). Elijah Muhammad,
as the head of the NOI during Malcolm X’s tenure with the movement, proscribed many
of the dictums of the movement: followers were not to drink alcohol, use drugs, gamble,
or eat pork, among other things. By divesting themselves of detrimental behaviors, black
Muslims would be better equipped to create healthy lives. The Nation encouraged its mem-
bers to celebrate their blackness and to revile whiteness. Malcolm followed these strictures
faithfully, and asserted that those who insisted on having “conked” hair bore the signs of
ignorance (Haley 1999, 264). The NOI strictly enforced patriarchal gender roles; Malcolm
reinforced these essentialist views of men and women. According to Dean E. Robinson,
the NOI “offered an explanation and a solution to racial oppression and the problems it
created for black people” (2001, 36). Part of the solution was moderation, but a larger part
of the solution the NOI proposed was the creation of a separate, fully functional commu-
nity for African Americans.
Malcolm continued to support the notion of separatism even after his break from the
Nation in 1963. The Nation advocated separate African American businesses, schools, and
communities as a way to achieve independence from oppression at the hands of the “white
devils” (Haley 1999, 271). According to Malcolm, the schools were especially important,
as an African-centered curriculum would instill black identity and pride into African
American youth (1992, 16). Malcolm asserted that white American schools keep African
American students undereducated to “keep [them] trapped” in low-paying jobs and igno-
rance, so African American-run schools were a good start to alleviating the systemic
oppression of African Americans (1991, 43). Over the course of Malcolm’s career, his ide-
ology continued to change due to influences from Muslims abroad and Pan-Africanists.
Malcolm X rejected the Civil Rights leaders’ passive methods for change and insis-
tence on integration. Malcolm advocated political action over nonviolent protests, which
clashed with NOI and Civil Rights methods of dealing with civil rights issues. Malcolm
often said that integration would be detrimental to African Americans because the system
264 X, MALCOLM

would continue to be unequal. He asserted that white America’s “social system is based
upon the castration of the black man” and that a radical revolution was necessary (1991, 22).
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, arguably the most authoritative text concerning
Malcolm X, is a conversion narrative, much like St. Augustine’s Confessions, or like Paul’s
conversion in the Bible, which Malcolm explicitly refers to in the text (Haley 1999, 166).
This narrative serves as a model for people who are like him to follow on their path to self-
actualization. The text follows the pattern of all conversion narratives but for one devia-
tion: two conversions exist in the text.
Malcolm discusses his life before his conversion to Islam in jail to illustrate the depraved
state he was in before becoming enlightened, rather than to titillate his audience. After every
description of misguided behavior, the post-conversion Malcolm evaluates the behavior
under his new set of guidelines. The “new” Malcolm X thought of his “earlier self as another
person,” Malcolm Little, which echoes other conversion narratives (Haley 1999, 173).
Shortly after Malcolm broke away from the Nation of Islam, he made his hajj to
Mecca, which played a part in his ideological transformation (or “conversion”) of his
perceptions of “white” people. After experiencing kindness and brotherhood from vari-
ous white-skinned people in and around Mecca, Malcolm realized that the problem of
racism wasn’t inherent in whiteness but was specific to white Americans and their social
constructs. After the hajj, as a testament to his experiences, Malcolm received the name
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
At the end of the text, Malcolm says that the primary purpose of his narrative is to pro-
vide “a testimony of social value” (Haley 1999, 386). As a testimony directed toward the
disenfranchised, Malcolm presents himself as an example of a man who rose from igno-
rance to enlightenment with the help of education and the Islamic community; he appears
to be exhorting African Americans to use the resources available to them to overcome
oppression. Malcolm’s emphasis on education as a step toward liberation echoes Frederick
Douglass’s and Benjamin Franklin’s autobiographies, as well as many slave narratives.
Malcolm X exposed the world to the life in the “black ghettoes which are shaping the
lives and the thinking of almost all the 22 million Negroes who live in America” (Haley
1999, 386). Through his influence, people (such as Spike Lee, bell hooks, and Public
Enemy) in the hip-hop community are better able to “speak their rage” concerning social
inequalities on stage, in film, and in books (Dyson 1995, 95).

See also Brown, Claude; Manchild in the Promised Land

FURTHER READING
Dyson, Michael Eric. Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1995.
Gallen, David, ed. A Malcolm X Reader: Perspectives on the Man and the Myths. New York: Carroll &
Graf, 1994.
Haley, Alex, and Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. 1964. New York: Random House,
1999.
Johnson, Timothy V. Malcolm X: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland
Publishing, 1986.
Perry, Bruce. Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America. Barrytown: Station Press,
1991.
Robinson, Dean E. Black Nationalism in American Politics and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2001.
 XXL MAGAZINE 265

X, Malcolm. By Any Means Necessary. George Breitman, ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1992.
———. Malcolm X: The Last Speeches. Bruce Perry, ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1989.
———. Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements. George Breitman, ed. New York:
Pathfinder Press, 1989.
———. Malcolm X Talks to Young People. Steve Clark, ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1991.

Angelle Scott

XXL MAGAZINE. Hip hop culture magazine.

XXL magazine covers various topics related to hip-hop culture, including music, enter-
tainment, fashion, style, technology, politics, video games, and sports. Established in 1997,
XXL is published monthly by Harris Publications, Inc. Elliott Wilson, also known as
Yellow Nigga, is the current editor-in-chief of XXL. According to the Audit Bureau of Cir-
culations, for the six-month period ending on December 31, 2006, XXL’s paid circulation
was nearly 310,000. XXL’s top competitors are The Source magazine and Vibe magazine.
XXL was established by former editors of The Source, Reginald Dennis and James
Bernard. The current editor-in-chief of XXL, Elliott Wilson, was also a former music edi-
tor for The Source. Wilson left The Source on bad terms and since joining XXL has kept
the feud with The Source going. In recent years the editors of XXL and The Source have
engaged in well-documented feuds. At times the editors have used their magazines as a
platform for their attacks on each other. Wilson insists that this is a normal part of hip hop
culture and makes no apology for their quarrels.
XXL includes interviews, articles, and reviews of hip-hop music. One of the most
notable features is the XXL album rating scale. When albums are reviewed, they receive
one of five ratings: S, M, L, XL, and XXL. XXL is the highest rating an album can receive.
Very few albums have received this rating in XXL’s ten year history. Another popular fea-
ture of XXL is Eye Candy. Eye Candy features interviews and photos of women, usually
from the hip hop modeling industry, dressed provocatively. Eye Candy has become such a
popular feature that it now has its own yearly issue.
Other ventures of XXL include a compilation of various artists entitled XXL Raps
Volume 1, which was released at the end of 2005 by Razor and Tie Entertainment. XXL
Raps Volume 1 includes music from Eminem, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Tony
Yayo, Fabolous, T.I., Lil Jon, Paul Wall, David Banner, Remy Ma, Fat Joe, Young Gunz,
Memphis Bleek, Jim Jones, Common, Obie Trice, and Trick Daddy. XXLmag.com is the
online counterpart to the print magazine. In addition to offering many of the features of the
print version, XXLmag.com provides extra features, such as behind the scenes videos and
message boards.

FURTHER READING
Grossberger, Lewis. “How Hip is Hop?” MediaWeek (26 May 2003): 46.
Ogunnaike, Lola. “War of the Words at Hip-Hop Magazines.” The New York Times, 29 January 2003, E1.
Surowiecki, James. “Hip-Hopped Up.” The New York Times, 5 April 1999, 20–21.

Apryl C. Price
 Z
ZANE (KRISTINA LAFERNE ROBERTS) (1967–). Zane is the pen name
of Kristina LaFerne Roberts, the most popular African American writer of erotic fiction
and a major producer of urban literature.
Zane’s loyal following of readers will show up at a book signing as if a top-notch
celebrity would arrive—in some instances drawing thousands. These book signings have
been so popular that security guards have to be hired and barricades erected to hold back
the masses. Zane has obviously touched a nerve in the rather puritanical America of the
beginning of the twenty-first century—she writes raw, gritty, graphic sexual novels that
many people of all races happen to enjoy. She is a leading figure in the second wave of the
Hip Hop Generation—who has even had a television documentary aired on TV One about
her career and her life.
Much of this popularity and following comes as a surprise to Zane. Many who show
up to see her at the book signings may be surprised at Zane’s rather quiet demeanor that
more befits a Sunday School teacher rather than the writer of some of the raunchiest
erotic fiction on the shelves today. Zane presents herself, though, with supreme excel-
lence and confidence. She is the daughter of a prominent theologian, who has written a
number of his own books, and an elementary school teacher. She is also a mother of three
children and these roles mean more in terms of shaping her appearance and who she
really is than anything else.
Zane launched her writing career as a way of filling the hours after her children went to
sleep. She wanted to share some fun stories with her friends at her dead-end sales job and
the fun that she wrote about dealt with sexually graphic material. Her friends enjoyed the
stories and encouraged her to put her stories on the Internet. Zane saw an opportunity and
started an e-zine called “The Sex Chronicles.” Her popularity exploded and people started
looking for her books, even though she didn’t have one at that time. Zane tried to circulate
her books through conventional methods, but publishers did not have her vision and
wanted more romance or women’s fiction approaches. With her sales expertise, Zane, like
other hip hop authors, decided to self-publish a collection of “The Sex Chronicles” stories.
These and two other titles sold 250,000 copies and Simon and Shuster saw a phenomenon
in the making. Zane had revolutionized the erotica industry. She began to publish her
works under her own imprint, an unheard of achievement for a black woman so early in
her writing career. Simon and Shuster agreed to distribute the books. Zane’s Strebor Books
International imprint, in addition to her own popular works, oversees a stable of more than
30 writers with almost three million books in print. This popularity has meant that she
became only the third black woman, after Toni Morrison and Terry McMillan, to land on
The New York Times fiction best seller print list since 2000.
 ZANE 267

Many of Zane’s fans do cite the enjoyable quality of her stories, aside from the raw
and gritty sexcapades of the characters, as reasons why they continue to read her work.
Addicted: The Novel deals with an arts dealer named Zoe who is a sex addict who almost
loses everything due to her problem. Nervous deals with a woman, Jonquinette, who has
an alternative sexual personality. Her psychological issue keeps her from developing a
longer-lasting, more satisfactory relationship. Skyscraper deals with the steamy goings
on in a business situation. Afterburn tells the story of a chiropractor and her bank
employee boyfriend and how they both have to deal with constant interference in their
relationship. Zane’s fearlessness in including real story elements, conflicts, and psycho-
logical interest keep her readers enthralled. Readers have thought her so proficient in
sexual matters that she has published a nonfiction collection of fan letters called Dear
G-Spot: Straight Talk about Sex and Love.
In her capacity as the head of the Strebor imprint, she has also compiled anthologies
(Chocolate Flava, Caramel Flava, and Blackgentlemen.com), edited collections, and
expanded the focus of her works to include Latino protagonists. One of the collections,
Breaking the Cycle, featured the theme of domestic abuse and the lasting effects on fami-
lies. Zane obviously is looking to do more than write about raunchy sex, and her readers
respond to that. Zane’s contributions to hip hop literature are large indeed, but even more
importantly, she resurrected the genre of erotica single-handedly, and now other publish-
ers are making large amounts of money by spinning off their own popular erotica imprints.

See also Addicted: The Novel; Strebor Publishing

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins
This page intentionally left blank
 SELECTED
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Blood, Rebecca. “Introduction.” We’ve Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing the Culture. John
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Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin’s
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Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empow-
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———. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. Minneapolis, MN: University of
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———. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism. Philadelphia, PA:
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Dyson, Michael Eric. Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1996.
———. Holler If You Hear Me: Searching For Tupac Shakur. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2001.
———. Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2007.
Forman, Murray. The Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop. Middletown,
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George, Nelson. Hip Hop America. New York: Viking, 1998.
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Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. Dir. Hurt, Byron. Prod. Media Education Foundation. Perf.
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Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture.
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McCall, Nathan. Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America. New York: Vintage,
1995.
Moore, Natalie, and Natalie Hopkinson. Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity
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Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down. New
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270 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nobody Knows My Name. Dir. Raimist, Rachel, Unleashed Entertainment, and Women Make
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 ABOUT THE
EDITOR AND
CONTRIBUTORS

Tarshia L. Stanley is an Associate Professor of English at Spelman College. She teaches

courses in African American Literature, Film Studies and Visual Imagery—particularly as
each pertains to images of women. She has authored several articles critiquing black
women in African American, African, and Caribbean cinema as well as black female
iconography in popular culture and has contributed to a wide range of reference works and
monographs.

Karley K. Adney is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-

Marathon County where she teaches courses in Literature, Writing, and Film. Her primary
interests include sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British Literature and literature for
children.

Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum is an Associate Professor of Music at Illinois State University,

where she teaches courses in Black Music, World Music, Ethnomusicology, and Women
in Music, and directs the African Drumming and Dance Ensemble. She has master’s and
doctoral degrees in Ethnomusicology from Florida State University. Her book Rhythms
and Stories for African Bell Ensembles focuses on West African stories and songs to use
in the elementary classroom. She has published articles in Women’s Studies: An Interdis-
ciplinary Journal, Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century African History, Yearbook of Tradi-
tional Music, and H-Net Book Review (online). She is currently working on a manuscript
about identity, dance, and the African Diaspora.

Marlene D. Allen is an Assistant Professor of English at Georgia Southwestern State Uni-

versity. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Her areas of research
include American literature, African literature, and African American science fiction and
gothic literature.

Carey Applegate is a teacher currently working on her doctorate in English Studies at Illi-
nois State University. Her studies focus on hip hop pedagogy within the high school English
classroom, African-American adolescent literature and literacies, and (pop) cultural studies.

Bridget A. Arnwine is a freelance music journalist and hip hop enthusiast. She currently
resides in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jennifer Ashley grew up around her family’s publishing business where she was exposed
to hip hop culture. She was immersed in the magazine and entertainment industries at a
272 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

young age. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she currently resides in Chengdu, China, where
she runs a city magazine she co-founded and gains insight into her half-Chinese ancestry.

Timothy Askew is an Associate Professor of English at Clark Atlanta University. He

received his B.A. at Morehouse College, his M.A. at Yale University, and his Ph.D. from
Emory University. Dr. Askew teaches courses in American Literature, Advanced Grammar,
Southern Literature, and Autobiography. He has received the N.A.A.C.P Image Award for
Excellence in Teaching at Clark Atlanta University as well as other awards for his teach-
ing and service at Clark Atlanta University.

W. C. Baxter III is currently a graduate student in Duke University’s Divinity School. He

holds a B.A. in English from Morehouse College and plans to attain his Ph.D. in either
English or African American Studies in the near future. He is currently the Assistant Pastor
at Jerusalem Church in Emporia, VA.

Mary Loving Blanchard is an Associate Professor of English at New Jersey City Univer-
sity where she teaches courses in the English major. Her manuscript in progress, Dear Sis-
ter: Letters from Phillis Wheatley to Arbour Tanner, examines relationships between slave
women in general and in particular between the eighteenth century slave poet, Phillis
Wheatley, and Arbour Tanner, the woman Wheatley met aboard the slave ship for which she
was named. Blanchard’s essay, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Reading Community, Rebellion, and
Religious Conversion in Phillis Wheatley’s Letters,” will appear in Correspondences: The
Theory and Practice of American Letters, 1760–1820, forthcoming.

Ellesia A. Blaque is a Philadelphian and a graduate of Temple University. She is a doc-

toral candidate at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, specializing in nineteenth-
century African American literature and history, as well as hip hop culture and rap music.
Blaque is also an Associate Professor at Palm Beach Community College in Palm Beach
Gardens, Florida, teaching literature of the African Diaspora and composition.

Terry Bozeman is currently the Assistant Director of the Comprehensive Writing Program
at Spelman College. He received his Ph.D. from Georgia State University. His areas of
interest are African American Studies, Rhetoric and Composition, and Studies of the
American South.

Gregory Donald Brophy is a doctoral candidate in the department of English at the Uni-
versity of Western Ontario. His current research investigates the fabrication of ethnicity,
gender, and sexuality within late nineteenth-century pseudo-science. He is currently work-
ing as a lecturer in visual and cultural studies at McGill University.

Adrienne Carthon holds a Ph.D. and is Assistant Professor of American Literature at

Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. Her research interests are African American
popular culture, Women’s Studies, Cultural Studies, Literacy Studies, and Ethnic Literatures.

Peter Caster is an Assistant Professor of Literature and Film at the University of South
Carolina Upstate. He is the author of Prisons, Race, and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century
 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS 273

U.S. Literature and Film (Ohio State, 2008) and currently is co-editing a collection on
black masculinity in history and literature.

Lauren Chambers is a fourth-year doctoral student in the English Department at the

University of Georgia. Her interests include African American Literature, Twentieth
Century American Literature, Postcolonial Literature, and Feminist Theory. Her dissertation
will seek to examine women writers of color (from the United States, the Caribbean, and
several African countries) who devise new approaches for constructing community in
order to define and renegotiate women’s identity formation.

Brian Su-Jen Chung is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program of American Culture at the
University of Michigan. His research interests include Asian American cultural studies,
performance studies, popular music studies, critical race studies, and “the body.” He is cur-
rently working on a dissertation project investigating the relationship between hip hop
dance performance and cultural citizenship in Asian American communities.

Gil Cook is a doctoral candidate in the English department at Purdue University. His work
focuses on modern and contemporary fiction of the African Diaspora, with a particular
interest in African American fiction and popular culture. Gil is currently working on his
dissertation project, which blends considerations of the hip hop industry with analysis of
James Baldwin’s work in discussing contemporary black subjectivity.

Antonio Maurice Daniels is a graduate student (English) at the University of Arkansas. He

specializes in African American literature and culture. Mr. Daniels is currently teaching
undergraduate composition and literature courses in the Department of English at the
University of Arkansas. After obtaining his doctoral degree in English, Antonio plans to
become a university professor and researcher in the field of English. As a Benjamin Franklin
Lever Fellow, Daniels engages actively in presenting papers at conferences and has several
scholarly publications forthcoming. He is a member of the following academic/professional
organizations: The Popular Culture Association, The American Culture Association, Sigma
Tau Delta, and National Scholars Honor Society.

Delicia Daniels is an English instructor at Wiley College. She received her B.A. in
English from Dillard University and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Chicago State
University

Carol Davis is a lecturer at Texas A&M University at Galveston where she teaches African
American Literature. She earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of Southern Cali-
fornia in Los Angeles.

Christina L. Davis is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University

of Georgia. Her research interests include nineteenth-century African American educa-
tion, U.S. Women’s History, and African American history. Through the support of the
Spencer Foundation that funds research in education, she plans to complete a disserta-
tion that examines the pedagogies of black and white women teachers during the Recon-
struction Era.
274 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

Tomika DePriest is executive director of the Spelman College Office of Communications.

She is responsible for strategic communications and management of branding, publica-
tions, media relations, new media and the Web. DePriest was named PR Person of the Year
in Education in 2004 by PR News, and was recognized with a Bulldog Reporter Gold
Award for Best Response to Breaking News in 2007. A recipient of the Spelman College
Alumnae Achievement/Tiffany & Co. Award, DePriest holds a Master’s degree in Africana
Women’s Studies from Clark Atlanta University. Her 1993 Master’s thesis, “Seductresses,
Sex Objects, Tragic Mulattoes and Social Props: Images of Women in the Films of Spike
Lee,” was a groundbreaking analysis of the stereotypes of Black women in popular cul-
ture. She is also an alum of the Institute for Education Management at Harvard University.
For nearly 10 years, she covered hip hop for LA-based Rap Pages magazine, penning
cover and feature stories, and music reviews. Her byline has also appeared in Black Enter-
prise, Upscale Magazine, Creative Loafing, and Atlanta Tribune.

Eve Dunbar is an Assistant Professor of English and African Studies at Vassar College.
She is completing a manuscript project that explores mid-twentieth-century African Amer-
ican writers who write to the United States from abroad. With a special attention to genre,
she explores the relationships among American nationalism, black internationalism, and
black diasporic discourse in contemporary African American studies.

Paul Falzone is an experimental and documentary filmmaker, radical ethnographer, and

activist. He is a doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication, Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the theory and production of media for social
and political change.

Paul Farber is a doctoral student at the University of Michigan (American Culture). His
research interests are twentieth-century American cultural history, queer theory, race and
masculinity, and fashion and performance studies. His writing has previously appeared in
Vibe, Blender, Complex, Mass Appeal, and Philadelphia Weekly, and on web portals
Vibe.com, AOLMusic.com, and Outsports.com.

Vanessa Floyd is a librarian working in Durham, North Carolina. In 2005 she was
awarded a Master’s in U.S. History, with a focus in African American History, from the
University of Illinois in Chicago. She completed a second Master’s in Library Science at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007.

Tikenya S. Foster-Singletary is currently teaching at Clark Atlanta University. She is a

graduate of Spelman College and Vanderbilt University. She has presented and published
in the fields of twentieth-century American and African American literature.

Samuel Frederick received his Ph.D. in German Studies from Cornell University in 2008.
He has published on the poetological implications of writing about nothing in Oswald
Egger, Robert Walser, Johannes Kepler, Italo Calvino, and Wallace Stevens. His research
interests include digressive narration, silent cinema, and performance poetry.

Nicholas Gaffney is currently a history doctoral student at the University of Illinois,

Urbana-Champaign, with research interests including twentieth-century United States
 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS 275

History, African American History, and Black Music History. He also holds an M.A. in
African American and African Studies from Ohio State University and a B.A. from
Morehouse College.

T. J. Geiger is a doctoral student in the Rhetoric program in the Department of English,

Speech, and Foreign Languages at Texas Woman’s University. He is also pursuing a grad-
uate certificate in Women’s Studies from Texas Woman’s University. His research interests
include African American rhetoric, composition studies, and feminist theories.

James Arthur Gentry is a McKnight Fellow and a Doctoral Candidate in the English
Department at the University of Florida.

Shane Gilley is currently a Ph.D. student at Oklahoma State University and will begin his
dissertation on hip hop cinema soon. Recently, he presented papers on rap videos, graffiti
and the use of color, and early hip hop film at conferences both regional and national. He
published the entry about Tupac Shakur in the Greenwood Press Encyclopedia of African
American Literature.

Brenna Clarke Gray is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at the University of New
Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Her area of study is Canadian and
American Literature, with a focus on Popular Culture and Masculinity Studies. Her the-
sis considers depictions of masculinity pre- and post-9/11 in the novels of Douglas Cou-
pland, and her other recent work has looked at intertextuality in animated sitcoms, the
role of language in primetime dramas, and the narrative structure of video games.

Thomas Haliburton is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at the Univer-

sity of Sussex Brighton, United Kingdom. His dissertation is titled “Unrealising Narrative:
Heroics in DeLillo and McCarthy.”

Marcella Runell Hall is the former Director of Education for the Hip Hop Association,
and co-editor of the nationally acclaimed Hip-Hop Education Guidebook. Hall also works
in the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs at New York University serving as
the campus-wide Diversity Educator & Trainer. Hall most recently served as the Assistant
Director of Programs, Education & Training at the Tanenbaum Center for Inter-religious
Understanding, as well as adjunct faculty for the Bank Street College of Education and
University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is currently completing her doctorate in Social
Justice Education. She also works as a freelance writer for the New York Times Learning
Network and VIBE magazine. Hall received her Master’s degree in higher education
administration with a focus on multicultural education from New York University in 1999
and holds a Bachelor’s degree in social work from Ramapo College of New Jersey, which
she received in 1997.

Alexander Hartwiger is a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

His research interests include postcolonial studies, contemporary theory, and critical ped-
agogy. He is currently working on a project that explores cosmopolitanism as a way to fos-
ter ethical reading practices for postcolonial literature. His Master’s thesis examined the
influence of Japanese literature and culture on Paul Beatty’s novels.
276 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

Candy A. Henry is an Assistant Professor of English at Westmoreland County Commu-

nity College in Youngwood, Pennsylvania.

Michelle S. Hite is a lecturer in the English department at Spelman College. Her major
fields of interest include twentieth-century African American literature and history.

Rebecca Housel teaches popular culture and creative writing at Rochester Institute of
Technology. She has published in the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series and is co-
editing a new volume in the Series, XMen and Philosophy, forthcoming in 2009. Rebecca
Housel completed her postgraduate work at the University of New South Wales and also
writes middle grade and young adult novels.

Akil Houston is on faculty in the department of African American Studies at Ohio

University and a doctoral candidate in the Cultural Studies in Education program at Ohio
University. Houston received his B.A. from Clark Atlanta University in Mass Media Arts
and both an M.F.A. in Film Production and an M.A. in International Affairs from Ohio
University. Houston is founder and co-contributor of the hiphopscholar (www.
hiphopscholar.org) and a member of The Hiphop Educational Review. Mr. Houston is
author of The Poetry Name Game: The Challenge of Hiphop Culture (2004) and Beyond
Blackface: Africana Images in U.S Media (2005, 2007).

Piper G. Huguley-Riggins is a Lecturer at Spelman College. She received her Ph.D. in

Twentieth Century American Literature from Georgia State University. She has taught at
Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Berry College. Her research
interests are in Autobiography, Women Writers, and Multi-Ethnic Literature. She lives in
the Atlanta, Georgia, area.

Wandra C. Hunley was born into the first generation of hip hop and was raised in Atlanta,
Georgia. Hunley has taught courses on hip hop and composition to middle school and col-
lege level students. She currently teaches English at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tolu O. Idowu is currently pursuing her doctorate in Interdisciplinary Studies. She is an

instructor of composition and literature and enjoys promoting good writing through cultural
exploration. She is especially fond of the nuances of hip hop in literature and how the liter-
ature has expanded the reading possibilities and practices for a whole new generation.

Judy L. Isaksen is an Associate Professor of Media and Popular Culture Studies at the Nido
Qubein School of Communication at High Point University in North Carolina. She teaches
a wide range of courses in communication, media theory and production, cultural studies and
pop culture, visual rhetoric, women and gender studies, race studies, rhetorical theory and
writing, hip-hop culture, and African-American literature. Her research and publications
have examined audio rhetoric, hip-hop theorists, Zora Neale Hurston, whiteness studies,
Generation X, West African drumming, minorities on public radio, and racial discourse.

Timothy S. Jones received an M.A. in Cultural Policy from the University of Chicago. He
has recently served as Artistic Director of the Dawson City Music Festival in the Canadian
 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS 277

North, and runs his own concert promotion company. Academically, his research interests
include the salience of critical theory to problems of definition in cultural econometrics,
social capital, and autobiographical theory.

Zandra L. Jordan is an Assistant Professor of English at Spelman College in Atlanta,

Georgia. She earned a B.A. and M.A.T. in English from Spelman and Brown University,
respectively, and a Ph.D. in English and Education from the University of Michigan. Her
research in rhetoric and composition includes language and literacy and the African Amer-
ican Church.

Beatrice Nibigira Kelley is a Professor of French and Linguistics at California State Univer-
sity, Sacramento. Her doctoral years were spent at the University of California, Davis, and the
University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests cover second language acquisition,
French/francophone literatures, language and identity in French, and American hip hop music.

Martin Kich is a Professor at Wright State University’s Lake Campus. In 2000, he was
the 17th recipient of the University’s Trustees’ Award, recognizing sustained excellence in
teaching, service, and scholarship. He recently contributed more than 70 articles to Green-
wood’s Encyclopedia of African-American Literature and another 25 to Greenwood’s
Encyclopedia of Multicultural Literature.

Mikel Koven is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Worcester. His main
area of research is cult and exploitation cinema and folklore and film. He has written La
Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (2006) and Film, Folklore
and Urban Legends (2008). He co-edited, with Sharon Sherman, Folklore/Cinema: Popu-
lar Film as Vernacular Culture (2007), as well as a special issue of Western Folklore on
“Folklore & Film” (64.3–4, 2005). He also edited a special issue of Shofar: An Interdisci-
plinary Journal of Jewish Studies titled “Cool Jewz: Contemporary Jewish Identity in Pop-
ular Culture” (25.4, 2007).

Beth Lagarou is a Ph.D. student in English at the University of Kansas. She earned a B.A. in
English and Communication Studies from the University of Miami in 1999, an M.A. in Eng-
lish from the University of Kansas in 2003, and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from
the University of Kansas in 2005. Her areas of interest include twentieth-century American lit-
erature, women’s studies, U.S. Latino/Latina literature, and literature of the Beat Generation.

Almaz Tsz-ying Leung is an MPhil student at the University of Hong Kong. Her research
interest is in language and gender and discourse analysis. She is also interested in gender
representations in media and popular cultures.

Jennie Lightweis-Goff teaches in the Women and Gender Studies Interdisciplinary Pro-
gram at the State University of New York–Brockport.

Laura H. Marks is a doctoral candidate in English and Women and Gender Studies at
Louisiana State University. Her current research interests are in feminist theory, queer the-
ory, and pornography.
278 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

Courtney D. Marshall is a Ph.D. candidate in English with a concentration in Women’s

Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation, “Law, Literature,
and the Black Female Subject” traces the theoretical connections between critical race
studies and Black feminist literary criticism. Her related interests include queer theory
and critical prison studies. She teaches courses on women, crime, and incarceration in
American culture.

Sheri McCord is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Saint Louis University (St. Louis, Mis-
souri) where she also holds a Women’s Studies Certificate. She studies seventeenth-cen-
tury British literature with an emphasis on the body and gender. Her other interests include
narrative theory, autobiography, and memoir writing. She writes creative non-fiction and
has published several of her own essays.

Anita K. McDaniel is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina,

Wilmington, where she teaches in the Department of Communication Studies. She often
presents papers at national conferences and publishes in international journals on the
intertextual play between the visual and written texts represented in comic books. Her
most recent comic related publications include “Dave Sim on Guys,” “Negotiating Life
Spaces: Will Marriage Marginalize Storm?” and an encyclopedia entry entitled “Comics:
1960–2005.”

Chaunda A. McDavis is an Assistant Professor of English at Auburn University

Montgomery. She received her Masters of Arts and Doctorate Degree in English from The
Pennsylvania State University. Dr. McDavis specializes in African American literature
focusing on the African American novel and the short story. Her research also extends itself
to Black women writers since 1970 and their literary responses to public policy, Black Cul-
tural Nationalism, Third World feminisms, Afro-Caribbean literature, Black intellectualism,
and the representation of migration and agency in Black diasporic literatures.

Ladrica Menson-Furr is Assistant Professor of African American Literature at the Uni-

versity of Memphis. She has been published in Mosaic, Interrogating America through
Theatre and Performance (eds. William Demastes and Iris Fischer), the Zora Neale
Hurston Forum, and African American Dramatists: An A to Z Guide (ed. Emmanuel Nel-
son). Her research interests include the dramas of Ed Bullins, Lorraine Hansberry, Zora
Neale Hurston, August Wilson, and Harlem Renaissance children’s drama.

Trudy Mercadal-Sabbaugh has a Master’s in Liberal Arts from Barry University, a

Master’s in Communication from Florida Atlantic University, and is a doctoral candidate
in Comparative Studies and a fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of Florida
Atlantic University. Her main area of research and teaching experience is community
and adult education in underprivileged areas, and she is especially interested in hip hop
pedagogy and culture. Trudy Mercadal-Sabbagh is currently working on her dissertation
on education and prison reform.

David Morris has written about hip hop and popular culture for Audiogalaxy, Popmatters,
Maximum Rock ‘n Roll, Skyscraper, and Signal to Noise, and is currently pursuing a doc-
torate from the University of Iowa.
 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS 279

Caryn Murphy is a Ph.D. candidate in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, where she is currently an Associate Lecturer for the Women’s Stud-
ies program. Her dissertation examines the intersections of third wave feminisms, such as
hip hop feminism and pop culture products marketed to teenage girls.

Angela M. Nelson is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Popular Culture
at Bowling Green State University. She has edited “This Is How We Flow”: Rhythm in
Black Cultures (1999) and co-edited Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic
Introduction (2006) with Harold E. Hinds, Jr. and Marilyn F. Motz. Her current teaching
and research focuses on black popular culture including African American popular and
religious music and representations of African Americans in comic art and television.

Kinohi Nishikawa is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program in Literature at Duke

University. His dissertation examines how social movements and popular culture spurred
the rise of black pulp fiction in the 1960s and 1970s.

Nneka Nnolim, a native of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, is a freelance writer in addition to

being the founder and Chief Creative Officer of IsaacAlice Creative Enterprises. IsaacAlice
is a multifaceted company specializing in producing and promoting urban creativity.
Nneka holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Windsor and
a Master’s degree in Journalism from Michigan State University.

Kimberly R. Oden is an English Ph.D. candidate at Morgan State University. She

received her B.A. and M.A. in English at North Carolina Central University, in Durham,
NC. Kimberly’s scholarly interests include African American literature, women’s studies,
and popular culture studies.

David B. Olsen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English at Saint Louis University,
where he teaches literature, writing, and science fiction. In 2006 he also participated in the
black intellectual history seminar at the Cornell University School of Criticism and Theory.

Yolanda Williams Page is the editor of the Encyclopedia of African American Women
Writers from Greenwood Press (2007). She has published bio-bibliographical essays in
African American Playwrights: A Sourcebook, and African American Autobiographers: A
Sourcebook, an essay in the Encyclopedia of Ethnic American Literature and an interview
in August Wilson and the New Black Arts Movement. She is currently coordinator of col-
legiate success at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Apryl C. Price has been a librarian for three years and an avid fan of hip hop culture even
longer. Her master’s degree is in Library and Information Science and her education spe-
cialist degree is in Instructional Technology. She is an Assistant Professor and Librarian
for Electronic Resources and Reference in Odum Library at Valdosta State University.

Sofía Quintero writes under the pen name Black Artemis. She wrote the hip hop novels
Explicit Content, Picture Me Rollin’, and Burn. She is also the author of the novel Divas
Don’t Yield and contributed novellas to the “chica lit” anthologies Friday Night Chicas and
Names I Call My Sister. As an activist, she co-founded Chica Luna Productions, a nonprofit
280 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

organization that seeks to identify, develop, and support women of color who wish to create
socially conscious entertainment. She is also the president of Sister Outsider Entertainment,
a multimedia production company that produces quality entertainment for urban audiences.

David Rando teaches twentieth-century literature at Trinity University, and has recently
written about James Joyce, J. M. Coetzee, Anne Frank, and Neutral Milk Hotel.

Tyeese Gaines Reid has written for 5-Minute Clinical Consult, Boston Magazine, M.D.
News and NBC6 in Miami. She earned both her Master of Arts in Journalism and Bache-
lor of Science in African American Studies at Northeastern University and is currently an
emergency medicine resident physician at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. She
earned the Doctorate of Medicine from Nova Southeastern University College of Osteo-
pathic Medicine.

Georgia M. Roberts is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Washington in

Seattle. Her research interests include global hip hop culture, American and Comparative
Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory, and public scholarship. Roberts teaches an under-
graduate course on Tupac’s literary influences, entitled “The Textual Appeal of Tupac
Shakur.” The course reads Tupac’s work alongside that of Sun Tzu, Richard Wright,
Shakespeare, and Machiavelli. Roberts also leads a monthly reading group at the Seattle
Public Library on the same topic.

Rachel Robinson is a first year M.A. student in the English Department at the University of
Florida. Her concentration involves a synthesis of African-American Literature, Cultural
Studies, Urban Literature, Neo-Slave Narratives, and Hip Hop Studies. As a native of Miami,
Florida, her experiences with diversity have led her to pursue equality through education for
all people. She hopes that through her scholarship she will be able to dismantle the many
prejudices that are so pervasive in this country.

Catherine Ross-Stroud is an Assistant Professor in literacy studies at Cleveland State

University. She earned her Ph.D. in English from Illinois State University. Her research
areas include children’s literature and adolescent literature, women’s literature, composi-
tion and rhetoric, adolescent literacy, theories of identity, and coming of age. Her manu-
script, Janet McDonald: The Original Project Girl, is forthcoming.

Angelle Scott is an instructor of English at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

She received both her M.A. and B.A. in English from the University of New Orleans. Her
academic interests include American literature, rhetoric and composition, popular culture,
and creative writing.

RaShell R. Smith-Spears is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and

Modern Foreign Languages, and is Co-Coordinator of the Graduate Program in English at
Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi.

Rosa Soto is an Assistant Professor of English and Latino Studies at William Paterson Uni-
versity in Wayne, New Jersey. A Puerto Rican scholar born in Miami, Florida, she earned her
 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS 281

Ph.D. in English literature (with a specialty in gender and sexualities) at the University of
Florida. She teaches Latino Literature, American Literature/studies, and cultural studies. Her
works include examining images of race, ethnicity, gender, and class in film, television, and
popular culture.

Rochelle Spencer is a Fiction Editor for the literary journal Obsidian III. Her work
appears in a variety of magazines and anthologies including African American Review,
Poets and Writers, Black Issues Book Review, New York Stories, Oxygen, and the Greenwood
Encyclopedia of Black Women Writers. Rochelle has taught at New York University,
Georgia Southern University, Spelman College, and Metropolitan College.

Nicole Staub received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Journalism from West
Liberty State College, a small liberal arts school in West Virginia, and her Master’s degree
from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. After receiving her M.A., she returned to WLSC
where she now teaches Composition, Technical Writing, and various literature courses.
Some of her current research interests include comics and graphic novels as academic
tools, magical realism, experimental fiction, and technology in the classroom.

Sharan Strange teaches creative writing at Spelman College. She has also been McEver
Visiting Chair in Poetry at the Georgia Institute of Technology and resident writer at Fisk
University, the California Institute for the Arts, and Wheaton College. She is a contribut-
ing editor of Callaloo and advisor to Spelman’s online journal, L-I-N-K-E-D. Her collec-
tion of poems, Ash, was awarded the Barnard Women Poets Prize in 2000.

Shanesha R. F. Brooks Tatum is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program in American Culture

at the University of Michigan, where she specializes in twentieth-century music, literature
and performance. Her dissertation “Poetics With a Promise: Performances of Faith, Gen-
der and Sexuality in African American Christian Hip-Hop” explores the identity perform-
ances of black Christian hip-hop performers in religious and secular spaces. She has
published on Langston Hughes’ 1920s jazz and blues poetry and has forthcoming work on
African and African American film operas.

Christin M. Taylor is completing an M.A. in English at the University of Virginia. Her

research interests focus on textual manipulations of the “black body” and intersecting polit-
ical categories of “identity” in African American literature. Her essay “Performing the Law:
Acts of Mastery in The Known World” will appear in the forthcoming collection, Crowned
with Laurel, African American Pulitzer Prize Winning Authors (Greenwood 2008).

Tyechia L. Thompson is a Doctoral candidate and Teaching Associate in the Department

of English at Howard University.

Robert Torre is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at the University of Wisconsin, Madi-

son. His dissertation examines music’s important role in the construction of urban identity
in early eighteenth-century Naples, Italy. Other theoretical interests include diaspora and
exile studies, performance studies, and the ways in which music aids the construction of
place. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
282 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

Yi-Hsuan Tso is Assistant Professor at the Center for General Education, National Taiwan
Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature
from the University of Georgia in 2004. Her publications include two encyclopedia entries
on contemporary American poetry, a translation that constitutes a chapter of a psychology
textbook, an interview of a Taiwanese Canadian poet, and newspaper articles.

Danielle R. Tyler is currently the Director of the Writing Center at Dillard University in
New Orleans, Louisiana. She has a Master of Arts degree in English and a Graduate Certifi-
cate in Technical Communication from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Her inter-
ests include technical communication, writing center theory and practice, and Africana
studies.

Sathyaraj Venkatesan is a Lecturer in English in the Department of Humanities, National

Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy, India. He was a participant at the School of Criti-
cism and Theory at Cornell University, New York (2006), and is currently an International
Field Bibliographer for African American Studies with Publications of Modern Language
Association of America (PMLA).

Patricia Ventura is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Spelman Col-

lege. She has published on film, media, globalization, and American cultural studies and
has edited a special double-issue collection called “Circulating America” in the journal
Genre 38. She is currently at working on her manuscript Neoliberal Culture in the 1990s
United States.

Travis Vogan is a Ph.D. student and Associate Instructor in the Department of Communi-
cation and Culture at Indiana University. He studies American documentary film and is
currently researching the history of the sports highlight. Vogan has published essays on the
jazz musician Charles Mingus and the film American Psycho.

Sandra L. West teaches African American Studies at Rutgers University. A literary soci-
ety historian, she is Guest Curator of ENTRUSTED TO OUR KEEPING: The Legacy of
African-American Literary Societies in Newark, The Nation, The World, an exhibition at
Newark (New Jersey) Public Library (January–March 2008). Co-author of Encyclopedia
of the Harlem Renaissance, the creative work of West is seen most recently in Pembroke
Magazine #39, Visions of the City (Black Apollo Press, United Kingdom), Chickenbones:
A Journal of Literary and Artistic African-American Themes, and Family Pictures: Poems &
Photographs Celebrating Our Loved Ones, edited by Kwame Alexander. She is a member of
the Harlem Writers Guild.

E. Angelica Whitmal, Ph.D., is a Research Associate for Five Colleges, Inc., Amherst, Mass-
achusetts.

Ava Williams is a freelance Research Editor at Allure magazine. Her work has appeared
in Black Issues Book Review, NV, and Avenue Report. She has a B.A. in English from Spel-
man College and an M.S. in Publishing from Pace University. Ava hopes to walk in the
 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS 283

shadows of literary artists she admires who have declared writing as their write—their
write to life. She is writing a work of fiction and resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Seretha D. Williams is an Associate Professor of English at Augusta State University. She

teaches courses in world humanities, women’s literature, African literature, and African
American literature. She has published articles on Leon Forrest and Gwendolyn Brooks.
Currently, she is writing a manuscript on the novels of Zakes Mda.

Aaron Winter received a B.A. Hons. in Political Science (York), an M.A. in Philosophy
and Social Theory (Warwick), and a D.Phil. in Social and Political Thought (Sussex) and
is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Abertay Dundee. His research focuses on the
American extreme right in the post-civil rights era, racism and anti-racism in the United
States and Britain, and racial politics and popular culture. He is a member of the British
Sociological Association and the British Association for American Studies.

Courtney Young is a graduate of Spelman College. In 2004, she graduated from New York
University receiving her Master’s Degree from the Gallatin School of Individualized
Study. She is currently a writer in New York City.
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 INDEX

Note: Bold page numbers indicate main entries in the encyclopedia.

Abuse: of black bodies, 145; sexual, depiction modern, 65; purpose of promoting cultural
of young black girl, 192–193; of women, sensitivities, 145
portrayed in literature, 76 Audience participation, and spoken word per-
Academy Award, first for hip hop movie, 130 formance, 229
Activists, promoting black culture: Braxton, Autobiography: of Dyson, Michael Eric,
Charlie, 38–39; Bynoe, Yvonne, 49–51; 12–13; of LL Cool J, 131–132
Chang, Jeff, 53–54, 54–55; Chuck D,
59–60; Medina, Tony, 162–163; Powell, Baby Boy (Columbia Pictures, USA, 2001), 6–7
Kevin, 190–191; Souljah, Sister, 222–224; Baisden, Michael (1963–), 7–8
Wallace, Michele Faith, 250–251 Bambaataa, Afrika, 10, 115
Addicted: The Novel (Zane, 2001), 1 Banks, L. A. (1960–), 8–9. See also Vampire
Adolescent literature or hip hop primers, 2. See Huntress series
also Children’ literature; Novels, young Beat Street (Orion Pictures, USA, 1984), 9–10
adult Beatty, Paul (1962–), 11
Advice and conduct books: for hip hop genera- Belly (Big Dog Films, USA, 1998), 11–12
tion, 136–137; “Yo Little Brother” Series, 80 Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Wit-
Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary ness to Black Culture (Dyson, 1996), 12–13
(Guy, 2005), 2–3 Biography of Donald Goines, 155–156
Affect, waning of, in postmodernism, 188 Biopics, hip hop, 63
African American communism, contribution to Black Artemis. See Quintero, Sofía
hip hop, 142 Black Arts movement (BAM): Baraka, Amiri,
African American culture: challenges for, 119; 20–21; legacy of, 22; poetry readings, venue
primary political topics for youth in, 119 of, 21; stylistic hallmarks of, 22
African American humor, 11 Black book clubs, 13–16: Oprah’s Book
African American identity: poetry and crisis of, Club, 14
18, 138–139; on power and, for men, Black Entertainment Television (BET), 222
157–158, 256 Black feminism/feminists: Bynoe, Yvonne,
African American pulp fiction: Goines, novels 49–51; commoditization of black female
of, 105–106; Old School Books Publishing bodies, 186, 250; hooks, bell on, 127–128;
and, 179; urban fiction, term associated of Morgan, Joan versus ivy-league
with, 245 feminists, 169; standpoint of, 73, 134–135;
African American studies. See Black Studies, Third Wave of, 45; women’s responsibility
Rap, and the Academy (Baker, 1995) for choices, call for, 253–254
And It Don’t Stop!: The Best American Hip Black Girl Magazine, 29–30
Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years Black men: archetypes in hip hop, 186; char-
(Cepeda, 2004), 3–4 acters as positive role models, 43–44; gay
Angry Blonde: The Official Book (Eminem, and bisexual, struggle of, 109; identity
2000), 4–5 and power of, 157–158, 256; masculinity
Art: black expressions of, 13; literary conven- in hip hop culture, 81, 111–112; power
tions of hip hop, 145; music video as post- struggle, hip hop theme, 67;
286 INDEX

Black men (continued): Black Man in America (McCall, 1994),

prison as alternative home for, 146; 157–158; Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s
reproductive rights of, call for, 254; respon- Hold on Young Black Women (Sharpley-
sibility, call for, 111–112; role models for Whiting, 2007), 186; Soul Babies: Black
young, importance of, 150; Singleton, John, Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic
in films of, 6; as strong, reevaluation of, (Neal), 220–222; That’s the Joint!: The Hip-
175; “Tyronicity,” 167–168; urban, in Hop Studies Reader (Foreman and Neal,
Goines’ writing, 105 2004), 239; When Chickenheads Come
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks
Contemporary America (Rose, 1994), 16–17 It Down (Morgan, 2002), 253–254; Who’s
Black periodical literature: fanzines, 93–94; Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race,
online magazine, 124–125. See also and Power in America (Powell, 2003),
Fanzines; Magazines; individual periodicals 255–256; Why White Kids Love Hip Hop:
Black poetry, 17–25: Angelou, Maya, 22; Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New
Baraka, Amiri, 20–21; Black Arts Reality of Race in America (Kitwanna,
movement, 20–22; black vernacular in, 25. 2005), 256–257
(see also Black vernacular speech; “Black public sphere” (1987–1994), 126
Language); Brooks, Gwendolyn, 20; Brown, Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gen-
Sterling, 20; described, 12–13; dialect, 19; der, and the New Racism (Collins, 2005),
first published, 18; Harlem Renaissance and, 27–28
19; hip hop poetry, roots in, 22; Hughes, Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy (Baker,
Langston, 19; on identity and power, 1995), 28–29
138–139; new poets, 24–25; published Black urban culture: blaxploitation films,
simultaneously in books and CDs, 24; sexu- themes in, 33; Slim, Iceberg, as seen in life
ality in, 22; Shange, Ntozake, 22; slams of, 133. See also Cinema; Films; individual
competition, 230; social revolution, intended film titles
to create, 21, 230; spoken word in, 24; sub- Black vernacular speech: Black Arts poetry,
jects of in 1970s and 1980s, 23; themes of, expected in, 21; black speech patterns, 208;
21–22; Wheatly, Philis, 18–19; writing col- of hip hop, 203, 241; Hughes, Langston, use
lectives and workshops, 23 of black vernacular by, 19; subversive use of,
Black Popular Culture, 25–26: Black Studies, 199–200; in urban fiction, 245; tradition of,
Rap, and the Academy (Baker, 1995), 247–248
28–29; Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, Black women: abuse of, 230; feminist
and Hair (Jones, 1997), 45–46; Business of standpoint, 73, 127–128, 134–135; image
Hip Hop Publishing, 47–49; Check It While change, call for in hip hop, 50, 135; novels
I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Cul- for, 90–91; place of, in hip hop, 186; poetry
ture, and the Public Sphere (Pough, 2004), of, 100, 165–166; publishers, 69; rappers,
55–56; Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look 55–56; relegation of to misogynistic ends,
at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Gener- 56; resiliency of, essays on, 45–46; role of,
ation (Hopkinson and Moore, 2006), 81; Hip in counteracting image in hip hop, 50; self
Hop America (George, 1998), 112–113; The perception, hip hop exploitation mentality
Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the effect on, 186; subjugation of, by hip hop,
Crisis in African American Culture 145–146; symbolic ownership, treatment of
(Kitwana, 2002), 119; Home Girls Make bodies as, 146
Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminism Anthology Blaxploitation films, 30–34: Asian-made, 32;
(Pough, ed., 2007), 123–124; The Hood defined, 30–31; directors of color and, 31;
Comes First: Race, Space and Place in Rap pimps in, 32–33; Slim, Iceberg, as godfather
and Hip-Hop (Forman, 2002), 125–126; of, 132; themes in, 33
Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory (Wal- Block parties, 107, 115
lace, 1990), 134–135; Know What I Mean?: Blogs, 34–36
Reflections on Hip Hop (Dyson, 2007), Book clubs. See Black book clubs
145–146; Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young THE BOONDOCKS, 73–74
 INDEX 287

Boyz N The Hood (Columbia Pictures, USA, Clowning, 205

1991), 36–38 Cobb, William Jelani (1969–), 65–67
Braxton, Charlie (1961–), 38–39 The Coldest Winter Ever (Sister Souljah, 1999),
Break dancing, 39–40; clowning and krumping, 67–69
204–205; moves in, 116; origins of, 116; College courses in hip hop literature
strategy to settle disagreements, 117 (1998–present), 69–72
Breakin’ (Canon Pictures, USA, 1984), 39–40 Collins, Patricia Hill (1948–), 72–73
Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual Politics in Comics, 74–75; and graphic novels, 106–108
the Golden Age of Rap Nationalism Coming of age stories: of Beatty, Paul, 11;
(Cheney, 2005), 40–41 “hood” films, 99, 163–164; of McDonald,
Brown, Claude (1937–2002), 41–42 Janet, 161–162; target audience, needs of,
Brown, Cupcake (1964?–), 42–43 238; in urban environments, 211, 237–238.
Brown, Parry “Ebony Satin” A. (1952–), 43–44 See also Novels, young adult; Teen fiction;
Brown Sugar (20th Century Fox, USA, 2002), individual titles
44–45 Commercial hip hop: men and women,
Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair relationships of, as core, 186; women’s bod-
(Jones, 1997), 45–46 ies as marketing tools for, 186
Burn: A Novel (Quintero, 2006), 46–47 Commercialization of hip hop: black popular
Business of Hip Hop Publishing, 47–49 music, impact on, 252; opposition to, 207
Bynoe, Yvonne (196?–), 49–51 Communism. See African American
communism
Calderón, Jennifer “Jlove” (1971–), 52–53 Compact discs, with books, 2
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip- Confessions of a Video Vixen (Steffans, 2005),
Hop Generation (Chang, 2005), 53 75–77
Chang, Jeff (1967–), 54–55 Crystelle Mourning: A Novel (Ulen, 2006),
Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, 77–78
Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere Cultural criticism, hip hop: Between God and
(Pough, 2004), 55–56 Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black
Cheekes, Shonda, 56–57 Culture (Dyson, 1996), 12–13; Brothers
The Cheetah Girls (Gregory, 1999), 57–58 Gonna Work It Out: Sexual Politics in the
Chickenheads, defined, 153 Golden Age of Rap Nationalism (Cheney,
Chideya, Farai (1969–), 59 2005), 40–41; of Chideya, Farai, 59; of
Children’s literature, 2; picture books, 2; urban Cobb, William Jelani, 65–67; of Collins,
street illustrations in, 194–195. See also Patricia Hill, 72–73; of Dyson, Michael
Adolescent literature or hip hop primers Eric, 7–8; Home Girls Make Some Noise:
Christian: beliefs and hip hop, 226, 227, 228; Hip Hop Feminism Anthology (Pough, ed.,
fiction, 168–169 2007), 123–124; of hooks, bell, 127–128; of
Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, 1960–), Jones, Lisa, 137–138; of Jones, Sarah,
59–60 138–140; of Kelley, Robin D. G., 142–143;
Cinema, 60–65; Academy Award, first for hip of Neal, Mark Anthony, 175–176; of Perry,
hop movie, 130; biopics, hip hop, 63; black- Imani, 182; of Raimist, Rachel, 198; of
on-black violence in, 36, 37; blaxploitation Reed, Ishmael, 199–200; of Rose, Tricia,
films, 30–34; critique on black, 200–201; 206–207
documentary on hip hop, 61–63; dramas, Cutting, 115
64; ghetto action films, 200–201; music
video, use of, 64; narratives, 63–64, 64; Sin- Dancing groups as alternative to gangs,
gleton, John and black urban film, 6; and 204–205
spoken word movement, 229–230. See also Daughter: A Novel (Bandele, 2003), 79
Films; individual film titles Davis, Anthony C., 80
Clark, Al C. See Goines, Donald Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black
Class, as social control, 256 Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation
Classic literature, as inspiration for rap, 217 (Hopkinson and Moore, 2006), 81
288 INDEX

Deejaying, 50 39–40; Brown Sugar (20th Century Fox,

Detective/mystery fiction, 81–83 USA, 2002), 44–45; 8 Mile (Universal Pic-
Dickey, Eric Jerome (1961–), 83–84 tures, USA, 2002), 89–90; Hip Hop:
Diggs, Anita Doreen (1960–), 84–85 Beyond Beats and Rhymes (Hurt for
DMX, 89 Independent Lens, USA, 2006), 111–112;
Documentaries, 61–63, 111–112, 233–234; Hip Hustle and Flow (Paramount Classics, USA,
Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (Hurt for 2005), 129–130; Juice (Paramount Pictures,
Independent Lens, USA, 2006), 111–112; USA, 1992), 140; Just Another Girl on the
Style Wars (PBS, USA, 1983), 233–234 IRT (Miramax, USA, 1993), 140–141;
Dopefiend: Story of a Black Junkie (Goines, Krush Groove (Warner Bros., USA, 1985),
1971), 85-86 146; Menace II Society (New Line Cinema,
Drugs and hip hop: Goines, Donald and, USA, 1993), 163–164; New Jack City (Jac-
85–86, 102, 103; Shakur, Afeni and, 1–2 mac Films, USA, 1991), 176–177; Poetic
The Dying Ground: A Hip-Hop Noir Novel Justice (Columbia Pictures, USA, 1993),
(Tramble, 2001), 86–87 187; Rize (Lions Gate, USA, 2005),
Dyson, Michael Eric (1958–), 12–13, 87–88 204–205; Slam (Offline Entertainment
Group, USA, 1998), 219; Style Wars (PBS,
E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX USA, 1983), 233–234. See also Cinema;
(Simmons and Fontane, 2002), 89 Documentaries
Ebonics. See Black vernacular speech; Flake, Sharon G. (1955–), 94–95
Language Flyy Girl (Tyree, 1993/1996), 95–96
Economic turmoil and hip hop’s appeal to From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural
white youth, 256–257 Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas,
Education: Chuck D’s emphasis on, 60; Soul- 1900–2002 (Reed, 2003), 96–97
jah, Sister on, 224
8 Mile (Universal Pictures, USA, 2002), 89–90 Gangs, graffiti as territorial markers of, 114
Emancipation, dialect poetry following, 19 Gangsta rap. See Rap music
Emceeing (MCcing), 116 Gays and bisexuals in black communities,
Eminem (Marshall Mathers), 4–5, 89 109–110
Erotica novels, 235, 266–267; Addicted (Zane, George, Nelson (1957–), 98–99
2001), 1–2 Ghetto culture, described, 68
Essays: on Blogger and MySpace, 196; women Giovanni, Nikki (1943–), 99–100
in hip hop, concepts of, in, 123–124. See Girls From Da Hood (Turner et al., 2004–),
individual essay titles 101–102
Explicit Content (Artemis, 2004), 90–91 Global economy and hip hop, 257
Goines, Donald (1937–1974), 102–106,
Fabulosity: What It Is & How to Get It 155–156, 255
(Simmons, 2006), 92 Graffiti, 114; hip hop art form, as, 233–234;
Fanzines, 93–94; The Source Magazine, political expression, as, 114; subways, as
225–226; Vibe Magazine, 248; Vibe Vixen canvas for, 114; territorial markers, as, 114
Magazine, 249; XXL Magazine, 265 Graphic novels, 106–108
Federal Communications Commission, censor- Guy, Jasmine, 2–3
ship of poem, 139
Feud between East Coast and West Coast rap- Harlem Renaissance, 19
pers, 216, 225; media corporations Harris, E. Lynn (1957–), 109–110
transformed as marketing turf, 126 The Haunting of Hip Hop (Berry, 2002),
Films: Baby Boy (Columbia Pictures, USA, 110–111
2001), 6–7; Beat Street (Orion Pictures, Hip hop: African American communism, contri-
USA, 1984), 9–10; Belly (Big Dog Films, bution to, 142; as African American cultural
USA, 1998), 11–12; Boyz N The Hood expression, 112; as American art form, 112;
(Columbia Pictures, USA, 1991), 36–38; art forms of, depicted in film, 10; avarice and
Breakin’ (Canon Pictures, USA, 1984), violence not unique to American culture,
 INDEX 289

112; commercialization of, opposition to, Hip hop poetry: censorship of, 139; collective,
207; confessional, 75–77; connecting with 147–148; first lady of, 166–167; reviving
past through music of, 110; contradictions interest in poetry through, 217; slam compe-
within, 112; culture, manifestations of, 50; as titions of, 230; social agenda, as mode of,
deterrent to crime, 148–149; education about, 212, 230; spoken, 228–230
118; elements of, 113–114; expressions of, Hip hop publishing: 50 Cent and, 48–49;
10; feud between East Coast and West Coast, Simon & Schuster, 48, 49; Stringer, Vickie
216, 225; feuds as normal part of culture of, M. and, 47–48; Zane, 49
265; gender politics, concern with, 220; Hip hop studies, 69–72, 118, 239
music, first examples of, 148; history of, Hip hop themes, 213; black men, power strug-
16–17, 114–116, 146; ideologies of, political gle of, 67; camaraderie, 3; catalyst for
and social, 123; inspirational writing, 147, change, 222; Christian, 168–169; death and
149–150; issues contested within, 112; lan- life, 77; general, 2; in graphic novels,
guage of, 203; literature described, 15; movie 106–108; pulp fiction, 105–106;
portraying positive image of, 9; misogyny of, remembrance, 77; in urban fiction, 245
56, 124, 145, 259; negative attributes of, 145; Hoch, Danny (1970–), 121–122
as New Black Aesthetic, 221; old school ver- Hokum: An Anthology of African American
sus new school, 44; pioneers of, 114, 115; as Humor (Beatty, 2006), 11
political tool, 143; religious opposition to, Holmes, Shannon, 122–123
227; Southern (see Braxton, Charlie); spiritu- Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Femi-
ality and, 226–228; split from rap, 117; stars’ nism Anthology (Pough, ed., 2007),
lifestyle, 143–144; vernacular as resistance 123–124
art, 248; video images of women in, 182; Honey Magazine, 124–125
white audience of, 257; women’s bodies as The Hood Comes First: Race, Space and Place
marketing tools for 186; women’s claim to, in Rap and Hip-Hop (Forman, 2002),
123–124 125–126
Hip Hop America (George, 1998), 112–113 hooks, bell (Gloria Watkins, 1952–), 127–128
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (Hurt for Humor, African American, 11
Independent Lens, USA, 2006), 111–112 Hunt, La Jill, 128–129
Hip hop culture: elements of, 70–71; history of Hustle and Flow (Paramount Classics, USA,
(see Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Cul- 2005), 129–130
ture in Contemporary America (Rose,
1994)); masculinity in, 81 Iceberg Slim (Robert Lee Maupin, aka Robert
The Hip-Hop Education Guidebook: Volume I Beck, 1918–1992), 132–133
(Runell and Diaz, edited by Roy, 2007), 118 Iceberg Slim: The Life as Art (Muckley, 2003),
The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the 133–134
Crisis in African American Culture Ice-T, 176, 177
(Kitwana, 2002), 119 I Make My Own Rules (LL Cool J, aka James
Hip Hop; Hiphop; Hip-Hop; Hip-hop Culture, Todd Smith, 1998), 131–132
113–117 Inner city destruction, 126
Hip-Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of the Gap Inspirational writing, 147, 149–150, 177–178
Moguls (Oliver and Leffel, 2006), 120 Internet: essays on, 59, 196; hip hop blogging
Hip Hop journalism, 3–4 on, 35–36; honeymag.com, 124–125; urban
Hip hop literature: black speech patterns in, fiction, revived on, 245–246
208; characteristics of, 15; criticism of liter- Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory
ary merit of, 152–154; demand for created (Wallace, 1990), 134–135
by rap music, 47; Goines, Donald, as early Islam and hip hop, 226, 227
progenitor of, 26; history of, 53; themes of,
26 (see also Hip hop themes) Jackson, Curtis James, III (aka 50 Cent,
Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the 1975–), 136–137
Struggle for the Soul of a Movement James, Kenya Jordana, 29–30
(Watkins, 2006), 121 Jones, Lisa (1961–), 137–138
290 INDEX

Jones, Sarah (1973–), 138–140 Manchild in the Promised Land (Brown, 1965),
Journalism, hip hop, 3–4 158–159
Juice (Paramount Pictures, USA, 1992), 140 Mayo, Kierna (1970–), 160–161
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (Miramax, USA, MCing, 116
1993), 140–141 McDonald, Janet (1953–2007), 161–162
Media corporations: artists’ own labels, creat-
Kelly, Robin D. G. (1962–), 142–143 ing to circumvent, 126; blogging to bypass,
Kennedy, Erica (1970–), 143–144 35; commodification of black dysfunction
Kensington Publishing Corporation, 144 by, 175–176; disciplining and policing roles
Keys, Alicia, 236 of, 17; women’s bodies as marketing tools
Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop for, 186
(Dyson, 2007), 145–146 Media, spoken word movement in, 229–230
Krumping, 205 Medina, Tony (1966–), 162–163
Krush Groove (Warner Bros., USA, 1985), 146 Memoirs of: Bandele, Asha, 191–192; Brown,
Claude, 158–159; DMX, 89; Eminem,
Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman 4–5; Harper, Hill, 149–150; Latifah,
(Queen Latifah, aka Dana Owens, 1999), 147 Queen, 147; LL Cool J, 131–132; McCall,
Language: black speech patterns, 208; of hip Nathan, 157–158; Shakur, Afeni, 2–3;
hop, 203, 241; Hughes, Langston, use of Simmons, Russell, 150–151; Slim,
black vernacular by, 19; linguistics studies Iceberg, 184–185; Souljah, Sister,
of Elaine B. Richardson, 203; narrativizing, 177–178; Steffans, Karrine, 75–77;
247; “nigger”/“N-Word,” use of, 15, X, Malcolm, 263–264
221–222; subversive use of, 199–200; of Menace II Society (New Line Cinema, USA,
urban fiction, 245; vernacular tradition, 1993), 163–164
247–248 Miranda, Elisha (1969–), 164–165
The Last Poets (poetry collective), 147–148 The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The
Latifah, Queen, 147, 160–161, 194–195 Poetry of Jill Scott (Scott, 2005), 165–166
Lee, Spike, 200–201 Moore, Jessica Care (1971–), 166–167
Lesbian: culture and Queen Pen, 195; Lorde, Moore, Natalie Y., 167–168
Audre, as black, 22 Moore, Stephanie Perry (1969–), 168–169
Let That Be The Reason (Stringer, 2001), Morgan, Joan (1965–), 169–170
148–149 Music video, 64–65; resubjugation of women
Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Des- in, 182; sexism in, 250; women’s bodies as
tiny (Harper, 2006), 149–150 marketing tools for, 186
Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, and God Myers, Walter Dean (1937–), 171–172
(Simmons and George, 2002), 150–151 Misogyny in hip hop: Dyson’s excuses for, 145;
Life Is Not a Fairy Tale (Barrino, 2005), passive attitude in young girls toward, 124;
151–152 as way for women to engage patriarchy, 56
Literary fiction, 152–154
Literary quality and hip hop literature, 152–154 The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim: Robert Beck’s
Love Don’t Live Here No More (Snoop Dogg Real Story (Iceberg Slim aka Robert Beck,
and Talbert, 2006), 154–155 1975), 174
Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Donald Narrativizing, 247
Goines (Allen, 2004), 155–156 Neal, Mark Anthony (1965–), 175–176
Neo-HooDoosim, 199
Magazines: Black Girl, 29–30; Honey, New Jack City (Jacmac Films, USA, 1991),
124–125; honeymag.com, 124–125; The 176–177
Source, 225–226; Vibe, 248; Vibe Vixen, No Disrespect (Sister Souljah, 1994), 177–178
249; XXL, 265 Novellas, 101–102
Major publishing houses, 48 Novels, young adult, 94–95, 164–165, 171;
Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man abuse of character in, 192–193; Christian,
in America (McCall, 1994), 157–158 168–169; rap, incorporating, 172; target
 INDEX 291

audience, needs of, 238. See also Coming of Publication. See Business of hip hop
age stories; Teen fiction; individual titles publishing; Major publishing houses; Self-
publishing; individual publishing houses
Old School Books Publishing (W. W. Norton, Push: A Novel (Sapphire, 1996), 192–193
1996–1998), 179
Oprah’s Book Club, 14 Queen of the Scene (Queen Latifah aka Dana
Other Men’s Wives (Johnson, 2005), 180 Owens, 2006), 194–195
Owens, Dana (aka Queen Latifah), 147, Queen Pen (aka Lynise Walters), 195–196
194–195 Quintero, Sofía (aka Black Artemis, 1969–),
196–197; social work of, 46
Peer culture, 157–158
Performance poetry: audience participation Race, as social control, 256
expected, 229; Black Arts poets’ models for, Racial inequality, 157
21; themes and techniques, 21–22; venues Radio: Baisden, Michael, host, 7–8; The Wendy
for, 21. See also Spoken Word Movement Williams Experience, 260–261
Performance, politics of, Shakur, Tupac, Ramist, Rachel (197?–), 198
216–217 Rap music: Black Arts movement and, 23; in
Periodicals. See Black periodical literature blogs, 35–36; classic literature, as inspira-
Perry, Imani (1972–), 182 tion for, 217; classification of, 116; cloth-
Picture books, hip hop, 2 ing trend of, 47; commercialization and
Picture Me Rollin’ (Quintero, 2005), 183–184 split from hip hop, 117; contemporary pat-
Pimp, in blaxploitation films, 32–33, 132 terns of, 116; cutting and scratching, 115;
Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on emceeing (MCing), 116; feminist
Young Black Women (Sharpley-Whiting, discussion of, 17; forerunners of, 23–24;
2007), 186 gansta, and Tupac Shakur, 216; history of,
Pimp: The Story of My Life (Iceberg Slim aka 16–17, 116, 146; lifestyle trend of, 47;
Robert Beck, 1969), 184–185 “Master of Records,” 115; moguls’ traits,
Poetic Justice (Columbia Pictures, USA, 1993), 120; old school versus new school, 44;
187 reading, trend in, 47; resistance, as form
Poetry: of Beatty, Paul (1962–), 11; From of, 142; revolution in, as self-
Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthol- enlightenment, 202; sampling, 116; slams,
ogy of Poetry Across the Americas, described 23–24; traits of, 17; video
(1900–2002) (Reed, 2003), 96–97; of Gio- images of women in, 182. See also Black
vanni, Nikki (1943–), 99–100; of The Last Studies, Rap, and the Academy (Baker,
Poets (poetry collective), 147–148; of Med- 1995)
ina, Tony (1966–), 162–163; of Moore, Jes- Rappers, as actors, 65
sica Care (1971–), 166–167; The Revolution Rapper wars for market share, 121
Will Not Be Televised (Scott-Heron, 1970), Raptivists, 40, 41
201–202; of Sanchez, Sonia (1934–), Reed, Ishmael (1938–), 199–200
208–209; of Scott-Heron, Gil (1949–), Religion and hip hop, 226–228
212–214; of Spoken word movement, Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the
228–230; Tears for Water: A Songbook of Production of Black Cinema (Watkins,
Poems and Lyrics (Keys, 2004), 236; of 1999), 200–201
Williams, Saul (1972–), 258–259. See also “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (Scott-
Black Arts movement; Black poetry; Heron, 1970), 201–202
Harlem Renaissance; Hip hop poetry Richardson, Elaine B. (1960–), 203
Postmodernism, 187–190 Ridenhour, Carlton Douglas. See Chuck D
Powell, Kevin (1966–), 190–191 (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, 1960–)
Prison: epiphany while in, 158; few available Rivera, Raquel Z. (197?-), 203–204
options to, for black men, 146; spouse out- Rize (Lions Gate, USA, 2005), 204–205
side of, memoir of, 191–192 Roby, Kimberla Lawson (1965–), 205–206
The Prisoner’s Wife (Bandele, 1999), 191–192 Rose, Tricia (1963–), 206–207
292 INDEX

Sampling, 114, 116 Technology, use and repurposing in hip hop, 206
Sanchez, Sonia (1934–), 208–209 Teen fiction, 237–238; target audience, needs
Sapphire (Ramona Lofton, 1950–), 210–211 of, 238. See also Coming of age stories;
Scott-Heron, Gil (1949–), 212–214 Novels, young adult
Scratching, 115 Television: black women on, negative images
Self-help books, 92–93; advice and conduct of, 221; Def Poetry Jam (HBO, 2002), 230;
books, 80, 136–137; common sense and, 218 Saturday Night Live, hip hop first on, 116;
Self-publishing, artists resort to when rejected, sitcoms featuring black families and reality,
48, 49, 205, 232 disconnect between, 221; and spoken word
Sex, as social control, 256 movement, 229–230. See also
Sexism in hip hop: Black Sexual Politics: Documentaries
African Americans, Gender, and the New Themes. See Hip hop themes
Racism, (Collins, 2005), 27–28; in rap lyrics That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader
and video, 250 (Foreman and Neal, 2004), 239
Sexuality: critique of image of black, 221; and Thomas, Brenda L. (1957–), 239–240
psychological health, 1 Tommy the Clown’s Hip Hop Clown Academy,
Shaft, as blaxploitation film, 31 205
Shakur, Tupac Amaru “2PAC” (1971–1996), Toxic acculturation and violence, 256
214–217 Triple Crown Publications, 48, 240–241
Simmons, Earl. See DMX Tuff (Beatty, 2000), 11
Simmons, Russell (1957–), 217–218 Turner, Nikki (1973–), 241–242
Singleton, John, 6–7 Turntable as instrument, 115
Slam (Offline Entertainment Group, USA, Tyree, Omar (1969–), 242–243
1998), 219 “Tyronicity,” 167–168
Slams: beginning of, 230; in film, 10
Slim, Iceberg, political criticisms of, 174 Ulen, Eisa Nefertari (1968–), 244
Smith, James Todd (aka LL Cool J), 131–132 Urban fiction, 67, 239–240, 245–246; African
Social change: Black Arts poetry intended to American pulp fiction, relation to, 245; ver-
create, 21; hip hop inspiration for, 146, 222; sus graphic novel, 107; Internet, revived on,
means to power through hip hop, 119 245; language of, 245; Latino, 246; novel-
Society, acting out against, 157–158 las, 101–102; print-on-demand and,
Solomon, Akiba (1974–), 219–220 245–246; teen, 237–238, 246; themes of,
Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the 245; for young adults, 171
Post-Soul Aesthetic (Neal), 220–222 Us Girls, 10
Souljah, Sister (1964–), 222–224
The Source Magazine, 225–226 Vampire Huntress series, 8–9
Spirituality and religion in hip hop literature Vernacular tradition, 247–248. See also
and culture, 226–228 Language
Spoken word album of Scott-Heron, 213 Vibe Magazine, 248
Spoken word movement, 228–230; audience Vibe Vixen Magazine, 249
participation in, 229; Beat generation, influ- Violence: avarice and, not new in American
ence on, 228–229; early standouts in, 24; in culture, 112; black-on-black, in film, 36, 37;
the media, 229; and poetry conventions, 24; disregard for human life as postmodern trait,
published in book and CD formats, 24; rela- 188; Goines, Donald, literary mark of, 103;
tionship to hip hop, 229; roots of, 228 and sexual abuse, 186; toxic acculturation,
Steffans, Karrine (1978–), 231–232 as influence of, 256
Strebor Books International, 232–233
Stringer, Vickie M., and self-publishing, 47–48 Wallace, Michele Faith (1952–), 250–251
Style Wars (PBS, USA, 1983), 233–234 Weber, Carl (1967–), 251–252
What the Music Said: Black Popular Music
Taylor, Carol, 235 and Black Public Culture (Neal, 1998),
Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics 252–253
(Keys, 2004), 236 Wheatley, Phillis, 18–19
 INDEX 293

When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Williamson, Lisa. See Souljah, Sister
Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down (Morgan, Williams, Saul (1972–), 258–259
2002), 253–254 Williams, Wendy, 260–261
White Boy Shuffle (Beatty, 1996), 11 Woods, Teri, 261–262
Whites and hip hop, 52–53: youth, appeal to, Writing collectives and workshops and black
256–257 poetry, 23
Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp
(Goines, 1972), 255 X, Malcolm (Malcolm Little, El-Hajj Malik El-
Who’s Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race, Shabazz, 1925–1964), 263–264
and Power in America (Powell, 2003), XXL Magazine, 265
255–256
Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wig- “Yo Little Brother” Series, 80
gers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of
Race in America (Kitwanna, 2005), 256–257 Zane (Kristina LaFerne Roberts, 1967–), 2–3,
Williams, Hype, 11–12 266–267
Williams, KaShamba, 257–258 Zulu Nation Crew, 10