Hip-hop and American culture / edited by Rob Turner.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Turner, Rob, 1985- editor.

Series:

Cambridge themes in American literature and culture.

Cambridge themes in American literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rap (Music)--History and criticism.

Rap (Music).

Hip-hop--United States.

Hip-hop.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 362 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

Rewinding through five decades, this book listens closely to the bars, samples, and stories that have made hip-hop the true sound of America. Bringing together nineteen essays from leading figures in hip-hop studies, it traces lines of influence from Atlanta and Detroit all the way back to the Bronx and the Caribbean. The book's first half digs into the instrumental layers that continue to underpin hip-hop, while taking a close look at the poetic effects that lurk within key verses. For its second half, the focus turns to the larger culture, assessing the cluster of social tensions that are coming to define the US - and which can be heard in the nation's most powerful and controversial music. Accompanying the book is a 42-song playlist, including both iconic tracks and underground tapes, making it easy to follow the relevant beats and rhymes while reading each chapter.

Contents:

Introduction. Hip-Hop and American Culture

Part One. Sonic Roots. The Funk Impulse ; Nation Time(s) : Jazz and Hip-Hop's Changing Same ; Return of the Griot? ; Afrofuturism, the Caribbean, and the Loop of History ; From Circuits to Aesthetics : The Samplers and Beat Making Styles of Hip-Hop's Golden Era

Part Four. Off the Mic : Hip-Hop Media. What is the Hip-Hop Novel? ; Hip-Hop Comics : Ronald Wimberly's Intertextual Adaptations of Rap's Minor Characters ; "The Wrath of the Math" : Identity, Aesthetics and Representation in Early Hip-Hop Films ; "Black America's TV Station" : The Rise and Fall of Reality Rap ; Notes on Hip-Hop, Graffiti Subculture, and Performing Anti-Imperial Feminism in the United States.

Part Three. Dollars and Bodies : Hip-Hop America. "Made a mil' off that mumblin' shit" : The Freestyling Cyborgs of Post-Internet Hip-Hop ; "How Much A Dollar Cost" : Hip-Hop, Race, Capitalism ; Community and Capital : Detroit Hip-Hop Collectives and the Business of Culture Creation ; The "Krip-Hop" Remix : Disability and Hip-Hop ; "Make Him Give Me Einstein" : Pop Trap and Black Women's Pleasure

Part Two. On the Mic : Wax Poetics. "Like an Interstellar Wind" : Flow and Meter ; The History of Hip-Hop Rhyme in Three Samples ; Spinning Staves in Bars : Hip-Hop comes to Spoken-Word ; "Read the Fine Print" : DOOM and Persona Poetry

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 26 Mar 2026).

ISBN:

1-009-71474-0

1-009-71477-5

1-009-71473-2