A History Of The Hip-Hop Generation (2005)
Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop became the Esperanto of youth rebellion and a generation-defining movement. In a post-civil rights era defined by deindustrialization and globalization, hip-hop crystallized a multiracial, polycultural generation's worldview, and transformed American politics and culture. But that epic story has never been told with this kind of breadth, insight, and style.
Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop's forebears, founders, and mavericks, including DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, and Ice Cube, Can't Stop Won't Stop chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation's rise from the ashes of the 60's into the new millennium. Here is a powerful cultural and social history of the end of the American century, and a provocative look into the new world that the hip-hop generation created.
That's the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (2004)
That's the Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader brings together the best-known and most influential writings on rap and hip-hop from its beginnings to today. Spanning nearly 25 years of scholarship, criticism, and journalism, this unprecedented anthology showcases the evolution and continuing influence of one of the most creative and contested elements of global popular culture since its advent in the late 1970s. Think of it as "Hip-Hop 101."
Assembled with great care by Mark Anthony Neal, hailed as "one of the most brilliant cultural critics of his generation" (Chicago Sun Times), and fellow hip-hop scholar Murray Forman, That's the Joint is the first to attempt to present the most important hip-hop scholarship in one comprehensive volume. Presented thematically, the selections address the history of hip-hop, identity politics of the "hip-hop nation," debates of "street authenticity," gender, revolutionary politics, aesthetics, technologies of production, hip-hop as a cultural industry, and much more.
The articles presented here display a diverse array of concerns, illuminating hip-hop in its broadest conception as both a musical and cultural practice. Among the more than forty texts collected in the volume, you will find critiques of groundbreaking recordings like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" and Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation to Hold Us Back," some of the earliest commentary on B-Boys break dancing and DJs sampling, and serious responses to key moments and controversies from the 2 Live Crew obscenity trial to gangsta rap to the movement of hip-hop into commercial and academic spheres.
Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation (2003)
In Songs in the Key of Black Life, acclaimed cultural critic Mark Anthony Neal turns his attention to Rhythm and Blues. He argues that R&B-often dismissed as "just a bunch of love songs," yet the second most popular genre in terms of sales-can tell us much about the dynamic joys, apprehensions, tensions, and contradictions of contemporary black life, if we listen closely. With a voice as heartfelt and compelling as the best music, Neal guides us through the work of classic and contemporary artists ranging from Marvin Gaye to Macy Gray. In the first section of the book, "Rhythm," he uses the music of Meshell N'degeocello, Patti Labelle, Jill Scott, Alicia Keys, and others as guideposts to the major concerns of contemporary black life-issues such as gender, feminist politics, political activism, black masculinity, celebrity, and the fluidity of racial and sexual identity. The second part of the book, "Blues," uses the improvisational rhythms of black music as a metaphor to examine currents in black life including the public dispute between Cornel West and Harvard President Lawrence Summers and the firing of BET's talk-show host Tavis Smiley. Songs in the Key of Black Life is a remarkable contribution to the study of black popular music, and valuable reading for anyone interested in how race is lived in America.
Soul Babies : Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002)
From Sanford and Son to Snoop Doggy Dog, Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic looks at the last three decades of black images and representations. State University of New York, Albany, professor of English and Africana Studies Mark Anthony Neal focuses on the way that music, film and television were altered on the one hand by integration and on the other hand by the pessimism and social unrest among black Americans in the '70s and '80s. Neal also discusses the work of young black intellectuals of the "post-soul" generation, the first to be part of an integrated yet increasingly isolated academy.
Soul City (2004)
"Soul City is a world where not everyone has magic powers, but most of em do. There's the babies who can fly at birth, there's a man who can go to Heaven, talk to God, and come back, and there's a woman who can read minds who turns herself into the town gossip queen, Ubiquity Jones. Soul City is a world of plenty of rhythm and fun where politics is dominated by music. When we arrive in town there's a mayoral election under way. The three main candidates are from the Jazz Party, the Soul Music Party, and the Hiphop Nation. You see, in Soul City, all the mayor does is DJ for the town."
Never Drank the Kool-Aid (2006)
"Never Drank the Kool Aid is a long-awaited collection of Tour's magazine journalism, including several pieces that have never before been published. The collection includes impressions of Tupac's legendary 1995 circus-like sexual assault trial and Jam-Master Jay's funeral, a night of thousand-dollar poker with Jay-Z, a talk with Eminem about the children he loves, a near-death experience with DMX, an exploration of the mysterious demise of Lauryn Hill, a trip through the south of France with Beyonce, shopping for an iced-out chain with Kanye, playing basketball with Prince, playing basketball with Wynton Marsalis, playing tennis with Jennifer Capriati, doing graffiti on New York City subway trains with experienced graf artists, and the tales of an Ivy League-educated counterfeiter, as well as essays wondering if gay rappers are too real for hiphop and whether Condoleeza Rice is a house negro. 400 pages of compelling writing about music and culture from one man who never drank the kool-aid."
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