Rap Music and Street Consciousness (Music in American Life)
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: March 5, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780252072017
Subjects: Popular culture; Rap & hip-hop; Music; Music/Songbooks; Genres & Styles - Rap & Hip Hop; History & Criticism - General; Music / Rap; General
First sentence: Most critics and scholars concur that rap music is a confluence of African American and Caribbean cultural expressions, such as sermons, blues, game songs, and toasts and toasting-all of which are recited in a chanted rhyme or poetic fashion.
Description: "Traces the genre's history from its roots in West African bardic traditions, the Jamaican dancehall tradition, and African American vernacular expressions to its permeation of the cultural mainstream as a major tenet of the hip-hop style."--cover.