Download or read book Hip Hop Activism in the Obama Era written by Bakari Kitwana and published by Third World Press. This book was released on 2012-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kitwana, author of the best-selling The Hip-Hop Generation, sits down with leadership of the five major national hip-hop organizations, a larger part of the force that is driving the innovative marriage between hip-hop and civic engagement--The League of Young Voters, The Hip-Hop Congress, The National Hip-Hop Political Convention, The Hip-Hop Caucus and The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. Hip Hop Activism in the Obama Era is a collection of interviews with activists and political organizers at the forefront of increasing youth involvement in electoral politics.
Download or read book The Hip Hop Obama Reader written by Travis L. Gosa and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring a foreword by Tricia Rose and an Afterword by Cathy J. Cohen Barack Obama flipped the script on more than three decades of conventional wisdom when he openly embraced hip hop--often regarded as politically radioactive--in his presidential campaigns. Just as important was the extent to which hip hop artists and activists embraced him in return. This new relationship fundamentally altered the dynamics between popular culture, race, youth, and national politics. But what does this relationship look like now, and what will it look like in the decades to come? The Hip Hop & Obama Reader attempts to answer these questions by offering the first systematic analysis of hip hop and politics in the Obama era and beyond. Over the course of 14 chapters, leading scholars and activists offer new perspectives on hip hop's role in political mobilization, grassroots organizing, campaign branding, and voter turnout, as well as the ever-changing linguistic, cultural, racial, and gendered dimensions of hip hop in the U.S. and abroad. Inviting readers to reassess how Obama's presidency continues to be shaped by the voice of hip hop and, conversely, how hip hop music and politics have been shaped by Obama, The Hip Hop & Obama Reader critically examines hip hop's potential to effect social change in the 21st century. This volume is essential reading for scholars and fans of hip hop, as well as those interested in the shifting relationship between democracy and popular culture.
Download or read book A Hip Hop Activist Speaks Out on Social Issues written by Solomon W.F. Comissiong and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-05-31 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Hip Hop Activist Speaks Out on Social Issues is a collection of essays that offers readers brutally honest analysis and commentary regarding a range of social issues and injustices, often ignored by the American corporate media, government and mainstream educational systems. Mass Incarceration, the Military Industrial Complex, Institutional Racism and Capitalism, are just a few of the topics which are deconstructed throughout this unique book. This book also offers up a medley of tangible solutions and challenges for readers to build upon, in an effort to create a better society by collectively ending the longstanding legacy of social injustice within America. This book is riddled with often untaught history and perspectives which make it a great education tool.
Download or read book Stare in the Darkness written by Lester K. Spence and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rap's critique of police brutality in the 1980s. The Hip Hop Political Convention. The rise (and fall) of Kwame Kilpatrick, the "hip-hop mayor" of Detroit. Barack Obama echoing the body language of Jay-Z on the campaign trail. A growing number of black activists and artists claim that rap and hip-hop are the basis of an influential new urban social movement. Simultaneously, black citizens evince concern with the effect that rap and hip-hop culture exerts on African American communities. According to a recent Pew survey conducted on the opinions of Black Americans, 71 percent of black.
Download or read book Reading African American Experiences in the Obama Era written by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas and published by Black Studies and Critical Thinking. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What does it mean to be Black in the Obama era? In [this book], young African American scholars and researchers and experienced community activists demonstrate how to encourage dialogue across curricula, disciplines, and communitites with emphases on education, new media, and popular culture"--From publisher description.
Download or read book Hip Hop Ain t Dead It s Livin in the White House written by Sanford Richmond, PhD and published by Hillcrest Publishing Group. This book was released on 2016 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Becoming the first Black president in the history of the United States, and shattering the mold of conventional politics by making hip hop culture his political ally, Obama's public relationship with hip hop throughout his presidency caused an explosion of public dialogue.
Download or read book The Hip Hop Obama Reader written by Travis L. Gosa and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers an analysis of hip hop and politics in the Obama era and beyond, with new perspectives on hip hop's role in political mobilization, grassroots organizing, campaign branding, and voter turnout.
Download or read book Nation of Cowards written by David Ikard and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a speech from which Nation of Cowards derives its title, Attorney General Eric Holder argued forcefully that Americans today need to talk more—not less—about racism. This appeal for candid talk about race exposes the paradox of Barack Obama's historic rise to the US presidency and the ever-increasing social and economic instability of African American communities. David H. Ikard and Martell Lee Teasley maintain that such a conversation can take place only with passionate and organized pressure from black Americans, and that neither Obama nor any political figure is likely to be in the forefront of addressing issues of racial inequality and injustice. The authors caution blacks not to slip into an accommodating and self-defeating "post-racial" political posture, settling for the symbolic capital of a black president instead of demanding structural change. They urge the black community to challenge the social terms on which it copes with oppression, including acts of self-imposed victimization.
Download or read book Nation of Cowards written by David H. Ikard and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument for intense and organized activism from the African American community to generate discussion on race in the United States. In a speech from which Nation of Cowards derives its title, Attorney General Eric Holder argued forcefully that Americans today need to talk more—not less—about racism. This appeal for candid talk about race exposes the paradox of Barack Obama’s historic rise to the US presidency and the ever-increasing social and economic instability of African American communities. David H. Ikard and Martell Lee Teasley maintain that such a conversation can take place only with passionate and organized pressure from Black Americans, and that neither Obama nor any political figure is likely to be in the forefront of addressing issues of racial inequality and injustice. The authors caution Blacks not to slip into an accommodating and self-defeating “post-racial” political posture, settling for the symbolic capital of a Black president instead of demanding structural change. They urge the Black community to challenge the social terms on which it copes with oppression, including acts of self-imposed victimization. “A clarion call to our nation’s conscience. Free from overly academic jargon, but full of powerful wordplay and brilliant juxtapositions, this book is a fascinating tour de force from start to finish. Those seeking a clear and concise explanation of the state of African America and the ongoing need for a “black agenda” during—and even after—the administration of the first African American president need look no further.” —Reiland Rabaka, author of The Hip Hop Movement and Du Bois: A Critical Introduction “Nation of Cowards offers an analysis of the Obama administration is as thorough as it is compact. Here are the hard questions that must be asked of the first black presidency and an insightful draft of how history may regard it. Ikard and Teasley are well ahead of that curve.” —Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope:Barack Obama & the Paradox of Progress
Download or read book Rapper Writer Pop Cultural Player written by Josephine Metcalf and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays critically engages with factors relating to black urban life and cultural representation in the post-civil rights era, using Ice-T and his myriad roles as musician, actor, writer, celebrity, and industrialist as a vehicle through which to interpret and understand the African American experience. Over the past three decades, African Americans have faced a number of new challenges brought about by changes in the political, economic and social structure of America. Furthermore, this vastly changed social landscape has produced a number of resonant pop-cultural trends that have proved to be both innovative and admired on the one hand, and contentious and divisive on the other. Ice-T’s iconic and multifarious career maps these shifts. This is the first book that, taken as a whole, looks at a black cultural icon's manipulation of (or manipulation by?) so many different forms simultaneously. The result is a fascinating series of tensions arising from Ice-T’s ability to inhabit conflicting pop-cultural roles including: ’hardcore’ gangsta rapper and dedicated philanthropist; author of controversial song Cop Killer and network television cop; self-proclaimed ’pimp’ and reality television house husband. As the essays in this collection detail, Ice-T’s chameleonic public image consistently tests the accepted parameters of black cultural production, and in doing so illuminates the contradictions of a society erroneously dubbed ’post-racial’.
Download or read book Stand and Deliver written by Yvonne Bynoe and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2004-03-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hip Hop activism, a joining of a musical genre with political action, is a highly ambiguous term that encompasses a range of initiatives, from those that are genuinely attempting to affect public policy to largely self-promotional efforts that are more about getting media exposure for celebrities than addressing the cause they are allegedly representing. For too long, Bynoe maintains, Black leaders have only been "Charismatic Leaders," and have largely functioned as "spokespersons" delivering complaints and exhortations to the White power structure. Bynoe is passionate about the need for a new generation of Black leadership and civic and political organizations to instead actively engage in a policy-centered relationship with the White power structure, not only in field of government but also in economics and media. This understanding, Bynoe argues, should be premised on the principle that political power comes from influence and influence comes from the ability to delivery (or deny) money, votes or both to a political candidate, legislator or political party; in the words of MC Lyte, all the rest is "chitter chatter".
Download or read book Pulse of the People written by Lakeyta M. Bonnette and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hip-Hop music encompasses an extraordinarily diverse range of approaches to politics. Some rap and Hip-Hop artists engage directly with elections and social justice organizations; others may use their platform to call out discrimination, poverty, sexism, racism, police brutality, and other social ills. In Pulse of the People, Lakeyta M. Bonnette illustrates the ways rap music serves as a vehicle for the expression and advancement of the political thoughts of urban Blacks, a population frequently marginalized in American society and alienated from electoral politics. Pulse of the People lays a foundation for the study of political rap music and public opinion research and demonstrates ways in which political attitudes asserted in the music have been transformed into direct action and behavior of constituents. Bonnette examines the history of rap music and its relationship to and extension from other cultural and political vehicles in Black America, presenting criteria for identifying the specific subgenre of music that is political rap. She complements the statistics of rap music exposure with lyrical analysis of rap songs that espouse Black Nationalist and Black Feminist attitudes. Touching on a number of critical moments in American racial politics—including the 2008 and 2012 elections and the cases of the Jena 6, Troy Davis, and Trayvon Martin—Pulse of the People makes a compelling case for the influence of rap music in the political arena and greatly expands our understanding of the ways political ideologies and public opinion are formed.
Download or read book We Ain t What We Ought To Be written by Stephen Tuck and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-17 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this exciting revisionist history, Stephen Tuck traces the black freedom struggle in all its diversity, from the first years of freedom during the Civil War to President ObamaÕs inauguration. As it moves from popular culture to high politics, from the Deep South to New England, the West Coast, and abroad, Tuck weaves gripping stories of ordinary black peopleÑas well as celebrated figuresÑinto the sweep of racial protest and social change. The drama unfolds from an armed march of longshoremen in postÐCivil War Baltimore to Booker T. WashingtonÕs founding of Tuskegee Institute; from the race riots following Jack JohnsonÕs Òfight of the centuryÓ to Rosa ParksÕ refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus; and from the rise of hip hop to the journey of a black Louisiana grandmother to plead with the Tokyo directors of a multinational company to stop the dumping of toxic waste near her home. We AinÕt What We Ought To Be rejects the traditional narrative that identifies the Southern non-violent civil rights movement as the focal point of the black freedom struggle. Instead, it explores the dynamic relationships between those seeking new freedoms and those looking to preserve racial hierarchies, and between grassroots activists and national leaders. As Tuck shows, strategies were ultimately contingent on the power of activists to protest amidst shifting economic and political circumstances in the U.S. and abroad. This book captures an extraordinary journey that speaks to all AmericansÑboth past and future.
Download or read book The Critical Reception of Barack Obama in American Rap Music written by Florian Arleth and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2010-04-23 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, University of Heidelberg (Anglistisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: “Traditionally, hip-hop culture has been very skeptical of American government. Much hip-hop music [...] serves a sort of "watchdog" function” (Riggs, Tectonic). Since groups like Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy introduced political rap music during the late Eighties, a certain branch of this sub culture took over the mission they inherited from their predecessors, namely artists like Gil Scott Heron and groups like the Last Poets. Those rap musicians consider their task as artists to give expression to their function as part of the national conscience. “Lyrics from different artist range from anti-American to revolutionary to more sobering ideas that encourage listeners to simply stay aware and involved” (Riggs, Obama). What they all have in common is that they were more often than not directed at American presidents. The list of examples is long and even dates back to the Reagan-era, but especially George W. Bush was a very prominent target. It can be assumed that this list will soon also include Barack Obama, whose race for the presidency and his election as the United States of America's 44th president have created a lot of controversy. Many different conceptions and notions have come into existence around the person Obama and his political career – before and after the Inauguration. His views on critical issues, his aims as a president, his whole philosophy have found a broad response across any social and intellectual boundaries. Especially in mass media, the presence of Obama is enormous and has contributed a lot to his pop-star-like-status. A comparison that holds even more truth if uttered in regard of the many songs inspired by and dedicated to Barack Obama. His impact on music is unprecedented and the effects it had on the various genres are manifold. While he was embraced with little question from the mainstream, giving some a new audience, while providing others a new word to rhyme with, it have been such non-primarily mainstream genres like Hip-Hop music1 that made their critical voice heard.
Download or read book Why White Kids Love Hip Hop written by Bakari Kitwana and published by Civitas Books. This book was released on 2006-05-30 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our national conversation about race is ludicrously out-of-date. Hip-hop is the key to understanding how things are changing. In a provocative book that will appeal to hip-hoppers both black and white and their parents, Bakari Kitwana deftly teases apart the culture of hip-hop to illuminate how race is being lived by young Americans. This topic is ripe, but untried, and Kitwana poses and answers a plethora of questions: Does hip-hop belong to black kids? What in hip-hop appeals to white youth? Is hip-hop different from what rhythm, blues, jazz, and even rock 'n' roll meant to previous generations? How have mass media and consumer culture made hip-hop a unique phenomenon? What does class have to do with it? Are white kids really hip-hop's primary listening audience? How do young Americans think about race, and how has hip-hop influenced their perspective? Are young Americans achieving Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream through hip-hop? Kitwana addresses uncomfortable truths about America's level of comfort with black people, challenging preconceived notions of race. With this brave tour de force, Bakari Kitwana takes his place alongside the greatest African American intellectuals of the past decades.
Download or read book The Hip Hop Movement written by Reiland Rabaka and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hip Hop Movement offers a critical theory and alternative history of rap music and hip hop culture by examining their roots in the popular musics and popular cultures of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement. Connecting classic rhythm & blues and rock & roll to the Civil Rights Movement, and classic soul and funk to the Black Power Movement, The Hip Hop Movement explores what each of these musics and movements contributed to rap, neo-soul, hip hop culture, and the broader Hip Hop Movement. Ultimately, this book’s remixes (as opposed to chapters) reveal that black popular music and black popular culture have always been more than merely “popular music” and “popular culture” in the conventional sense and reflect a broader social, political, and cultural movement. With this in mind, sociologist and musicologist Reiland Rabaka critically reinterprets rap and neo-soul as popular expressions of the politics, social visions, and cultural values of a contemporary multi-issue movement: the Hip Hop Movement. Rabaka argues that rap music, hip hop culture, and the Hip Hop Movement are as deserving of critical scholarly inquiry as previous black popular musics, such as the spirituals, blues, ragtime, jazz, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, soul, and funk, and previous black popular movements, such as the Black Women’s Club Movement, New Negro Movement, Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement, Black Arts Movement, and Black Women’s Liberation Movement. This volume, equal parts alternative history of hip hop and critical theory of hip hop, challenges those scholars, critics, and fans of hip hop who lopsidedly over-focus on commercial rap, pop rap, and gangsta rap while failing to acknowledge that there are more than three dozen genres of rap music and many other socially and politically progressive forms of hip hop culture beyond DJing, MCing, rapping, beat-making, break-dancing, and graffiti-writing.
Download or read book Muslim Cool written by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2016-12-06 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interviews with young Muslims in Chicago explore the complexity of identities formed at the crossroads of Islam and hip hop This groundbreaking study of race, religion and popular culture in the 21st century United States focuses on a new concept, “Muslim Cool.” Muslim Cool is a way of being an American Muslim—displayed in ideas, dress, social activism in the ’hood, and in complex relationships to state power. Constructed through hip hop and the performance of Blackness, Muslim Cool is a way of engaging with the Black American experience by both Black and non-Black young Muslims that challenges racist norms in the U.S. as well as dominant ethnic and religious structures within American Muslim communities. Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, Su'ad Abdul Khabeer illuminates the ways in which young and multiethnic US Muslims draw on Blackness to construct their identities as Muslims. This is a form of critical Muslim self-making that builds on interconnections and intersections, rather than divisions between “Black” and “Muslim.” Thus, by countering the notion that Blackness and the Muslim experience are fundamentally different, Muslim Cool poses a critical challenge to dominant ideas that Muslims are “foreign” to the United States and puts Blackness at the center of the study of American Islam. Yet Muslim Cool also demonstrates that connections to Blackness made through hip hop are critical and contested—critical because they push back against the pervasive phenomenon of anti-Blackness and contested because questions of race, class, gender, and nationality continue to complicate self-making in the United States.
