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Book Making a Gangsta

    Book Details:
  • Author : Larry Johnson
  • Publisher : Page Publishing Inc
  • Release : 2022-01-06
  • ISBN : 1662416237
  • Pages : 227 pages

Download or read book Making a Gangsta written by Larry Johnson and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2022-01-06 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Slow L was marked by death at a young age when his stepfather is murdered and mother shot down in front of him. Eight years passed and still trying to outdistance this tragedy but haunted by it every step of the way. Lack of trust made him jump off the porch a little sooner than most kids. Once he learned the Milwaukee streets had real people that acted in the form of animals and orangutans among the living, he knew then he needed to adapt to the Mil-jungle, or get peeled, or eaten alive. Nobody was to be trusted—not a priest, not the police, not his childhood friends, or closest relatives. They made him a gangsta with no explanation as to why.

Book The History of Gangster Rap

Download or read book The History of Gangster Rap written by Soren Baker and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journalist Soren Baker’sThe History of Gangster Rap takes a deep dive into this fascinating music subgenre. Foreword by Xzibit Sixteen detailed chapters, organized chronologically, examine the evolution of gangster rap, its main players, and the culture that created this revolutionary music. From still-swirling conspiracy theories about the murders of Biggie and Tupac to the release of the film Straight Outta Compton, the era of gangster rap is one that fascinates music junkies and remains at the forefront of pop culture. Filled with interviews with key players such as Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, and dozens more, as well as sidebars, breakout bios of notorious characters, lists, charts, and beyond, The History of Gangster Rap is the be-all-end-all book that contextualizes the importance of gangster rap as a cultural phenomenon. “History has so often been written by the victors, that you very rarely ever get the real story behind anything. So it’s really important to hear from the people that were there, which is exactly what Soren Baker shares in this book. He writes about it and he’s honest about it.” —The D.O.C.

Book To Live and Defy in LA

Download or read book To Live and Defy in LA written by Felicia Angeja Viator and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-25 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How gangsta rap shocked America, made millions, and pulled back the curtain on an urban crisis. How is it that gangsta rap—so dystopian that it struck aspiring Brooklyn rapper and future superstar Jay-Z as “over the top”—was born in Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, surf, and sun? In the Reagan era, hip-hop was understood to be the music of the inner city and, with rare exception, of New York. Rap was considered the poetry of the street, and it was thought to breed in close quarters, the product of dilapidated tenements, crime-infested housing projects, and graffiti-covered subway cars. To many in the industry, LA was certainly not hard-edged and urban enough to generate authentic hip-hop; a new brand of black rebel music could never come from La-La Land. But it did. In To Live and Defy in LA, Felicia Viator tells the story of the young black men who built gangsta rap and changed LA and the world. She takes readers into South Central, Compton, Long Beach, and Watts two decades after the long hot summer of 1965. This was the world of crack cocaine, street gangs, and Daryl Gates, and it was the environment in which rappers such as Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E came of age. By the end of the 1980s, these self-styled “ghetto reporters” had fought their way onto the nation’s radio and TV stations and thus into America’s consciousness, mocking law-and-order crusaders, exposing police brutality, outraging both feminists and traditionalists with their often retrograde treatment of sex and gender, and demanding that America confront an urban crisis too often ignored.

Book Making It Like a Man

    Book Details:
  • Author : Christine Ramsay
  • Publisher : Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
  • Release : 2011-10-07
  • ISBN : 1554583756
  • Pages : 375 pages

Download or read book Making It Like a Man written by Christine Ramsay and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2011-10-07 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making It Like a Man: Canadian Masculinities in Practice is a collection of essays on the practice of masculinities in Canadian arts and cultures, where to “make it like a man” is to participate in the cultural, sociological, and historical fluidity of ways of being a man in Canada, from the country’s origins in nineteenth-century Victorian values to its immersion in the contemporary post-modern landscape. The book focuses on the ways Canadian masculinities have been performed and represented through five broad themes: colonialism, nationalism, and transnationalism; emotion and affect; ethnic and minority identities; capitalist and domestic politics; and the question of men’s relationships with themselves and others. Chapters include studies of well-known and more obscure figures in the Canadian arts and culture scenes, such as visual artist Attila Richard Lukacs; writers Douglas Coupland, Barbara Gowdy, Simon Chaput, Thomas King, and James De Mille; filmmakers Clement Virgo, Norma Bailey, John N. Smith, and Frank Cole; as well as familiar and not-so-familiar tokens of Canadian masculinity such as the hockey hero, the gangsta rapper, the immigrant farmer, and the drag king. Making It Like a Man is the first book of its kind to explore and critique historical and contemporary masculinities in Canada with a special focus on artistic and cultural production and representation. It is concerned with mapping some of the uniquely Canadian places and spaces in the international field of masculinity studies, and will be of interest to academic and culturally informed audiences.

Book The Gangster   s Guide to Sobriety

Download or read book The Gangster s Guide to Sobriety written by Richie Stephens and published by Post Hill Press. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richie Stephens is an actor who often plays hardened gangsters and criminals. This is easy for him because he was a drug trafficker, kidnapper, drug addict, alcoholic, and all-around criminal himself. His life twisted and turned in harrowing self-destructive adventures that took him from his native Ireland to San Francisco, Australia, and finally, Los Angeles, coalescing into a classic tale of a man trying to run from his problems by moving to new and more exotic locations—a hard and painful realization that comes at a point in which he’s about to take his own life. The only reason there is a story to tell is because he did not. Instead, he found help, and in doing so, found himself. More than that, he found that help comes in different forms, and oftentimes it just takes the right thought to hit at the right time for it all to make sense. The Gangster’s Guide to Sobriety chronicles Richie’s descent into the abyss of crime and dependency, and how his personal understanding of freedom allowed him to become the functioning positive force he is today. Richie’s story is sprawling and epic, but the key to the book is the same key to his recovery: the 12 Steps. With his own flair and original understanding of life and the world, he followed the 12 Steps to find the clarity he needed to save his own life and evolve into a positive force for others. As Richie says, “Hopefully if people see that someone as fucked up as me could change their life, then there is hope for anyone.” The Gangster’s Guide to Sobriety is gripping in its honesty and openness. Even at its darkest moments, there is a keen understanding of the absurd nature of life as the author comes to grips with his failings and his faith, while also entering a place of self-acceptance. This is a story of redemption and the power of the human spirit, and how sometimes you have to turn to something greater than yourself.

Book Nuthin  but a  G  Thang

    Book Details:
  • Author : Eithne Quinn
  • Publisher : Columbia University Press
  • Release : 2004-11-17
  • ISBN : 0231518102
  • Pages : 269 pages

Download or read book Nuthin but a G Thang written by Eithne Quinn and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-17 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1980s, gangsta rap music emerged in urban America, giving voice to—and making money for—a social group widely considered to be in crisis: young, poor, black men. From its local origins, gangsta rap went on to flood the mainstream, generating enormous popularity and profits. Yet the highly charged lyrics, public battles, and hard, fast lifestyles that characterize the genre have incited the anger of many public figures and proponents of "family values." Constantly engaging questions of black identity and race relations, poverty and wealth, gangsta rap represents one of the most profound influences on pop culture in the last thirty years. Focusing on the artists Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, the Geto Boys, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, Quinn explores the origins, development, and immense appeal of gangsta rap. Including detailed readings in urban geography, neoconservative politics, subcultural formations, black cultural debates, and music industry conditions, this book explains how and why this music genre emerged. In Nuthin'but a "G" Thang, Quinn argues that gangsta rap both reflected and reinforced the decline in black protest culture and the great rise in individualist and entrepreneurial thinking that took place in the U.S. after the 1970s. Uncovering gangsta rap's deep roots in black working-class expressive culture, she stresses the music's aesthetic pleasures and complexities that have often been ignored in critical accounts.

Book Gangsta Twist 1

    Book Details:
  • Author : Clifford "Spud" Johnson
  • Publisher : Urban Books
  • Release : 2014-02-25
  • ISBN : 1622861302
  • Pages : 333 pages

Download or read book Gangsta Twist 1 written by Clifford "Spud" Johnson and published by Urban Books. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gangsta Twist 1 is a modern-day Robin Hood meets Mission: Impossible with a witty urban twist. Taz, the ruthless leader of an elite group of bandits, falls hopelessly in love with Sacha, an up-and-coming lawyer who will stop at nothing to become a partner in her firm. When Cliff, Sacha's ex-boyfriend, hears of her newfound love, all hell breaks loose. Cliff seeks Taz's daughter to get closer to his inner circle. Will Taz be forced to give up his true love in order to save his daughter from the deadly hands of Cliff? Or will Sacha and Taz finally have their happily ever after? Won, the wealthy councilman, knows that the only chance he has at reelection is if there are no competitors. Will Taz, his trusty disciple, and his crew be able to handle the orders given by Won to bring down his peers? Ride with the gang as they travel in search of Won's competitors. Let Gangsta Twist 1 take you on a fast-paced ride full of deceit, fast money, and revenge, where the winner takes all.

Book Gangsta Rap

    Book Details:
  • Author : Benjamin Zephaniah
  • Publisher : A&C Black
  • Release : 2013-07-04
  • ISBN : 1408842548
  • Pages : 262 pages

Download or read book Gangsta Rap written by Benjamin Zephaniah and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A fairytale of hip-hop success ... teens will enjoy the thrilling music fantasy, while many will identify with the smart, talented boys who grow up quickly and rescue themselves' Booklist An electrifying novel from hugely popular performance poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah, exploring the rap music scene, inequality and three boys caught up in it Just what do you do with talent from the wrong side of town? Benjamin Zephaniah draws on his own experiences with school and the music business to create a novel that speaks with passion and immediacy about the rap scene. Ray has trouble at home, and he has trouble at school – until he's permanently excluded and ends up sleeping on the floor of a record shop. What happens to a boy like Ray? If he's lucky, maybe he gets a chance to shine. The story of three boys who aren't easy. They don't fit in. They seem to attract trouble. But they know what they want, and they've got the talent to back it up ... Brilliantly written and with a real ear for dialogue, fans of Angie Thomas and Malorie Blackman will love Benjamin Zephaniah's novels for young adult readers: Refugee Boy Face Gangsta Rap Teacher's Dead

Book A World of Gangs

    Book Details:
  • Author : John Hagedorn
  • Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
  • Release : 2008
  • ISBN : 0816650667
  • Pages : 235 pages

Download or read book A World of Gangs written by John Hagedorn and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "On the street with gangs in three world cities - Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown - Hagedorn discovers that many of them have institutionalized as a strategy to confront a hopeless cycle of poverty, racism, and oppression. The mhilistic appeal of gangsta rap and its ethic of survival "by any means necessary," he argues, provides vital insights into the ideology and persistence of gangs around the world. Proposing how gangs can be encouraged to overcome their violent tendencies, Hagedorn appeals to community leaders to use the urgency, outrage, and resistance common to both gang life and hip-hop to bring gangs into broader movements for social justice."--BOOK JACKET.

Book Check the Technique

    Book Details:
  • Author : Brian Coleman
  • Publisher : Villard
  • Release : 2009-03-12
  • ISBN : 030749442X
  • Pages : 530 pages

Download or read book Check the Technique written by Brian Coleman and published by Villard. This book was released on 2009-03-12 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Tribe Called Quest • Beastie Boys • De La Soul • Eric B. & Rakim • The Fugees • KRS-One • Pete Rock & CL Smooth • Public Enemy • The Roots • Run-DMC • Wu-Tang Clan • and twenty-five more hip-hop immortals It’s a sad fact: hip-hop album liners have always been reduced to a list of producer and sample credits, a publicity photo or two, and some hastily composed shout-outs. That’s a damn shame, because few outside the game know about the true creative forces behind influential masterpieces like PE’s It Takes a Nation of Millions. . ., De La’s 3 Feet High and Rising, and Wu-Tang’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A longtime scribe for the hip-hop nation, Brian Coleman fills this void, and delivers a thrilling, knockout oral history of the albums that define this dynamic and iconoclastic art form. The format: One chapter, one artist, one album, blow-by-blow and track-by-track, delivered straight from the original sources. Performers, producers, DJs, and b-boys–including Big Daddy Kane, Muggs and B-Real, Biz Markie, RZA, Ice-T, and Wyclef–step to the mic to talk about the influences, environment, equipment, samples, beats, beefs, and surprises that went into making each classic record. Studio craft and street smarts, sonic inspiration and skate ramps, triumph, tragedy, and take-out food–all played their part in creating these essential albums of the hip-hop canon. Insightful, raucous, and addictive, Check the Technique transports you back to hip-hop’s golden age with the greatest artists of the ’80s and ’90s. This is the book that belongs on the stacks next to your wax. “Brian Coleman’s writing is a lot like the albums he covers: direct, uproarious, and more than six-fifths genius.” –Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop “All producers and hip-hop fans must read this book. It really shows how these albums were made and touches the music fiend in everyone.” –DJ Evil Dee of Black Moon and Da Beatminerz “A rarity in mainstream publishing: a truly essential rap history.” –Ronin Ro, author of Have Gun Will Travel

Book Ftw Self Defense

Download or read book Ftw Self Defense written by C. R. Jahn and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2012-01-12 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FTW SELF DEFENSE FTW Self Defense is a revolutionary text which addresses, in great detail, many important yet controversial topics which most instructors do not discuss with their students. Th is is the reality of self defense, and these topics are not entered into lightly. Intended for mature and open minded students only. This is the long awaited companion volume to the underground bestseller Hardcore Self Defense.

Book Craig Monson

    Book Details:
  • Author : Adam Benshea
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2021-06-30
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 104 pages

Download or read book Craig Monson written by Adam Benshea and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every bodybuilding fan knows about the "Golden Age" of the sport. But, there is a forgotten legend from that fabled time. An OG of street and stage, Craig Monson outweighed Arnold by 40 pounds, dwarfed Lee Haney and had superior aesthetics. A mass-monster with Michelangelo-like symmetry, Monson was that rare mixture of form and functional strength. Now his story AND his workouts can be told, shared, and understood. Born in the Jim Crow South, Craig was taken by his mother on a Greyhound bus exodus to the land of sun-kissed beaches and Hollywood dreams. A world away from the Pacific Ocean, Craig came of age in Los Angeles' inner city. In this urban environment, Monson found street heroes and became one himself by founding the notorious gang "The Avenues" (a forerunner to the infamous Crip gang). Realities of life in South Central Los Angeles eventually landed Craig in some of the most feared penitentiaries. Inside of the system, Monson built his body into a mountain of muscle and, upon his release, set his sights on bodybuilding glory. Training across the Southland and putting on spectacles of strength at the renowned Muscle Beach, Craig became the biggest and strongest bodybuilder of the 1980s. Learn about his mythic journey from urban streets to the bodybuilding stage! Follow the exact training programs utilized by the legendary Craig Monson!

Book Gangsta   Vol  1

Download or read book Gangsta Vol 1 written by , Kohske and published by VIZ Media LLC. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the city of Ergastulum, a shady ville filled with made men and petty thieves, whores on the make and cops on the take, there are some deeds too dirty for even its jaded inhabitants to touch. Enter the “Handymen,” Nic and Worick, who take care of the jobs no one else will handle. Until the day when a cop they know on the force requests their help in taking down a new gang muscling in on the territory of a top Mafia family. It seems like business (and mayhem) as usual, but the Handymen are about to find that this job is a lot more than they bargained for. -- VIZ Media

Book Kendrick Lamar and the Making of Black Meaning

Download or read book Kendrick Lamar and the Making of Black Meaning written by Christopher M. Driscoll and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-25 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kendrick Lamar has established himself at the forefront of contemporary hip-hop culture. Artistically adventurous and socially conscious, he has been unapologetic in using his art form, rap music, to address issues affecting black lives while also exploring subjects fundamental to the human experience, such as religious belief. This book is the first to provide an interdisciplinary academic analysis of the impact of Lamar’s corpus. In doing so, it highlights how Lamar’s music reflects current tensions that are keenly felt when dealing with the subjects of race, religion and politics. Starting with Section 80 and ending with DAMN., this book deals with each of Lamar’s four major projects in turn. A panel of academics, journalists and hip-hop practitioners show how religion, in particular black spiritualties, take a front-and-center role in his work. They also observe that his astute and biting thoughts on race and culture may come from an African American perspective, but many find something familiar in Lamar’s lyrical testimony across great chasms of social and geographical difference. This sophisticated exploration of one of popular culture’s emerging icons reveals a complex and multi faceted engagement with religion, faith, race, art and culture. As such, it will be vital reading for anyone working in religious, African American and hip-hop studies, as well as scholars of music, media and popular culture.

Book Learn to make natural cheeses Using traditional methods with raw ingredients to make delicious cheeses

Download or read book Learn to make natural cheeses Using traditional methods with raw ingredients to make delicious cheeses written by and published by jideon francisco marques. This book was released on 2024-02-17 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction Cheesemaking, as practiced in North America, is decidedly unnatural. Is there an approach to the art that’s not dependent on packaged mesophilic starter cultures, freeze-dried fungal spores, microbial rennet, and calcium chloride? Do cheesemakers really need pH meters, plastic cheese forms, and sanitizing solutions? Are modern technologies the only path to good cheese? What of traditional methodologies? Did cheesemakers make consistently good cheese prior to pasteurization? Did cheeses fail if they weren’t made in stainless-steel vats with pure strains of Lacto­bacilli and triple-washed surfaces? Where are the guidebooks that teach traditional methods? Have our ancestors’ cheesemaking practices been lost to the forces of progress and commercialization? I believe that the quality and taste of cheese have declined dramatically as traditional methods have been abandoned. And that the idea—propagated by the industrial cheesemaking paradigm—that traditional ways of making cheese, with raw milk and mother cultures, make for inconsistent and poor-quality cheese is a myth. For there is wisdom in the traditional practices of cheesemakers . . . Generations upon generations of traditional cheesemakers evolved the diverse methods of making cheese while carefully practicing their art. All classes of cheese were discovered by cheesemakers long before they had a scientific understanding of the microbiological and chemical forces at play in its creation. Industry and science hijacked cheesemaking from the artisans and farmers some 150 years ago, and since then few new styles of cheese have been created; yet during that time hundreds, possibly thousands, of unique cheeses have been lost. Standard methods of cheesemaking—reliant on pasteurization, freeze-dried starters, and synthetic rennets that interfere with the ecology of cheese—are equivalent to standard practices in industrial agriculture, such as the use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides that have overtaken traditional agriculture, and conflict with the ecology of the land. Cheese comes from the land and is one of our most celebrated foods; yet its current production methods are environmentally destructive, corporately controlled, and chemically dependent. In its eating we’re not celebrating the traditions of agriculture but rather pasteurization, stainless-steel production, biotechnology, and corporate culture. If we gave its methods of production some thought, we wouldn’t want to eat the stuff! It strikes me as absurd that there is no commonly practiced natural cheesemaking in North America. Farmers practice ecologically inspired agriculture; brewers are making beers and wines with only wild yeasts; bakers are raising breads with heirloom sourdough starters; and sauerkraut makers are fermenting their krauts with only the indigenous cultures of the cabbage. But cheesemakers are stuck in a haze of food technology, pasteurization, and freeze-dried commercial cultures, and no one even questions the standard approach. Other cheesemaking guidebooks insist that home cheesemakers adopt the industrial approach to cheese along with its tools and additives. Their advice is based on standards put in place to make industrial production more efficient, and a mass-produced product safer. But for small-scale or home-scale cheesemaking, a different approach can work. A Different Approach From the making of my very first Camembert, I knew there had to be a better way than the cheesemaking methods preached by the go-to guidebooks. I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a package of freeze-dried fungus, and my search for alternatives to commonly used cheese additives led to a series of discoveries—about the origins of culture, about the beauty of raw milk, and about the nature of cheese—that set in place the philosophies of this guidebook. Not being one to blindly follow the standard path, I set out to teach myself a traditional approach to cheesemaking. The methods I share in this book are the result of 10 years of my own experimentations and creative inquiry with milk: years of trial and error in my kitchen, rediscovering, one by one, a natural approach to making every style of cheese. I now practice a cheesemaking inspired by the principles of ecology, biodynamics, and organic farming; it is a cheesemaking that’s influenced by traditional methods of fermentation through which I preserve all my other foods; and a cheesemaking that’s not in conflict with the simple and noncommercial manner in which I live my life. I now work with nature, rather than against nature, to make cheese. When I teach my methods to students, there is not a single book that I can recommend that explores a natural cheese philosophy, and no website to browse but my own. It is this absence of information in print and online that led me to write this book. I never thought that I’d be an author, but I felt compelled to provide a compilation of methods for making cheese differently. For it’s about time for a book to lay the framework for a hands-on, natural, and traditional approach to cheese. The techniques presented in this book work. And the photographs within, featuring cheeses made by these methods, are the only proof I can offer. I wish I could share my cheeses with you so that you could taste how delicious a more naturally made cheese can be, but unfortunately I cannot sell the cheeses I make because raw milk and food safety regulations restrict me from selling cheeses made in the small-scale and traditional manner that I practice. If small-scale and traditional practices are constrained by regulations controlling cheese production and access to raw milk, perhaps it is time to question the authority of these standards. We need a more radical cheesemaking, a more natural approach to the medium of milk. But it’s surprising that it’s come to me to lay this foundation; for who am I, but a small farmer and a humble cheesemaker . . .

Book Gangsta  Cursed   Vol  1

Download or read book Gangsta Cursed Vol 1 written by , Kohske and published by VIZ Media LLC. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Killing is all Spas has ever known, and he does it without doubt or remorse. Taught to believe he’s ridding the world of monsters, he sees the extermination of the Twilights as a necessary step toward making Ergastulum a safer place. Until the day when he’s forced to confront the horrifying truth that the real monster might be...him. -- VIZ Media

Book Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost

Download or read book Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost written by Benjamin P. Bowser and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rap music and its gangster rap variant are now far too important and influential in American life to be ignored by the general public and research communities alike. Artists and promoters alike have made a number of questionable claims about the authenticity and impact of their music that have been taken for granted and not been critically assessed. Those who have written about from communications, music and cultural studies have provided an important but relatively fixed narrative that leaves the central claims and impacts of this entrepreneur unaddressed. It is in this context that the author Benjamin Bowser began studying hip hop and gangster rap precisely because the influence of this movement and music on African American adolescents HIV infection risk takers. At the same time, the frequent use of the N-word by gangster rappers has become a major unaddressed issue in civil rights that has also not been studied. Furthermore, an important reason to study these unaddressed issues is to not only better understand them, but to offer solutions to the problems they pose and to improve the quality of life of all involved. Within the rapidly growing literature on hip hop and gangster rap, Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost stands out from the rest because it provides a number of unique contributions. First, based upon a community case study, the author asserts that gangster rap has empowered white racists and, as a consequence, has reduced the quality of life and civil rights of listeners and non-listeners alike. Second, this book goes to great length to make a serious distinction between gangster rap and hip hop. Disentangling one from the other opens the door to a more focused and critical analysis of gangster rap and provides an outline of the unmet potential of rap in hip hop. Third, national surveys are used as evidence in the debate about the size and characteristics of the rap and hip hop listener audiences. There are some surprises here that should reframe the controversy on who listens to and buys rap music. Fourth, there is a first generation of psychological and social scientific research on rap music that is summarized through 2011. Finally, the problems in gangster rap are not inevitable and we do not have to live with them. They can be effectively addressed without attacking the civil liberties of gangster rappers or their corporate sponsors. Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost is must reading for young adults, parents, those who both enjoy and dislike rap music, and students in sociology, psychology, ethnic studies, communication, music, community studies and public health.