| Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture Contributor(s): Alim, H. Samy (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0415358779 ISBN-13: 9780415358774 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $199.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: August 2006 Annotation: "Roc the Mic Right" is the first in-depth, book-length analysis of the most pervasive yet least examined aspect of Hip Hop Culture - its language. Hip Hop Culture has captured the minds of youth "all around the world, from Japan to Amsterdam" (like the homie Kurupt say), shaping youth identities, styles, attitudes, languages, fashions, and both physical and political stances. Written in both "Hip Hop Nation Language" and "academic discourse," Alim takes the reader on a journey through Hip Hop's inventive linguistic landscape, deconstructing its discourse and poetics, while highlighting relationships between language, identity and power (from the groundbreaking exploration of the Muslim "transglobal Hip Hop ummah" to the critical study of Black Language in White public space). What sets this book apart from many on the subject is Alim's extensive ethnographic fieldwork and his close contact with the Hip Hop community, from multiplatinum superstars to street-level, underground heads. Drawing upon an impressively broad range of theories and methodologies, from sociolinguistics and anthropology to cultural studies and poetics, Alim places the Hip Hop artists - such as Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Ras Kass, JT the Bigga Figga, Eve and Juvenile - in the center by viewing them as interpreters of their own culture. The result is a fascinating insider's view of what can arguably be referred to as the most profound cultural and musical movement to rock the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - Sociolinguistics - Social Science | Sociology - Urban - Language Arts & Disciplines | Writing - General |
| Dewey: 427.973 |
| LCCN: 2006003029 |
| Physical Information: 0.66" H x 6.5" W x 9.44" (0.95 lbs) 208 pages |
| Themes: - Demographic Orientation - Urban |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Complementing a burgeoning area of interest and academic study, Roc the Mic Right explores the central role of language within the Hip Hop Nation (HHN). With its status convincingly argued as the best means by which to read Hip Hop culture, H. Samy Alim then focuses on discursive practices, such as narrative sequencing and ciphers, or lyrical circles of rhymers. Often a marginalized phenomenon, the complexity and creativity of Hip Hop lyrical production is emphasised, whilst Alim works towards the creation of a schema by which to understand its aesthetic. Using his own ethnographic research, Alim shows how Hip Hop language could be used in an educational context and presents a new approach to the study of the language and culture of the Hip Hop Nation: 'Hiphopography'. The final section of the book, which includes real conversational narratives from Hip Hop artists such as The Wu-Tang Clan and Chuck D, focuses on direct engagement with the language. A highly accessible and lively work on the most studied and read about language variety in the United States, this book will appeal not only to language and linguistics researchers and students, but holds a genuine appeal to anyone interested in Hip Hop or Black African Language. |