The 'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop / Edition 1

by Murray Forman

Overview

Examines the significance of the 'hood in rap and hip hop

The 'Hood Comes First looks at the increasingly specific emphasis on real neighborhoods and streets in rap music and hip hop culture as an urgent response to the cultural and geographical ghettoization of black urban communities. Examining rap music, along with ancillary hip hop media including radio, music videos, rap press and the cinematic 'hood genre, Murray Forman analyzes hip hop culture's varying articulations of the terms "ghetto," "inner-city," and "the 'hood," and how these spaces, both real and imaginary, are used to define individual and collective identity.

Negotiating academic, corporate, and "street" discourses, Forman assesses the dynamics between race, social space and youth. Race, class and national identification are recast and revised within rap's spatial discourse, concluding with the construction of "the 'hood," a social and geographic symbol that has become central to concepts of hip hop authenticity. Additionally, the book analyzes the processes within the music and culture industries through which hip hop has been amplified and disseminated from the 'hood to international audiences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819563972
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	04/30/2002
Series:	Music/Culture Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.13(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Space Matters: Hip-Hop and the Spatial Perspective
"Welcome to the City:" Defining and Delineating the Urban Terrain
Old School Geography: From the Disco to the Street
Growing an Industry: The Corporate Expansion of Hip-Hop
Crossover and Fragmentation: Rap in the Platinum Era
Boyz N Girlz in the 'Hood: From Space to Place
Hip-Hop Media: Dissemination throughout the Nation
"The 'Hood Took Me Under": Urban Geographies of Danger and the Cinematic 'Hood Genre
Industry, Nation, Globe: Hip Hop Toward 2000
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Reebee Garofalo

"The 'Hood Comes First is a tour de force. It is the most valuable addition to the literature on hip hop to come along in recent years."
— Reebee Garofalo, author of Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA

Mark Anthony Neal

"Forman's examination of the special issues of hip hop is a welcome and informative addition to the existing scholarship."

From the Publisher

"The 'Hood Comes First is a tour de force. It is the most valuable addition to the literature on hip hop to come along in recent years."—Reebee Garofalo, author of Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA

"The 'Hood Comes First is a tour de force. It is the most valuable addition to the literature on hip hop to come along in recent years."—Reebee Garofalo, author of Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA

""Forman's examination of the special issues of hip hop is a welcome and informative addition to the existing scholarship.""—Mark Anthony Neal, author of Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic

Editorial Reviews

"The 'Hood Comes First is a tour de force. It is the most valuable addition to the literature on hip hop to come along in recent years."—Reebee Garofalo, author of Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA

"The 'Hood Comes First is a tour de force. It is the most valuable addition to the literature on hip hop to come along in recent years."—Reebee Garofalo, author of Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA

""Forman's examination of the special issues of hip hop is a welcome and informative addition to the existing scholarship.""—Mark Anthony Neal, author of Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic

From the Publisher