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"A strong and timely book for the new day in hip-hop. Don't miss it!"--Cornel West For many African Americans of a certain demographic the sixties and seventies were the golden age of political movements. The Civil Rights movement segued into the Black Power movement which begat the Black Arts movement. Fast forward to 1979 and the release of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” With the onset of the Reagan years, we begin to see the unraveling of many of the advances fought for in the previous decades. Much of this occurred in the absence of credible, long-term leadership in the black community. Young blacks disillusioned with politics and feeling society no longer cared or looked out for their concerns started rapping with each other about their plight, becoming their own leaders on the battlefield of culture and birthing Hip-Hop in the process. In Somebody Scream, Marcus Reeves explores hip-hop music and its politics. Looking at ten artists that have impacted rap—from Run-DMC (Black Pop in a B-Boy Stance) to Eminem (Vanilla Nice)—and puts their music and celebrity in a larger socio-political context. In doing so, he tells the story of hip hop’s rise from New York-based musical form to commercial music revolution to unifying expression for a post-black power generation
A strong and timely book for the new day in hip-hop. Don't miss it --Cornel West For many African Americans of a certain demographic the sixties and seventies were the golden age of political movements. The Civil Rights movement segued into the Black Power movement which begat the Black Arts movement. Fast forward to 1979 and the release of Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight. With the onset of the Reagan years, we begin to see the unraveling of many of the advances fought for in the previous decades. Much of this occurred in the absence of credible, long-term leadership in the black community. Young blacks disillusioned with politics and feeling society no longer cared or looked out for their concerns started rapping with each other about their plight, becoming their own leaders on the battlefield of culture and birthing Hip-Hop in the process. In Somebody Scream, Marcus Reeves explores hip-hop music and its politics. Looking at ten artists that have impacted rap--from Run-DMC (Black Pop in a B-Boy Stance) to Eminem (Vanilla Nice)--and puts their music and celebrity in a larger socio-political context. In doing so, he tells the story of hip hop's rise from New York-based musical form to commercial music revolution to unifying expression for a post-black power generation. Marcus Reeves has covered youth culture and politics for over fifteen years, in publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Vibe, and The Source. In Somebody Scream, Marcus Reeves explores hip-hop music and its politics in the turbulent and formative years since the Civil Rights movement. For many African Americans of a certain demographic, the sixties and seventies were the golden age of political movements. The Civil Rights movement segued into the Black Power movement which begat the Black Arts movement. In 1979, Sugarhill Gang released Rapper's Delight. The single became one of the first hip hop hits, climbing into the Top 40s on the United States pop charts and reaching #4 on the United States R&B charts. During the Reagan years, in the absence of credible, long-term leadership in the black community, much of the progress fought for in previous decades began to unravel. Young blacks disillusioned with politics and feeling society no longer cared or looked out for their concerns started rapping with each other about their plight, becoming their own leaders on the battlefield of culture and birthing Hip-Hop in the process. Reeves looks at ten artists that have impacted rap--from Run-DMC (Black Pop in a B-Boy Stance) to Eminem (Vanilla Nice)--and puts their music and celebrity in a larger socio-political context. In doing so, he tells the story of hip hop's rise from New York-based musical form to commercial music revolution to unifying expression for a post-black power generation. Marcus Reeves gives voice to the world that hip-hop created and still hopes to create.--Mark Anthony Neal, author of New Black Man It's inspiring when a writer can bring insight, conviction and perspective to a subject too often lost in myth and controversy. Marcus Reeves does that and more. He knows the music and the history, and brings both vividly to life here.--Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone Pay attention: one of the most compelling writers of our generation has arrived. Somebody Scream is a deeply imagined, finely balanced, and richly detailed narrative of our nation's complicated, contradictory, often explosive post-Black Power journey. --Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation Reeves honors hip hop culture by illuminating it. He tells the story with great insight and deep compassion.--David Ritz, author of Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye If in Somebody Scream Marcus Reeves only provided his exegesis of Public Enemy and Chuck D, it would be an indispensable book. The rest of the chapters, for me, are added value--and extremely valuable. What a remarkable new writer and scholar --Herb Boyd, author of Baldwin's Harlem Somebody Scream is a panoramic, icon-by-icon rendering of hip hop. In the crowded field of hip hop lit, this book is a stand-out. Marcus Reeves has composed a portrait of the culture that possesses all the verve, intellect and swagger of a classic Rakim line.--William Jelani Cobb, author of To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop AestheticMarcus Reeves's Somebody Scream is a strong and timely book for the new day in Hip Hop. Don't miss it --Cornel West Marcus Reeves is one of the gifted thinkers and literary spokespersons of the hip hop era. Every cultural movement, every generation, needs those voices who are not only willing to represent that movement and that generation, but also able to stand back and, like the rapper Bonecrusher, proclaim, loudly, with his chest poked out, 'I ain't never scared.' And never scared is what Marcus Reeves is with Somebody Scream : he manifests the truth from back in the day to our day straight up and down, with no chaser, and no apologies.--Kevin Powell, author of Some Day We'll All Be Free In Somebody Scream, hip-hop adopts a broader role in context to African-American history. According to Marcus Reeves's book on the storied genre's major movements, hip-hop seceded the Black Power Movement of the 1960s as a cultural force for minorities in the United States to latch on. Of course, Reeves discusses the rise of acts like Public Enemy and Run DMC, but his analysis takes into account COINTELPRO, Assata Shakur's murder trial, and other key political events that have fueled their post Civil Rights aesthetic. He depicts rap music as a natural evolution from these watershed moments. No book about hip-hip is complete without a thorough study of Public Enemy and the haloed ensemble's contributions to rap music. Although Reeves start his analysis fairly early in the book, he is careful to avoid sanctifying the group. Whereas most written accounts paint Public Enemy's music as a perfect amalgam of angst and intellect, Reeves shows instances where the group's political fervor was misguided . . . More importantly, Somebody Scream shows that Public Enemy and other hip-hop artists were not in an ageless vacuum when they conceived their masterpieces. On several occasions, the book makes the distinction that these groups were not making protest music just because it was cool, but in response to the tense social climate of the day. Reeves writes about Reaganomics, Yusef Hawkins's murder, and Jesse Jackson's 1988 stint for presidency under the guise that these events motivated hip-hop's lyrical content. To him, this on-record activism is akin to the militant efforts of the Black Panthers and other Civil Rights organizations. Just as early hip-hop transitions from the Black Power Movement of the 60s and 70s, Somebody Scream notes the point when the conscious music of Public Enemy shifts to the gangsta rap of Dea
A strong and timely book for the new day in hip-hop. Don't miss it --Cornel West For many African Americans of a certain demographic the sixties and seventies were the golden age of political movements. The Civil Rights movement segued into the Black Power movement which begat the Black Arts movement. Fast forward to 1979 and the release of Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight. With the onset of the Reagan years, we begin to see the unraveling of many of the advances fought for in the previous decades. Much of this occurred in the absence of credible, long-term leadership in the black community. Young blacks disillusioned with politics and feeling society no longer cared or looked out for their concerns started rapping with each other about their plight, becoming their own leaders on the battlefield of culture and birthing Hip-Hop in the process. In Somebody Scream, Marcus Reeves explores hip-hop music and its politics. Looking at ten artists that have impacted rap--from Run-DMC (Black Pop in a B-Boy Stance) to Eminem (Vanilla Nice)--and puts their music and celebrity in a larger socio-political context. In doing so, he tells the story of hip hop's rise from New York-based musical form to commercial music revolution to unifying expression for a post-black power generation. Marcus Reeves has covered youth culture and politics for over fifteen years, in publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Vibe, and The Source. In Somebody Scream, Marcus Reeves explores hip-hop music and its politics in the turbulent and formative years since the Civil Rights movement. For many African Americans of a certain demographic, the sixties and seventies were the golden age of political movements. The Civil Rights movement segued into the Black Power movement which begat the Black Arts movement. In 1979, Sugarhill Gang released Rapper's Delight. The single became one of the first hip hop hits, climbing into the Top 40s on the United States pop charts and reaching #4 on the United States R&B charts. During the Reagan years, in the absence of credible, long-term leadership in the black community, much of the progress fought for in previous decades began to unravel. Young blacks disillusioned with politics and feeling society no longer cared or looked out for their concerns started rapping with each other about their plight, becoming their own leaders on the battlefield of culture and birthing Hip-Hop in the process. Reeves looks at ten artists that have impacted rap--from Run-DMC (Black Pop in a B-Boy Stance) to Eminem (Vanilla Nice)--and puts their music and celebrity in a larger socio-political context. In doing so, he tells the story of hip hop's rise from New York-based musical form to commercial music revolution to unifying expression for a post-black power generation. Marcus Reeves gives voice to the world that hip-hop created and still hopes to create.--Mark Anthony Neal, author of New Black Man It's inspiring when a writer can bring insight, conviction and perspective to a subject too often lost in myth and controversy. Marcus Reeves does that and more. He knows the music and the history, and brings both vividly to life here.--Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone Pay attention: one of the most compelling writers of our generation has arrived. Somebody Scream is a deeply imagined, finely balanced, and richly detailed narrative of our nation's complicated, contradictory, often explosive post-Black Power journey. --Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation Reeves honors hip hop culture by illuminating it. He tells the story with great insight and deep compassion.--David Ritz, author of Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye If in Somebody Scream Marcus Reeves only provided his exegesis of Public Enemy and Chuck D, it would be an indispensable book. The rest of the chapters, for me, are added value--and extremely valuable. What a remarkable new writer and scholar --Herb Boyd, author of Baldwin's Harlem Somebody Scream is a panoramic, icon-by-icon rendering of hip hop. In the crowded field of hip hop lit, this book is a stand-out. Marcus Reeves has composed a portrait of the culture that possesses all the verve, intellect and swagger of a classic Rakim line.--William Jelani Cobb, author of To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop AestheticMarcus Reeves's Somebody Scream is a strong and timely book for the new day in Hip Hop. Don't miss it --Cornel West Marcus Reeves is one of the gifted thinkers and literary spokespersons of the hip hop era. Every cultural movement, every generation, needs those voices who are not only willing to represent that movement and that generation, but also able to stand back and, like the rapper Bonecrusher, proclaim, loudly, with his chest poked out, 'I ain't never scared.' And never scared is what Marcus Reeves is with Somebody Scream : he manifests the truth from back in the day to our day straight up and down, with no chaser, and no apologies.--Kevin Powell, author of Some Day We'll All Be Free In Somebody Scream, hip-hop adopts a broader role in context to African-American history. According to Marcus Reeves's book on the storied genre's major movements, hip-hop seceded the Black Power Movement of the 1960s as a cultural force for minorities in the United States to latch on. Of course, Reeves discusses the rise of acts like Public Enemy and Run DMC, but his analysis takes into account COINTELPRO, Assata Shakur's murder trial, and other key political events that have fueled their post Civil Rights aesthetic. He depicts rap music as a natural evolution from these watershed moments. No book about hip-hip is complete without a thorough study of Public Enemy and the haloed ensemble's contributions to rap music. Although Reeves start his analysis fairly early in the book, he is careful to avoid sanctifying the group. Whereas most written accounts paint Public Enemy's music as a perfect amalgam of angst and intellect, Reeves shows instances where the group's political fervor was misguided . . . More importantly, Somebody Scream shows that Public Enemy and other hip-hop artists were not in an ageless vacuum when they conceived their masterpieces. On several occasions, the book makes the distinction that these groups were not making protest music just because it was cool, but in response to the tense social climate of the day. Reeves writes about Reaganomics, Yusef Hawkins's murder, and Jesse Jackson's 1988 stint for presidency under the guise that these events motivated hip-hop's lyrical content. To him, this on-record activism is akin to the militant efforts of the Black Panthers and other Civil Rights organizations. Just as early hip-hop transitions from the Black Power Movement of the 60s and 70s, Somebody Scream notes the point when the conscious music of Public Enemy shifts to the gangsta rap of Dea