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06.10.04 12:41 PM

books on my radar

Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere by Gwendolyn D. Pough, Assistant Professor in the Women's Studies department at the University Of Minnesota. The book drops this month.

The author takes a critical look at the history and the culture of hip-hop and how women have used it as a whole to claim a space for themseleves. It also calls attention to the ways in which the culture inhibits their growth, denegrates black womanhood, and endangers the lives of young black girls. Read Nicola A. Menzie's interview with the author on vibe.com.

And It Don't Stop : The Best American Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last Twenty-five Years by Raquel Cepeda with a foreward by Nelson George. This book drops in September.

Speaking of hip-hop feminists, Raquel Cepeda has brought together 30 writers works that formerly appeared in such publications as Spin, The Village Voice, Vibe, The New York Times, The Source, and the like. The articles span from 1981 - 2003, and writers include Harry Allen, Hilton Als, Robert Christgau, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Carol Cooper, dream hampton, Kevin Powell, Karen R. Good, Joan Morgan, Robert Mariott, Greg Tate, Toure, Kierna Mayo, and many other names you've come to know as music and hip-hop journalists.

In her intro, Cepeda says, "It would be fair to say hip-hop journalism is, in fact, an extension of rap music. As a verbal art form the writings are illustrations of vivid landscapes—some sensational, some introspective, some fantastical, some of which are slices of inner-city blues, and many of which are recanted tihe lyrical mastery." Having read and remembered many of the writings contained in this volume, I can definitely attest that the pieces Cepeda has brought together here are a true reflection of the words she speaks about hip-hop journalism as an art form.

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