“Other People’s Property” is a very good book that is at its best when its author acts like a DJ. But don’t get it twisted: [Jason] Tanz sees hip-hop as text more than as sonic phenomenon or, for that matter, stone groove. “Other People’s Property” is made up of nine journalistic pieces, each a mix of reportage and personal reflection about race and the industry of hip-hop. It’s freaky, equally in love with Western philosophers such as Jean Baudrillard and the classic albums from hip-hop’s golden era. In a very hip-hop effort to get his shine on, the author mashes up his prose, cutting in and out of reportage and confessional styles.
This cutting edge documentary not only unmasks the faces of seven individuals addicted to graffiti, but it exposes their thoughts, feelings, faults and fears — an avenue unrivaled by any graff film to date[…]”Graffiti is like the United Nations. There is a representative from all corners of the earth. Black, white and the many shades in between, man or woman.”
For years, Ronald K. Brown worried that incorporating traditional African dance movements into his contemporary work would insult the Africans.
Turns out he worried too much.
“I understood that, when you take a form from somewhere, it’s immediately transformed into something else,” the choreographer observed. “If you take someone’s culture away, you weaken them, because culture is where you find your power.”
Intelligence agencies have identified music as a “tool for indoctrination”. The phenomenon began with an American group called Soldiers of Allah. The group has since disbanded but its music and lyrics remain popular on the internet. Other groups in Britain, France and the US have been identified as giving cause for concern.
Alex Ferreira is Bill’s real name. His “official name,” as he puts it. And though music brought Bill money and fame, his real work has become something else too: Building bridges. Helping kids. Combating the violence and other social ills that plague City of God and the other poor communities known as favelas […] Bill, 31, is an increasingly important figure in Brazil, and not just for the CDs he sells, the stands he takes or the activities his center organizes for young people in City of God.
Tyrone is “a name that has come to speak to a unique form of black male identity,” write Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore in Deconstructing Tyrone ,”one flavored with a distinctly postsoul aesthetic. Simply put: Tyrone is our boy.” Taking that name as their guide for this intriguing book, Hopkinson (a Washington Post reporter) and Moore (a Chicago journalist and teacher) explore the world of black men who, like the authors, are members of the hip-hop generation.
Folks in “The Town” have always shared a certain sense of community and a do-for-self attitude. In the 60’s the Black Panther Party formed on a platform of self-sufficiency and community reliance. In the early 90’s, with no major label support, rappers hustled tapes out the trunk to friends and neighbors up and down International. And in 2006, with the hip-hop generation making up a majority of the year’s astronomical body count, the call went out again: time for Oakland to handle some business.
In academic disciplines ranging from sociology to law, ethnomusicology to history, and education to African American studies, students at the University of California, Berkeley, are increasingly tapping into hip-hop culture for their research and field work.
Common doesn’t fit the hip-hop stereotype. He raps about peace, his jeans fit smartly and he’s the author of three books for young children. “People have the impression that hip-hop is one way, but it’s very broad. There are so many voices,” the Grammy Award winner says.
