Product Description

That's the Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader brings together the best-known and most influential writings on rap and hip-hop from its beginnings to today. Spanning nearly 25 years of scholarship, criticism, and journalism, this unprecedented anthology showcases the evolution and continuing influence of one of the most creative and contested elements of global popular culture since its advent in the late 1970s. Think of it as "Hip-Hop 101."

Assembled with great care by Mark Anthony Neal, hailed as "one of the most brilliant cultural critics of his generation" (Chicago Sun Times), and fellow hip-hop scholar Murray Forman, That's the Joint is the first to attempt to present the most important hip-hop scholarship in one comprehensive volume. Presented thematically, the selections address the history of hip-hop, identity politics of the "hip-hop nation," debates of "street authenticity," gender, revolutionary politics, aesthetics, technologies of production, hip-hop as a cultural industry, and much more.

The articles presented here display a diverse array of concerns, illuminating hip-hop in its broadest conception as both a musical and cultural practice. Among the more than forty texts collected in the volume, you will find critiques of groundbreaking recordings like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" and Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation to Hold Us Back," some of the earliest commentary on B-Boys break dancing and DJs sampling, and serious responses to key moments and controversies from the 2 Live Crew obscenity trial to gangsta rap to the movement of hip-hop into commercial and academic spheres.

That's the Joint is essential reading for fans and scholars alike, and rewarding for anyone who seeks to understand the profound impact of hip-hop as an intellectual, aesthetic, and cultural movement.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #399072 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 628 pages

Review

Thats The Joint!, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, is a ready-made cornerstone for any multidisciplinary hip-hop course... -- Houston Chronicle

Everything you wanted to know about hip-hop. --The Wisconsin Journal

This is the ultimate breakdown of hip-hop scholarship in one master mix volume.-- Charlie Ahearn, co-author of Yes Yes YAll: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hops First Decade and director of Wild Style

That's The Joint!, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, is a ready-made cornerstone for any multidisciplinary hip-hop course... While its far-ranging scope encompasses a number of contentious topics, the book is at its best when individual entries tackle seldom debated subjects. The history of hip-hop has been documented by everyone from the underground magazine Ego Trip to VH1, rendering much of the first chapter slightly moot (refer instead to Toop's Rap Attack, for years the definitive hip-hop text). Subjects such as gangsta rap's identification with the folk legend Stagolee, as well as the unbearable whiteness of its consumer base and executive branches (both covered in the section devoted to 'Hip-Hop authenticity'), are well-covered topics in both intellectual and mainstream circles.
–Houston Chronicle, February 20, 2005

About the Author
Mark Anthony Neal is Assistant Professor of English at the State University of New York at Albany where he teaches courses in African American Cultural Studies and Literature. Neal is the author of What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture, Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic, and the forthcoming Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rythm and Blues Nation, all published by Routledge

Murray Forman is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. He is author of The 'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop (Wesleyan University Press, 2002).