The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture

by Kitwana, Bakari

• ISBN13: 9780465029785
• ISBN10: 0465029787
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books

Summary

Young blacks born between 1965 and 1984 belong to the first generation to have grown up in post-segregation America. Their historical significance is tremendous, but until now there has been no in-depth study of the African American youth who are making this important chapter in our nation's history. Bakari Kitwana, one of black America's sharpest young cultural critics, offers a sobering look at his generation's disproportionate incarceration and unemployment rates, as well as the collapse of its gender relations, and gives his own provocative social and political analysis. He finds the pain of his generation buried in tough, slick gangsta movies, and their voice in the lyrics of rap music, "the black person's CNN." By turns scathing, funny, and analytic, The Hip Hop Generation will stand as the testament of black youth culture at the turn of the century. With extraordinary insight and understanding, Bakari Kitwana has combined the culture and politics of his generation into a pivotal work in American studies.

Author Biography

Bakari Kitwana has been the Executive Editor of The Source, the Editorial Director at 3rd World Press, and a music reviewer for NPR's All Things Considered. His writing appears in the Village Voice, The Source and The Progressive and he tours the country lecturing on rap music and Black youth culture. His previous book, The Rap on Gangsta Rap, is regarded as one of the most influential analyses of rap music and hip hop culture

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xvii
Introduction; Confronting the Crises in African American Culture	xix
Part 1 The New Crisis in African American culture
The New Black Youth Culture: The Emergence of the Hip-Hop Generation	3	(22)
America's Outcasts: The Employment Crisis	25	(26)
Race War: Policing, Incarceration, and the Containment of Black Youth	51	(34)
Where Did Our Love Go? The New War of the Sexes	85	(36)
Young, Don't Give a Fuck, and Black: Black Gangster Films	121	(24)
Part 2 Confronting the Crises in African American culture
Activism in the Hip-Hop Generation: Redefining Social Responsibility	145	(30)
The Politics of the Hip-Hop Generation: Identifying a Political Agenda	175	(20)
The Challenge of Rap Music: From Cultural Movement to Political Power	195	(22)
Index	217