The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters

Hip-hop is in crisis. For the past dozen years, the most commercially successful hip-hop has become increasingly saturated with caricatures of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and ’hos. The controversy surrounding hip-hop is worth attending to and examining with a critical eye because, as scholar and cultural critic Tricia Rose argues, hip-hop has become a primary means by which we talk about race in the United States.

In The Hip-Hop Wars, Rose explores the most crucial issues underlying the polarized claims on each side of the debate: Does hip-hop cause violence, or merely reflect a violent ghetto culture? Is hip-hop sexist, or are its detractors simply anti-sex? Does the portrayal of black culture in hip-hop undermine black advancement?

A potent exploration of a divisive and important subject, The Hip-Hop Wars concludes with a call for the regalvanization of the progressive and creative heart of hip-hop. What Rose calls for is not a sanitized vision of the form, but one that more accurately reflects a much richer space of culture, politics, anger, and yes, sex, than the current ubiquitous images in sound and video currently provide.

Customer Reviews:

Tricia Rose is phenomenal!

By Kalyana - December 9, 2008

There are very few people I know who look at hip hop not just with a critical eye, but with such a far reaching all encompassing perspective. Tricia Rose will flip how you have ever viewed (and listened to) hip hop, leaving you wondering how you could have missed it all along, while at the same time wondering what you can do about it: as a reader and/or an artist. As a brilliant author and professor, allow her to teach you about hip hop...4 real. Its nice to have such an astounding critically thinking woman in the game!

And...

By Drew - December 14, 2008

Black Noise was a very interesting, poignant analysis of the development of hip hop. Tricia Rose provided insight on the social, political, technological, and economic factors that contributed to the creation of hip hop. It appears, however, that Rose is no longer a hip hop expert. If anything, she is only an expert on the early days of hip hop (up to the 90s) but her ignorance to recent hip hop developments is painfully obvious in this book.

I don't believe that she has listened to hip hop seriously in 10 years nor do I believe she understands the sentiment of young (16-28 year old) hip hop fans and followers. The people who buy 50 cent, TI, Lil Wayne or Jay-Z cds and understand their music as "autobiographical" are the same people following Us weekly's coverage of Britney Spear's mental breakdown with schadenfreude-istic pleasure, or buying Mylie Cyrus cds and fighting to the death to attend her concerts, naive consumers whose reductive understanding of culture feeds... read more

Fantastic Textbook!

By John B. Simms - July 21, 2011

Dr. Rose's book is a testament to the power of intelligent, nuanced examinations of our complex world. She looks at 10 arguments about Hip Hop (5 in support and 5 against), peers back at the historical basis of these points, and washes off all the fluff. This results in a book whose complexity extends as deep as you are willing to go. Some of my 13-year-olds understand the surface arguments separate from one another. Others understand how the two function simultaneously. The majority of my students comprehend that each argument usually results in a superficial understanding of a complex issue- issues requiring a great deal of reflection on one's own perceptions and how those perceptions are influenced by the communities in which we live. It's a heavy lift for kids this age. Someone who knows their community in and out and yet is willing to admit the fact they still don't know enough to really "KNOW" that community is going to love working with the Hip Hop generation on this book. Good... read more