Customer Reviews

To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip-Hop Aesthetic

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What William Jelani Cobb does with "To The Break of Dawn" is very similar to what the great writer/author and music critic Amiri Baraka did in 1963 with his earth shattering book, Blues People. Cobb's focus on the aesthetics in hip hop, as seen primarily through its lyrics, and its connection to the African American musical continuum arrives not a moment too soon. As every other car commercial and sports endeavor welcomes hip hop as its soundtrack of commerce, Cobb reminds us that this music emerges from people who were once commodities themselves. The experience of dehumanization created the unique aesthetic of Black music in America and despite the diamond grillz and the posh Atlanta estates "To The Break of Dawn" asserts and proves that rap music still pays homage to field shouts and work songs.

Cobb's credentials as historian and social critic serve the reader well as he connects the dots between American history and hip hop aesthetics, but the reader is best served by Cobb's clear love of hip hop, his personal knowledge of the music as kid from Queens, and his adroit and clear writing style. One need not be a member of a historical society to enjoy "To The Break of Dawn." Cobb's clear, funny and incisive prose makes this a book that everybody, from dad in the den listening to old school Bobby Womack to the kid in the basement listening to the best of the dirty south, can understand and more importantly enjoy.

In my opinion, the :Hip Hop experience is the most recent expression of the "African-American musical idiom" which was injected into the veins of American music when the frist African arrived on the North American shores. This author is correct in suggesting that "hip hop(has been dropped) into the vast well of commercial mediocrity (where it has been" diluted and altered in way to apeal to a wider public...'Eileen Southern) and that new and more facinating "musical innovations...are sure to come." When will the pilfering end???????

On page 10, Jelani Cobb lists several other works on hip hop, including Chang's _Can't Stop, Won't Stop_, Neal and Foreman's _That's the Joint_, and Rose's hugely influential _Black Noise_. In doing so, Jelani Cobb seems to hope that _To the Break of Dawn_ will build upon the important work these other authors have contributed to rap and hip hop scholarship. It doesn't come close.

Unfortunately, _To the Break of Dawn_ lacks the originality and sophistication of these other works. The connections Jelani Cobb draws between the rapper and the bluesman, for example, are not at all new, nor are his attempts to identify other important antecedents of rap music. (David Toop's _Rap Attack_ still sets the standard for teasing out the multifaceted and complex lineage of rap.) And while Jelani Cobb's chronology of the changes in rap music is admittedly on-point and helpful, he never offers any insightful analysis to back it up. For example, during his discussion of the importance of comparison in rap lyrics, he cites the following Big Pun rhyme: "The prerogative to chase girls who look provocative / Terror Squad rock ice whiter than Yugoslavians." Then he follows up with this devastating piece of analysis: "In doing so he [Big Pun] deliberately compared the clarity of his diamonds with the fair skin of Eastern Europeans." Unfortunately, this is about as good as it gets. What Jelani Cobb fails to realize is that in 2007, most people---certainly those who would buy his book---don't need this kind of simple translation anymore. It's surprising that an academic wouldn't (or couldn't) take things to a higher level.

That said, this book might be a useful primer for a middle school student who likes rap but doesn't know much about it or for a curious parent who wants to know more about what his or her child is listening to. But for rap fans who have a basic understanding of the genre and its history, this isn't going to add anything new.

As a final point, the book wasn't edited particularly well. The index is misnumbered in places, and I circled at least a few typos during my first read-through. This is hardly Jelani Cobb's fault, but these problems made an already disappointing experience a little more so.

William Jelani Cobb actually succeeds in breaking down true hip hop for a few simple reasons:

1) He's one of the best cultural writers we have out there (see his Essence contributions as an example)
2) He's not afraid to speak truth (and not feestyle with multi-syllable words in order to create an uppity hip hop theory that excludes the very members of its group)
3) He is a child of hip hop, like Chuck D. said.

If you're tired of people trying to grind hip hop's meaning down to a minutae of a granule of a spray paint residue with their overly academic hypothesis and their inability to actually pick up a De La Soul CD and listen to the music, then you need this book.

Down with the posers.

I'm tired. I just watched SAVING PRIVATE RYAN for the first time ever. It's April 1, 2007 and unfortunately, this is NOT an April fools joke. The movie was ok, I guess. Too much on the valour and sacrfice of our great American fathers. "Freedom". yeah. "Freeing the world from Tyranny". Yeah, ok. Thankfully, V FOR VENDETTA comes on in about an hour and I get to watch a REAL cartoon hero. Enough on WWII. America didn't want Blacks to fight because they didn't want Blacks to get a taste of what it would feel like to kill white men. My brothers: don't ya'll still wish THAT was in effect? We wouldn't have lost so many in Vietnam and we wouldn't be losing so many in Bagdad. We could all pull Stepin Fetchits and shake our heads in grim remorse as our white countrymen came home in bodybags and limbless. But no, we hafta prove our "full equality" which is absurd-- the whole thing, really. Fighting for a country that enslaved you (that under the guise of freedom too, I might add) and scamper for the back of the bus... where in the world am i going with this? I have no idea. Like I said/wrote, I'm tired. This is now my third attempt to rate and review this book and the other two attempts were about the book so I've given up on that. Thought I'd just write a rant. If this don't make it, I won't be so upset. At least it's a non-sequitur. It has an exuse for not making it. The other two were just poorly written. And when is anybody ever penalized for that? Buy this book ya'll. It's great. Oops. Maybe I just pushed my luck...