Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present [Paperback]

Mark Costello (Author), David Foster Wallace (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1990

The author of Infinite Jest and his co-writer discuss rap and popular culture, power, money, racial politics, and language in the first book to seriously consider rap and its position as a vital force in American culture. "Brilliantly written . . . (with) great wit, insight, and in-your-face energy."--Review of Contemporary Fiction.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based primarily on the authors' experiences hanging out with the owners of a small rap music production company, the first part of this long essay on understanding rap describes the setting in which this subversive music has arisen--the urban ghetto, in this case, the North Dorchester section of Boston. We get a vivid picture of rap's real-life context in an area of poverty, drugs and various types of radical activity, an environment closed to upscale whites by the barriers of fear and oppression. The music similarly remains for whites, assert the authors, "like little more than looking at something venomous in a tightly closed jar." Much of the book is devoted to a critical explication and validation of rap, including literary and historical analysis, placing it, for instance, in the context of African oral tradition. But away from the stark truths of reportage, the authors--Costello is an assistant district attorney in Manhattan; Wallace wrote the novel The Broom of the System --often get mired in theoretical hyperbole and digression. They claim to be the first whites to appreciate its political radicalness and artistic value, calling rap "quite possibly the most important stuff happening in American poetry today."
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Ecco Pr; 1 edition (November 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880012552
• ISBN-13: 978-0880012553
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,474,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oldie but a Goldie, March 22, 2005

By 

Bradley A. Johns (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present (Paperback)

Yes this book is outdated, and yes this book is wordy, but thats what makes it so great. This is an exploration of two nerdy white guys resting on the cusp of what we now know was an cultural explosion, and one which they seem to have known, though at the time it had nothing to do with them that it soon would have eveything to do with them and us too. Furthermore some of the forecasting that they do is so right on its scary..
These guys are taliking agbout NWA like its current because it was current! Take this book as an opportunity to view one of those rare historical accounts that happens before the storm and seems to have something good to say about why it started raining in the first place..

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Outdated but occasionally still insightful, January 20, 2000

By 

Andrew Lindemann Malone - See all my reviews

This review is from: Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present (Paperback)

David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello are too cute by half in this book, and it is horribly out of date. (Just to give an idea, A Tribe Called Quest, who were considered an elder statesman group when they broke up two years ago, had not yet released an album when this book was published.) But most of the analysis of rap's place within popular culture remains somehow applicable to the current scene if you are willing to do a bunch of critical work along the same lines and ignore the dumber flights of fancy. Still a fun book to read and a fun book to debate. Not to be missed if you remember when LL Cool J was good and you have read anything by a master of postmodern philosophy.

4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an interesting look at what shapes our culture, July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present (Paperback)

costello and wallace examine rap culture and rappers as they influence our society. although at times it seems like they are being narrow minded, this book examines what shapes society and how society can react to these things. the book goes well beyond merely rap music and examines how society is influenced and how it influences. anyone who reads this and sees it as simply a look at rap music is missing the entire point of the book.