Customer Reviews

Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yes this book is outdated, and yes this book is wordy, but thats what makes it so great.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..

David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello are too cute by half in this book, and it is horribly out of date.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.

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.

i am actually doing a report on rap and selected this book expecting some insight...i was surprised. it seems like some of this was even just put here to take up space; i was dissapointed, expecting something better from costello. a point of view not needed in most situations. of course, ten years ago it might have been close to adequate--now it seems totally inadequate to use in my report.