Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and Consciousness (Paperback)

by James G. Spady (Author), H. Samy Alim (Author), Samir Meghelli (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"...an amazing work and a wonderful source of information. It's a real privilege for me to be in such company." -- Henry Chalfant, co-author of Subway Art and Spraycan Art, on his inclusion in Tha Global Cipha

"A documentary-style page turner... You can call it the new movement's Bible - an Encyclopedia Britannica even." -- Philadelphia City Paper

"A groundbreaking project... that traverses and unites various geophysical and metaphysical spaces - the text is indeed Global." -- George Yancy, editor of The Nature of Philosophy and The Philosophical I

"An amazing work and a wonderful source of information. It's a real privilege for me to be in such company." -- Henry Chalfant, co-author of Subway Art and Spraycan Art, on his inclusion in Tha Global Cipha

"The best hip-hop scholarship book of 2006 (and maybe 2007?)... [An] essential resource and reference for serious hip-hop scholars." -- Jeff Chang, American Book Award-winning author of Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

"Y'all documenting this culture, our stories, our thoughts, and it's so important `cause nobody else is doing that... That's wassup!!" -- Xzibit, Hip Hop artist and actor

A documentary-style page turner... You can call it the [Hip Hop] movement's Bible -- an Encyclopedia Britannica even. --Philadelphia City Paper

Y'all documenting this culture, our stories, our thoughts, and it's so important because nobody else is doing that... That's what's up!! --Xzibit, Hip Hop artist and actor

[An] essential resource and reference for serious hip-hop scholars. --Jeff Chang, American Book Award-winning author of Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

Product Description
Tha Global Cipha is the first book about Hip Hop Culture to present in-depth conversations with artists from around the world, representing the many regional scenes of the U.S. (from the East Coast to the Bay Area to the Dirty South), France, the Caribbean (from Jamaica to Puerto Rico), and Africa (from Algeria to Senegal), as well as diverse forms of street musics, such as Reggaeton, Reggae/Dancehall, Shaabi and Rai. Conversations with Jay-Z, Mos Def, Eve, Sean Paul, Young Jeezy, Foxy Brown, Booba, Buju Banton, Ivy Queen, Afrika Bambaataa, Sonia Sanchez, DJ Kool Herc, Oxmo Puccino, Trina, Cornbread, Mannie Fresh, Intik, Beanie Sigel, Cheb Khaled, Pitbull, Manu Key, Tego Calderon and many others, demonstrate these artists to be critical interpreters of their own culture and of the world around them. Here is a book that centers the usually marginalized voices of Hip Hop communities, presenting a remarkably refreshing and revealing view of Hip Hop Culture from the inside-out... Enter tha global cipha!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Black History Museum Press (October 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967174112
• ISBN-13: 978-0967174112
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #684,738 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work!, February 2, 2007

By	W. Welburn (Champaign, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This has to be the best treatments I've seen on hip hop as a world cultural movement. The style and presentation are remarkable, matched only by the hip hop trilogy Nation Conscious Rap, Twisted Tales, and Street Conscious Rap, which presented us with hiphography as a way of researching cultural and social movements. The authors more than fulfill the path blazed by Sterling Brown, Lewis Jones, and others in their studies of Black music and culture in the deep South in the 1930s and 40s, which brought us the rich reservoir of research on the blues. Now, thanks to this project, we have the right corollary for hip hop culture and music.

5.0 out of 5 stars Tha Global Cipha-- One in a Million, January 25, 2007

By	M. Mana "Scholar's Ink" (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Once in a while a book is born that is one in a million. You don't just read what's in it, you read what's in yourself as well. Tha Global Cipha is definitely one of those books. Experts don't do the talking in this book, it's the artists and each one challenges your idea of hiphop. I've seen Tha Global Cipha described as an encyclopedia...if so, it is perhaps the most refreshing example of the encyclopedic concept I've ever seen! The artists interviewed speak for themselves about their worldview and their passion: hiphop. They cover everything from history of hiphop to the language of hiphop, to art history, to personal histories, to religion and spirituality, to local and world politics. Another encyclopedia on the same subject would probably have had all these topics written up in dry stand-alone chapters with an authoritarian third person voice, but here you have each artist's authoritative voice drawing you to think of what's been said in the other interviews and providing you with different pieces of the ever-changing and growing tapestry that is hiphop. Simply put, while the book is cohesive the voices from its pages can easily drive you to ask more questions about hiphop. That's when you know you've been "hit wit it!"

Some of my favorite interviews in here were the ones with Sonia Sanchez, Beanie Sigel, Youcef, Les Nubians...It's hard to say I have favorites though, because each interview is outstanding on its own. Some of the interviews are one-on-one while others are with a group so you not only have the method of the interview as the source of information but group interviews as well-- a multiplicity of voices discussing hiphop, philosophizing about hiphop, describing it, defining it, even arguing about it! I also really appreciated the pictures that the authors included along with each interview.

I believe this book is going to increase in value over time. While hiphop is constantly developing all over the world, this book will serve as a living testimony to how some of the greatest thought of it in our current day and time. While I wish I had a tiny bit more information about the interviews like when each one took place, the book overall is exquisite and proves that hiphop is not something experts can sit back and decontextualize to death....it's a living phenomena that forces you to look deeper and look to its source. I cannot thank the authors enough for it. I cannot recommend it enough.

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading, December 5, 2006

By	Dr. Stasia DeLane (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

I am amazed by this book (as all of the other books by Spady and Alim). No series has so brilliantly addressed the sociopolitical context of the hip hop community from the perspectives of the artists themselves.

This latest book, Tha Global Cipha, expands this analysis to the international landscape, further and expertly challenging deeply-settled myths about the role of hip hop in popular culture, and about the African American contribution to social thought beyond the United States. I loved how the conversations included valuable information and insight about reggaeton in Latin America, dancehall in the Caribbean, and Hip Hop all over the US, and places like Senegal, France, Egypt, etc., etc.

It's defiitely worth checking out!