Nuthin' but a "G" Thang

The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap
Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-231-12408-9
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 37 g

Reihe: Popular Cultures, Everyday Lives

In the late 1980s, gangsta rap music emerged in urban America, giving voice to and making money for a social group widely considered to be in crisis: young, poor, black men. From its local origins, gangsta rap went on to flood the mainstream, generating enormous popularity and profits. Yet the highly charged lyrics, public battles, and hard, fast lifestyles that characterize the genre have incited the anger of many public figures and proponents of "family values." Constantly engaging questions of black identity and race relations, poverty and wealth, gangsta rap represents one of the most profound influences on pop culture in the last thirty years.

Focusing on the artists Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, the Geto Boys, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, Quinn explores the origins, development, and immense appeal of gangsta rap. Including detailed readings in urban geography, neoconservative politics, subcultural formations, black cultural debates, and music industry conditions, this book explains how and why this music genre emerged. In Nuthin'but a "G" Thang, Quinn argues that gangsta rap both reflected and reinforced the decline in black protest culture and the great rise in individualist and entrepreneurial thinking that took place in the U.S. after the 1970s. Uncovering gangsta rap's deep roots in black working-class expressive culture, she stresses the music's aesthetic pleasures and complexities that have often been ignored in critical accounts.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Quinn, Eithne

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Musikpsychologie, Musiksoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Andere zeitgenössische Musikrichtungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Jazz
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. A Gangsta Parable2. Gangsta's Rap: Black Cultural Studies and the Politics of Representation3. "Alwayz Into Somethin'&thinsp": Gangsta's Emergence in 1980s Los Angeles4. "Straight Outta Compton": Ghetto Discourses and the Geographies of Gangsta5. "The Nigga Ya Love To Hate": Badman Lore and Gangsta Rap6."Who's the Mack?" Rap Performance and Trickster Tales7. "It's a Doggy-Dogg World": The G-Funk Era and the Post-Soul Family8. Tupac Shakur and the Legacies of Gangsta

Über Autor(innen)

Eithne Quinn teaches American Studies at the University of Manchester, UK. Her work on rap music, cultural studies, and African American popular culture has appeared in edited books and journals, including the Journal of American Studies and Black Music Research Journal.