On Sale: May 30, 2006
Page Count: 240 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN-13: 9780465037476

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Our national conversation about race is ludicrously out-of-date. Hip-hop is the key to understanding how things are changing. In a provocative book that will appeal to hip-hoppers both black and white and their parents, Bakari Kitwana deftly teases apart the culture of hip-hop to illuminate how race is being lived by young Americans. This topic is ripe, but untried, and Kitwana poses and answers a plethora of questions: Does hip-hop belong to black kids? What in hip-hop appeals to white youth? Is hip-hop different from what rhythm, blues, jazz, and even rock ‘n’ roll meant to previous generations? How have mass media and consumer culture made hip-hop a unique phenomenon? What does class have to do with it? Are white kids really hip-hop’s primary listening audience? How do young Americans think about race, and how has hip-hop influenced their perspective? Are young Americans achieving Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream through hip-hop? Kitwana addresses uncomfortable truths about America’s level of comfort with black people, challenging preconceived notions of race. With this brave tour de force, Bakari Kitwana takes his place alongside the greatest African American intellectuals of the past decades.

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Bakari Kitwana was the Executive Editor of The Source from 1994-98; Editorial Director at Third World Press; and a music reviewer for NPR's All Things Considered. He currently freelances for the Village Voice, Savoy, the Source, and the Progressive, and his weekly column, "Do the Knowledge," is published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He is the author of The Rap on Gangsta Rap and The Hip Hop Generation. He lives in Westlake, Ohio.

Bakari Kitwana

About the Author

Bakari Kitwana is an internationally known cultural critic, journalist, activist, and thought leader in the area of hip-hop and Black youth political engagement. The Executive Director of Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues on Hip-Hop, Kitwana is the co-founder of the Hip-Hop Political Education Summit, which conducted virtual summits in 2020 on both voter suppression and Black men voters. The 2019-2020 Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow at Harvard University’s Hip-Hop Archive and Research Center / Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, he was the Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine during the mid-1990s—then the nation’s top-selling music magazine. The collaborating writer for Rakim’s 2019 memoir Sweat The Technique: Revelations on Creativity From The Lyrical Genius, his other books include The Hip-Hop Generation, Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop, and Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government For the People (co-editor).

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