Thug Life
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A01=Michael P. Jeffries
audience
authenticity
Author_Michael P. Jeffries
b boy
black
capitalism
Category=AVLP
Category=JBCC1
Category=JBSL
commercialization
cred
cultural appropriation
dj
drugs
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
expletives
explicit
fans
fear
gang
gender
graffiti
hip hop
identity
industry
intimidation
language
lyrics
masculinity
music
musicians
nonfiction
obama
performance
pleasure
politics
popular culture
power
race
rap
reputation
sex
sexuality
stereotypes
street
strength
swear words
thug
violence
vulgarity
Product details
- ISBN 9780226395852
- Weight: 425g
- Dimensions: 15 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jan 2011
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Hip-hop has come a long way from its origins in the Bronx in the 1970s, when rapping and Djing were just part of a lively, decidedly local scene that also venerated break-dancing and graffiti. Now hip-hop is a global phenomenon and, in the United States, a massively successful corporate enterprise predominantly controlled and consumed by whites while the most prominent performers are black. How does this shift in racial dynamics affect our understanding of contemporary hip-hop, especially when the music perpetuates stereotypes of black men? Do black listeners interpret hip-hop differently from white fans? These questions have dogged hip-hop for decades, but unlike most pundits, Michael Jeffries finds answers by interviewing everyday people. Instead of turning to performers or media critics, Thug Life focuses on the music's fans - young men, both black and white - and the resulting account avoids romanticism, offering an unbiased examination of how hip-hop works in people's daily lives.
As Jeffries weaves the fans' voices together with his own sophisticated analysis, we are able to understand hip-hop as a tool listeners use to make sense of themselves and society as well as a rich, self-contained world containing politics and pleasure, virtue and vice.
Michael Jeffries is assistant professor of American studies at Wellesley College.
