That's the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader

That's the Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader brings together the best-known and most influential writings on rap and hip-hop from its beginnings to today. Spanning nearly 25 years of scholarship, criticism, and journalism, this unprecedented anthology showcases the evolution and continuing influence of one of the most creative and contested elements of global popular culture since its advent in the late 1970s. That's the Joint presents the most important hip-hop scholarship in one comprehensive volume, addressing hip-hop as both a musical and a cultural practice. Think of it as "Hip-Hop 101."

Table of Contents:
Foreword, MICHAEL ERIC DYSON Introduction, MURRAY FORMAN Part I: Hip-Hop Ya Don't Stop: Hip-Hop History and HistoriographyPart Introduction, MURRAY FORMAN 1. Breaking, SALLY BANES 2. The Politics of Graffiti, CRAIG CASTLEMAN 3. Breaking and the New York City Breakers, MICHAEL HOLMAN 4. Jive Talking N.Y. DJs Rapping Away in Black Discos, ROBERT FORD, JR. 5. B-Beats Bombarding Bronx, ROBERT FORD, JR. 6. Hip-Hop's Founding Fathers Speak the Truth, NELSON GEORGE Part II: No Time for Fake Niggas: Hip-Hop Culture and the Authenticity Debates Part Introduction, MARK ANTHONY NEAL 7. The Culture of Hip-Hop, MICHAEL ERIC DYSON 8. Puerto Rocks: Rap, Roots, and Amnesia, JUAN FLORES 9. It's a Family Affair, PAUL GILROY 10. Hip-Hop Chicano: A Separate but Parallel Story, RAEGAN KELLY 11. On the Question of Nigga Authenticity, R.A.T. JUDY 12. Looking for the "Real" Nigga: Social Scientists Construct the Ghetto, ROBIN D.G. KELLEY 13. About a Salary or Reality?-Rap's Recurrent Conflict, ALAN LIGHT 14. The Rap on Rap: The "Black Music" that Isn't Either, DAVID SAMUELS Part III: Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City: Hip-Hop, Space, and Place Part Introduction, MURRAY FORMAN 15. Black Empires,White Desires: The Spatial Politics of Identity in the Age of Hip-Hop, DAVARIAN L. BALDWIN 16. Hip-Hop am Main, Rappin' on the Tyne, ANDY BENNETT 17. "Represent": Race, Space, and Place in Rap Music, MURRAY FORMAN 18. Rap and Hip-Hop: The New York Connection, DICK HEBDIGE 19. Uptown Throwdown, DAVID TOOP Part IV: I'll Be Nina Simone Defecating on Your Microphone: Hip-Hop and GenderPart Introduction, MARK ANTHONY NEAL 20. Translating Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop: The Musical Vernacular of Black Girls' Play, KYRA D. GAUNT 21. Empowering Self, Making Choices, Creating Spaces: Black Female Identity via Rap Music Performance, CHERYL L. KEYES 22. Hip-Hop Feminist, JOAN MORGAN 23. Seeds and Legacies: Tapping the Potential in Hip-Hop, GWENDOLYN D. POUGH 24. Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile, TRICIA ROSE Part V: The Message: Rap, Politics, and Resistance Part Introduction, MARK ANTHONY NEAL 25. Organizing the Hip-Hop Generation, ANGELA ARDS 26. Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self: The Death of Politics in Rap Music and Popular Culture,TODD BOYD 27. The Challenge of Rap Music from Cultural Movement to Political Power, BAKARI KITWANA 28. Rap, Race, and Politics, CLARENCE LUSANE 29. Postindustrial Soul: Black Popular Music at the Crossroads, MARK ANTHONY NEAL Part VI :Looking for the Perfect Beat: Hip-Hop Aesthetics and Technologies of Production Part Introduction: MURRAY FORMAN 30. Airshafts, Loudspeakers, and the Hip Hop Sample: Contexts and African American Musical Aesthetics, ANDREW BARTLETT 31. Public Enemy Confrontation, MARK DERY 32. Hip-Hop: From Live Performance to Mediated Narrative, GREG DIMITRIADIS 33. Sample This, NELSON GEORGE 34. "This Is a Sampling Sport": Digital Sampling, Rap Music, and the Law in Cultural Production,THOMAS G. SCHUMACHER 35. Challenging Conventions in the Fine Art of Rap, RICHARD SHUSTERMAN 36. Hip-Hop and Black Noise: Raising Hell, RICKEY VINCENT Part VII: I Used to Love H.E.R.: Hip-Hop in/and the Culture Industries Part Introduction: MARK ANTHONY NEAL 37. Commercialization of the Rap Music Youth Subculture, M. ELIZABETH BLAIR 38. Dance in Hip-Hop Culture, KATRINA HAZZARD-DONALD 39. Wendy Day, Advocate for Rappers, NORMAN KELLEY 40. The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite, KEITH NEGUS 41. Contracting Rap: An Interview with Carmen Ashhurst-Watson, TRICIA ROSE 42. Black Youth and the Ironies of Capitalism, S. CRAIG WATKINS 43. Homies in The 'Hood: Rap's Commodification of Insubordination, TED SWEDENBURG 44. An Exploration of Spectacular Consumption: Gangsta Rap as Cultural Commodity, ERIC K. WATTS

About the Author :
Murray Forman is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. He is author of The'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Hip-Hop. Mark Anthony Neal is Associate Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Program in African and African-American Studies at Duke University. Neal is the author of What the Music Said, Soul Babies, and Songs inthe Key of Black Life, all published by Routledge.

Review :
"That's The Joint!, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, is a ready-made cornerstone for any multidisciplinary hip-hop course... -- Houston Chronicle "Everything you wanted to know about hip-hop." --The Wisconsin Journal "This is the ultimate breakdown of hip-hop scholarship in one master mix volume."-- Charlie Ahearn, co-author of Yes Yes Y'All: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop's First Decade and director of Wild Style