Spectacular Venaculars

Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism

This book explains how hip-hop is viewed as a "postmodern successor” to African American culture. For example, hip hop was influenced by many different elements of African American culture such as jazz. It examines the role that hip-hop plays in the African American experience. By using many political and rhetorical terms, the book demonstrates that hip-hop is a form of rebellion by historical standards. This book seems like it would be very interesting for me because it describes hip-hop in a different way than I have ever seen.

This book seems to use theory and practices of other postmodern movements in comparison to hip-hop, which is why it is seen as a "rebellion." Seeing as how the author, Dr. Russell A. Potter, is a white man it is easy to see why he, a professor at Rhode Island College, would describe hip-hop in such a rhetorical tone. For most fans of hip-hop, this book would not be very viable. Because the book is coming from a white man who seems to have no personal interest in hip-hop, only its rhetorical elements, I think most hip-hop fans would resound with a unanimous "it’s not that serious." However, I allow myself to view this book with a different perspective. I read the book as if hip-hop were not apart of my upbringing nor my current life, and see it as an unidentifiable entity.

The only reason this author is qualified to write a book about hip-hop is because he is a Doctor of English Language and Linguistics, History and culture of the Canadian Arctic, Victorian visual culture, Media Studies.