Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop - Softcover

Chang, Jeff

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465009093 ISBN 13: 9780465009091

Publisher: Civitas Books, 2007

Synopsis

It's not just rap music. Hip-hop has transformed theater, dance, performance, poetry, literature, fashion, design, photography, painting, and film, to become one of the most far-reaching and transformative arts movements of the past two decades.American Book Award-winning journalist Jeff Chang, author of the acclaimed Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, assembles some of the most innovative and provocative voices in hip-hop to assess the most important cultural movement of our time. It's an incisive look at hip-hop arts in the voices of the pioneers, innovators, and mavericks.With an introductory survey essay by Chang, the anthology includes: Greg Tate, Mark Anthony Neal, Brian “B+” Cross, and Vijay Prashad examining hip-hop aesthetics in the wake of multiculturalism. Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony Neal discussing gender relations in hip-hop. Hip-hop novelists Danyel Smith and Adam Mansbach on "street lit" and "lit hop". Actor, playwright, and performance artist Danny Hoch on how hip-hop defined the aesthetics of a generation. Rock Steady Crew b-boy-turned-celebrated visual artist DOZE on the uses and limits of a "hip-hop" identity. Award-winning writer Raquel Cepeda on West African cosmology and "the flash of the spirit" in hip-hop arts. Pioneer dancer POPMASTER FABEL's history of hip-hop dance, and acclaimed choreographer Rennie Harris on hip-hop's transformation of global dance theatre. Bill Adler's history of hip-hop photography, including photos by Glen E. Friedman, Janette Beckman, and Joe Conzo. Poetry and prose from Watts Prophet Father Amde Hamilton and Def Poetry Jam veterans Staceyann Chin, Suheir Hammad, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Kevin Coval. Roundtable discussions and essays presenting hip-hop in theatre, graphic design, documentary film and video, photography, and the visual arts.

About this title

Review:

(Total Chaos) is a lively anthology of essays from the front line
of hip hop, reflecting the staggering impact of the genre on art, dance,
literature, film and virtually every other artistic medium." -- The Metro, March 2007

Synopsis:

The most innovative and provocative voices in hip-hop assess the future of the most important cultural movement of our time. Music journalist and award-winning author, Jeff Chang presents a stunning and incisive look at hip-hop in the voices of those most intimately involved - prominent artists, writers, musicians and performers, who consider not simply where hip-hop has been but where its going. Essays include: acclaimed actor, playwright and performance artist Danny Hoch on how hip-hop defined the aesthetics of a generation; Rock Steady Crew b-boy turned celebrated visual artist DOZE on the uses and limits of a "hip-hop" identity; Def Poetry Jam's Suheir Hammad on the urgent intersection between arts and activism after Hurricane Katrina; and cultural critics Greg Tate, Mark Anthony Neal, Brian "B+" Cross and Vijay Prashad in a roundtable examination of aesthetics after the decline of the 1980s Multiculturalism movement. Infused with the movement's grit, funk and brutal honesty, "Total Chaos" is a unique and indispensable survey of the hip-hop generation's contribution to the arts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Civitas Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0465009093
• ISBN 13: 9780465009091
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400