1. Back in the Day: Origins and Definitions of Hip Hop

Cheryl L. Keyes, “The Roots and Stylistic Foundations of the Rap Music Tradition”

Tricia Rose, “Rap Music”

Juan Flores, “Puerto Rican and Proud, Boyee!: Rap Roots and Amnesia”

Sasha Frere Jones, “Ghost’s World: A Wu Tang Member’s New Album”

Shana, Kent “Illmatic: A Journey Into Nas’s State of Mind” (student essay)

2. Crossing the Color Line: Hip Hop Negotiates the Complexities of Race

N.R. Kleinfield, “Guarding the Borders of the Hip-Hop Nation”

Mark Anthony Neal, “Sold Out on Soul: The Corporate Annexation of Black Popular Music”

David R. Rodiger, “Elvis, Wiggers, and Crossing Over to Nonwhiteness”

Michel Marriott, “Rap’s Embrace of ‘Nigger’ Fires Bitter Debate”

Touré, “The Hip-Hop Nation: Whose Is It? In the End Black Men Must Lead.”

3. Your Momma’s a Mack Daddy: Gender Construction in Hip Hop

Marcyliena Morgan, “Hip-Hop Women Shredding the Veil: Race and Class in Popular Feminist Identity”

Kimberle Crenshaw, “Beyond Racism and Misogyny: Black Feminism and 2 Live Crew”

Michele Wallace, “When Black Feminism Faces the Music and the Music Is Rap”

Imani Perry, “The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women”

bell hooks, “The Coolness of Being Real”

4. Growing Up Gangsta: Gangsta Rap and the Politics of Identity

Elizabeth Grant, “Gangsta Rap, the War on Drugs, and the Location of African-American Identity in Los Angeles 1988-92”

Michael Eric Dyson, “Gangsta Rap and American Culture”

John Pareles, “Should Ice Cube’s Voice Be Chilled?”

bell hooks, “Gangsta Culture”

5. Mapping Rap: East Coast, West Coast, Third Coast, and Beyond

Murray Forman, “‘Represent’: Race, Space and Place in Rap Music”

Ayanna Parris, “Reaching Toward Hip-Hop’s Homeland: Hip Hop in Tanzania” (student essay)

Kelefa Sanneh, “New Orleans Hip Hop is the Home of Gangsta Gumbo”

Kiese Laymon, “Hip Hop Stole My Black Boy”