Total Chaos

The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop

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By Jeff Chang

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$12.99

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$16.99 CAD

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  1. ebook $12.99 $16.99 CAD
  2. Trade Paperback $24.99 $31.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around July 31, 2008. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

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. Total Chaos is Jeff Chang at his best: fierce and unwavering in his commitment to document the hip-hop explosion. In beginning to define a hip-hop aesthetic, this gathering of artists, pioneers, and thinkers illuminates the special truth that hip-hop speaks to youth around the globe. (Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip-Hop Generation)
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Genre:

On Sale
Jul 31, 2008
Page Count
400 pages
Publisher
Civitas Books
ISBN-13
9780786722082

Jeff Chang

About the Author

Jeff has written for the The Nation, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Vibe, Foreign Policy, and Mother Jones, among many others. Born of Chinese and Native Hawaiian ancestry, Jeff was raised in Hawa’i where he attended ‘Iolani School. He lives in California. He is a big fan of Japanese curry and poi, but not at the same time.

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