It's Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation

“This is the book that many of us have been waiting for. The wisdom and understanding he exemplifies in this work will astound the reader as he opens a third eye and breaks it all down. Extremely well researched, well documented, and very well written, this book is well paced and will have no difficulty holding the reader’s attention.”

—Hip Hop Weekly

“Nothing can be said about the young M. K. Asante, Jr. if not that he is a visionary. The twenty-three-year-old professor, poet, and film-maker believes hip hop can save us all. The North Philly native argues that hip hop is a misunderstood weapon of social change in the fight for racial equality, which has been colonized by the corporate media and sold back to Americans as ‘Authentic Black Culture.’”

—Campbell States,
Philadelphia City Paper

“Asante brilliantly places hip hop on a continuum of musical creations originating in the rich experience of black Americans…. One of the most striking parts of the book comes when Asante shows how media images have powerfully shaped not only the older generation’s vision of black youth, but black youth’s vision of themselves. In a skillful pun, the author points how the ‘reel’ images—on television and film, in magazines, and on the radio—have replaced the ‘real’ even as those who pretend to be real are only performing for the reel.”

—Markland Walker,
The New Agenda

“Asante expertly blends historical information about hip hop and the civil rights movement with personal narrative, interviews with artists, quotations from civil rights leaders, and classic poetry to create an original and daring work.”

—Jennifer Zarr,
Library Journal

“M. K. Asante, Jr. takes a bold and extremely engaging step, defining a new era for young Black America in the wake of commercial hip hop’s demise. With
It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop
, he begins a new, groundbreaking dialogue about what the post-hip-hop generation is fighting against and what direction that group needs to be headed in.”

—Marcus Reeves, author of
Somebody Scream! Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power

The Rise
of the
Post-Hip-Hop
Generation

ST. MARTIN’S GRIFFIN
  
  
NEW YORK

For My People

 

 

To the most high and the ancestors.

To my mother and father for their unshakable love.

To Maya, queen, for her anchored illumination.

To my family all around the world for their support.

To Lawrence Ross, Manie Baron, and Monique Patterson for making this book a reality.

To my teachers and mentors for their wisdom: Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Charles Fuller, Kenny Gamble, Walter Lomax, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Kofi Opoku, Maulana Karenga, Monifa Love Asante, Dolan Hubbard, bell hooks, Haki Madhubuti, Jim Brown, Assata Shakur, Michael Eric Dyson, George Carlin, Haile Gerima, Keith Mehlinger, Cornel West, Lennox Dingle, and Kevin Howie.

To my comrades for their light: Dead Prez, Daahoud Asante, Sunni Patterson, Mos Def, Struggle, Chuck D, Owen ‘Alik Shahadah, Eka Asante, Immortal Technique, Head-Roc, Eshon Burgundy, Black Ice, Greg Corbin, Jared Ball, Jeff Chang, Saul Williams, Davey D, Jon
Sistrunk, Jeremy Glick, Joan Morgan, Jamilah Abu-bakare, William Jelani Cobb, Shalana Austin, Dustin Felder, Ben Haaz, Pierce Freelon, Reiland Rabaka, Deen Freelon, Ursula Rucker, Mark Anthony Neal, Kameelah Rasheed, Lauryn Hill, Amy Goodman, Imani Perry, Ahmed Artis, Allissa Hosten, Louba Durand, Kiri Davis, Abraham Osuna, Christina Garces, Zamani-Ra, and Nasir Allen Asante.

To the photographers and visual artists whose work appears in this book: Peter Barry, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jamal Thorne, Hank Willis Thomas, Theodore A. Harris, Jason Woods, Maya Freelon Asante, Paul D’Amato, Don Ryan, Nathaniel Donnett, Chris Metzger, and Jose Alamillo.

To my students at Morgan State University for teaching me. To researchers Ryan Bowens and Marquita Brown for their assistance.

To the everyday people who inspire me daily.

To the revolutionaries, activists, and organizers who refuse to accept the status quo.

To my brothers and sisters locked down (they can’t imprison your soul!).

To hip-hop.

To you.