Gangsta : merchandizing the rhymes of violence / ... Read More
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- 1 of 1 copy available at Berklee College of Music.
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| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stan Getz Library | ML3531 .R6 1996 | 37684001064147 | Getz Stacks | Copy hold / Volume hold | Available | - |
Record details
- ISBN: 0312143443
- ISBN: 9780312143442
- Physical Description: 194 p. ; 22 cm.
- Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : St. Martin's Press, 1996.
Content descriptions
| Formatted Contents Note: | Introduction : a nation in danger -- Riding ... Read More |
| Summary, etc.: | In Gangsta, Ronin Ro looks at the perversion of ... Read More |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Rap (Music) > History and criticism Hip-hop > United States Gangs > United States Popular culture > United States Music > Social aspects > United States |
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In Gangsta, Ronin Ro looks at the perversion of the music called hip-hop - the syncopated verse with a political edge and an emphasis on hope - into a medium of rage and hyper-violence. Gangsta is about selling evil in a marketplace already glutted with faulty, combustible goods. Who supplies and who demands? Can we trace the engineers behind this star-maker machinery? This is packaged, sanctioned violence - a message without a source. Few rappers opt to stay in the 'hood; many more are lured to abandon it for the music video's version of the 'hood - the cartoon slash-and-burn community, the bloodbath, the vision of unassignable rage, anxiety, and revenge. Ro is asking, Whose rage is this, and are the predominately black and Hispanic artists involved in a minstrel show gone out of control? Are we giving society what it wants or are we telling it what it wants? What is clear is that society is getting what it does not need. What is most disturbing is that the music that carries the message was conceived to galvanize communities. As in the fifties, when television was supposed to function as a great teaching tool, hip-hop promised to promote pride and hope. Now it has morphed into cruelty, selfishness, the fracturing of communities and all this to the thwack, thwack of the plastic charge card. You can't trace who wants what, who believes what, who needs what. This book is saying: Repent for your sins. |