It's Bigger than Hip-Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation, by M.K. Asante

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It's Bigger than Hip-Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation, by M.K. Asante

POSTED: Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 8:32 PM

Filed Under: Arts Books

St. Martin's, 304 pp., $25.95

Nothing can be said about the young M.K. Asante Jr. if not that he is a visionary. The 23-year-old professor, poet and filmmaker 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.”

According to Asante, the post-hip-hop generation is one that is ready to deploy hip-hop to fight for civil rights rather than the right to party. This sounds great. I’m down, but I’m not sure I’m invited to the party as a middle-class white girl. Asante’s focus is on rallying black youth, not building a broad-based coalition of whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians and anyone else who wants to join. I’m sure he’s not opposed to this idea, but the error of omission undercuts his broader vision of equality if it focuses solely on a black-and-disenfranchised and white-benign-oppressor paradigm.

While the book isn’t particularly groundbreaking, it has some nice moments and sound reasoning. Asante has a conversation with the ghetto that details its origins historically and politically. But if you’ve taken more than one African-American studies or cultural studies class in college, it becomes tired multiculturalism. To Asante’s credit, there is no academic jargon, no talk of “discursive frameworks” and “heteronormativity.”

While those familiar with the power of hip-hop will probably not be surprised by anything in this book, it’s a welcome variation in the usual hip-hop-as-trash sentiment that is so prevalent these days.

Kendra Watkins

Posted 2008-11-09 14:15:07

I love this book. Another great work by brilliant and multitalented MK Asante Jr.

Posted by Campbell States @ 8:32 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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