Hip Hop around the World: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]

by Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith (Editor)

Hip hop music has gone from being a marginalized genre in the late 1980s to the predominant style of music in America, the UK, Nigeria, South Africa, and other countries around the world. Hip Hop around the World includes more than 450 entries on global hip hop culture as it includes music, art, fashion, dance, social and cultural movements, organizations, and styles of hip hop. Virtually every country is represented in the text. Most of the entries focus on music styles and notable musicians and are unique in that they discuss the sound of various hip hop styles and musical artists' lyrical content, vocal delivery, vocal ranges, and more. Many additional entries deal with dance styles, such as breakdancing or b-boying/b-girling, popping/locking, clowning, and krumping, and cultural movements, such as black nationalism, Nation of Islam, Five Percent Nation, and Universal Zulu Nation. Country entries take into account politics, history, language, authenticity, and personal and community identification. Special care is taken to draw relationships between people and entities such as mentor-apprentice, producer-musician, and more.

968 pages, Hardcover

First published July 31, 2012

Reviews

[Dewey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently, Goodreads doesn't remove spam. The one-star reviews are all spam geared towards someone who isn't the author of this book. The Goodreads folks won't do anything about it even when it's obvious. Anyway, that's a shame because this is a good resource and has received excellent reviews in Choice and other legitimate reference books reviews. In my opinion, the entries are interesting and informative and the coverage of global hip hop is amazing. There's no other source like it.