Hip Hop Intellectual Resistance

by A. Shahid Stover

As an engaging philosophical work of social critique and cultural commentary, A. Shahid Stover ignites a series of explosive critical interrogations which explore a tense unity of Hip Hop aesthetics and radical social theory. Written with the compelling audacity of a young iconoclast, Stover challenges the reader with an elevated critical discourse which remains diligently grounded and ever relevant to the streets of a world in structural transition, spiritual alienation, socio-political upheaval and intellectual revolt. Hip Hop Intellectual Resistance is a book of genuine existential liberationist commitment as lived and experienced by a new voice of independent radical thought, who revels in confronting the academy with social relevance and inciting the streets with intellectual rigor.

Genres: Hip Hop

132 pages, Hardcover

First published August 13, 2009

Reviews

[J.J. Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first heard A. Shahid Stover's voice from the audience at a Brecht Forum course in New York City. In his collection of essays, Hip Hop Intellectual Resistance, Stover calls for a new look at modern day resistance in the same strong voice. He uses examples from rap artists pulled from his own background as an underground emcee in NYC. The existential essays came out in 2009 as interrogations of how we see our world contrasting with what media shows us about our world. He launches his questions from a position grounded in faith. His work is supported by footnotes from the great revolutionary writers - from Frederick Douglas and W.E.B. Dubois to Sartre, to modern day voices of Noam Chomsky and NAS. Reading Stover’s essays leaves me looking for more. I found it at his online magazine "the Brotherwise Dispatch". A. Shahid Stover is a brother to know, and I highly recommend his book to readers interested in the voice of existentialism today.