What is it about?
This article is a book review of a recent textbook made for in-classroom use by Dr. Fernando Orejuela of Indiana University. This review explains the materials and resources available in the textbook, as well as connects this textbook project back to earlier, similar formalized and non-formalized projects in rap.
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Why is it important?
This is important because there are not many textbooks on rap, even though rap is the most popular genre of music in the world by sales. Thus, its public and scholarly treatment is of the utmost importance.
Perspectives
Musicological, cultural, and political.
Martin Connor
Brandeis University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rap and Hip Hop Culture. By Fernando Orejuela. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 272 pp. ISBN 9780199987733, Popular Music, October 2017, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0261143017000460.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Rap Analysis
A web site of the work that makes me qualified to write such a review.
Musical Artistry Of Rap
For years Rap artists have met with mixed reception--acclaimed by fans yet largely overlooked by scholars. Focusing on 135 tracks from 56 artists, this survey appraises the artistry of the genre with updates to the traditional methods and measures of musicology. Rap synthesizes rhythmic vocals with complex beats, intonational systems, song structures, orchestration and instrumentalism. The author advances a rethinking of musical notation and challenges the conventional understanding of Rap through analysis of such artists as Eminem, Kanye West and Jean Grae.
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