Product Description: The African American influence on popular culture is among the most sweeping and lasting this country has seen. Despite a history of institutionalized racism, black artists, entertainers, and entrepreneurs have had enormous impact on American popular culture...read more

Looks at the impact that black basketball players and their hip-hop influence has had on American culture.

A distinguished African-American scholar explores the rise of a new black male identity from the 1970s to the present day, discussing the role of hip-hop music and basketball as a path to wealth and power and profiling key figures who transformed these forms of expression from ghetto trends to global commodities. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

Brings together social insights, cultural commentary, and a discussion of the contributions of a variety of black icons, in an insightful overview of one of the most influential periods in American pop culture, assessing the influence of the TV broadcast of Roots, the rise of superstar black athletes, music, film, and more on the 1970s cultural revolution. Original. 25,000 first printing.

Product Description: When Lauryn Hill stepped forward to accept her fifth Grammy Award in 1999, she paused as she collected the last trophy, and seeming somewhat startled said, “This is crazy, ‘cause this is hip hop music.’“ Hill’s astonishment at receiving mainstream acclaim for music once deemed insignificant testifies to the explosion of this truly revolutionary art form...read more

It began with Magic, Bird, and Dr. J. Then came Michael. The Dream Team. The WNBA. And, most recently, "Spree" Latrell Sprewell--American Dream or American Nightmare?--the embodiment of everything many believe is wrong--and others believe is exciting--about the game. Today, despite the NBA strike, despite home run derbies, despite football's headlock on network television ratings, despite the much-heralded return of baseball, basketball has assumed a role in American culture and consciousness impossible to imagine 20 years ago, when arenas were empty and the NBA finals were broadcast via tape delay in the wee hours. So what happened? How did a "black sport," plagued by drug scandal and decimated by white flight, come to achieve such prominence? What are the subtle and not-so-subtle racial codes that define how the game is played and perceived, and the reception of its high-profile stars? What does the shift in popularity from the predominantly white, working-class ethos of baseball to the black, urban ethos of basketball suggest about contemporary life in America? What linkages exist between basketball and hip-hop culture and how did these develop? How has the arrival of women on the scene changed the equation? Bringing together journalists, cultural critics, and academics, this wide-ranging anthology has something for everyone, from hard-core fan to casual observer. Contributors: Todd Boyd, Kenneth L. Shropshire, Gerald Early, James Peterson, Susan J. Rayl, Davis W. Houck, Mark Conrad, Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Earl Smith, Sohail Daulatzi, Larry Platt, Tina Sloan Green, Alpha Alexander, Tara McPherson, Aaron Baker. (view table of contents)

Product Description: The most creative moments of African American culture have always emanated from a lower class or Oghetto's perspective. In contemporary society, this ghetto aesthetic has informed a large segment of the popular marketplace from the incendiary nature of gangsta rap, through the choreographed violence of films like Menace II Society, to recurrent debates around the use of the word Onigga, and even the assertion of this perspective in professional basketball...read more