The kind folks at University of Chicago Press just hipped me to a great new review on the hip hop blog, ScratchedVinyl.com. From the review:
“Flip the Script is an interesting book on many levels, but first and foremost, as an American, I find the book incredibly helpful in just shifting perspective and forcing readers to understand how hip hop is being used to deal with complex issues across the ocean. Towards the beginning of the book, Rollefson looks at groups in Paris and Berlin, and discusses how through hip hop, artists are using an artform developed in America and most commonly assumed as an African American style of music to deal with issues such as free speech, police brutality, immigration, and racial identity. Hip hop fans in America are surely familiar with all of this through their own experiences and listening to the music, but there are additional layers to consider when you visit cities in countries with different governments, histories, and immigration patterns, who then turn to hip hop as tool to deal with these issues…
None of this would matter, though, if Rollefson wasn’t able to effectively communicate any of this. Fortunately, Rollefson is able to take this rigorous academic and theoretical work, using tools laid out by cultural theorists and historians such as Edward Said and Amiri Baraka, and translate all of his analysis and observations in a way that the general reading audience can easily understand.
Flip the Script is a must-read for hip hop fans that are seeking to broaden their horizons and understand how hip hop is being made and consumed in Europe. Rollefson takes into consideration different scenes, different countries, and different artists, and puts them in discussion to create a narrative that brings to light all of the complex factors of how hip hop functions in postcolonial Europe. It’s a complex subject, but Rollefson has crafted a book that is very readable, and helps build a base knowledge that will leave you hungry to learn more.”
Thanks Chi Chi!
Full interview here: http://scratchedvinyl.com/?q=node/3497
Flip the Script: European Hip Hop and the Politics of Postcoloniality 