Ch. 1. Back in the day: origins and definitions of hip hop. The roots and stylistic foundations of the rap music tradition / Cheryl L. Keyes -- Rap music / Tricia Rose -- Puerto Rican and proud, boyee!: rap, roots and amnesia / Juan Flores -- Ghost's world: a Wu Tang Clan member's new album / Sasha Frere-Jones -- Illmatic: a journey into Nas's state of mind / Shana Kent. -- Ch. 2. Crossing the color line: hip hop negotiates the complexities of race. Guarding the borders of the hip-hop nation / N.R. Kleinfield -- Sold out on soul: the corporate annexation of black popular music / Mark Anthony Neal -- Elvis, wiggers, and crossing over to nonwhiteness / David R. Roediger -- Raps' embrace of 'nigger' fires bitter debate / Michel Marriott -- The hip-hop nation: whose is it? In the end, black men must lead / Touré. -- Ch. 3. Your momma's a mack daddy: gender construction in hip hop. Hip hop women shredding the veil: race and class in popular feminist identity / Marcyliena Morgan -- Beyond racism and misogyny: black feminism and 2 Live Crew / Kimberle Crenshaw -- When black feminism faces the music, and the music is rap / Michele Wallace -- The Venus hip hop and the pink ghetto: negotiating spaces for women / Imani Perry -- The coolness of being real / bell hooks. -- Ch. 4. Growing up gangsta: gangsta rap and the politics of identity. Gangsta rap, the war on drugs, and the location of African-American identity in Los Angeles, 1988-92 / Elizabeth Grant -- Gangsta rap and American culture / Michael Eric Dyson -- Should Ice Cube's voice be chilled? / John Pareles -- Gangsta culture / bell hooks. -- Ch. 5. Mapping rap: East coast, West coast, third coast, and beyond. 'Represent': race, space, and place in rap music / Murray Forman -- Reaching toward hip-hop's homeland / Ayanna Paris -- New Orleans hip hop is the home of gangsta gumbo / Kelefa Sanneh -- Hip hop stole my black boy / Kiese Laymon
