To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, (Hardcover)

Publishers Weekly,Hip-hop "freestyle," according to Cobb, assistant professor of history at Spelman College, is an extension of "the dozens"-exchanging barbs using "the rapid-fire calculation of speed chess combined with the language virtuosity of a poetry recital." Cobb subtitles his book a freestyle, and on literally every page he displays a tremendous command of language and history as he "examines the aesthetic, stylistic, and thematic evolution of hip hop from its inception in the South Bronx to the present era." But make no mistake: this groundbreaking work is an artfully constructed and vividly written look at "the artistic evolution of rap music and its relationship to earlier forms of black expression." Cobb brilliantly displays how hip-hop has its own aesthetic in five sections: hip-hop's relationship to ancestral forms of African-American culture; the history of its aesthetic evolution; its use of the "entire palette of poetic techniques"; the influence of the storytelling tradition, especially black autobiography; and studies of seven important artists in the field, from Rakim to the Notorious B.I.G. Much of the book's pleasure also comes from Cobb's ability to "freestyle" serious and humorous insights-from how artists such as Tupac and Nas sometimes "stepped outside the conventions of hip-hop to pen sympathetic narratives about the sexual exploitation of young women," to how LL Cool J's pioneering "I Need a Beat" sounded "like he'd raided every entry in an SAT book." (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved