Who Got the Camera?: A History of Rap and Reality

Reality first appeared in the late 1980s—in the sense not of real life but rather of the TV entertainment genre inaugurated by shows such as Cops and America’s Most Wanted; the daytime gabfests of Geraldo, Oprah, and Donahue; and the tabloid news of A Current Affair. In a bracing work of cultural criticism, Eric Harvey argues that reality TV emerged in dialog with another kind of entertainment that served as its foil while borrowing its techniques: gangsta rap. Or, as legendary performers Ice Cube and Ice-T called it, “reality rap.”

Reality rap and reality TV were components of a cultural revolution that redefined popular entertainment as a truth-telling medium. Reality entertainment borrowed journalistic tropes but was undiluted by the caveats and context that journalism demanded. While N.W.A.’s “Fuck tha Police” countered Cops’ vision of Black lives in America, the reality rappers who emerged in that group’s wake, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur, embraced reality’s visceral tabloid sensationalism, using the media's obsession with Black criminality to collapse the distinction between image and truth. Reality TV and reality rap nurtured the world we live in now, where politics and basic facts don’t feel real until they have been translated into mass-mediated entertainment.

1138967166
Who Got the Camera?: A History of Rap and Reality

Reality first appeared in the late 1980s—in the sense not of real life but rather of the TV entertainment genre inaugurated by shows such as Cops and America’s Most Wanted; the daytime gabfests of Geraldo, Oprah, and Donahue; and the tabloid news of A Current Affair. In a bracing work of cultural criticism, Eric Harvey argues that reality TV emerged in dialog with another kind of entertainment that served as its foil while borrowing its techniques: gangsta rap. Or, as legendary performers Ice Cube and Ice-T called it, “reality rap.”

Reality rap and reality TV were components of a cultural revolution that redefined popular entertainment as a truth-telling medium. Reality entertainment borrowed journalistic tropes but was undiluted by the caveats and context that journalism demanded. While N.W.A.’s “Fuck tha Police” countered Cops’ vision of Black lives in America, the reality rappers who emerged in that group’s wake, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur, embraced reality’s visceral tabloid sensationalism, using the media's obsession with Black criminality to collapse the distinction between image and truth. Reality TV and reality rap nurtured the world we live in now, where politics and basic facts don’t feel real until they have been translated into mass-mediated entertainment.

29.95 In Stock
Who Got the Camera?: A History of Rap and Reality

Who Got the Camera?: A History of Rap and Reality

by Eric Harvey
Who Got the Camera?: A History of Rap and Reality

Who Got the Camera?: A History of Rap and Reality

by Eric Harvey

eBook

$29.95 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

Reality first appeared in the late 1980s—in the sense not of real life but rather of the TV entertainment genre inaugurated by shows such as Cops and America’s Most Wanted; the daytime gabfests of Geraldo, Oprah, and Donahue; and the tabloid news of A Current Affair. In a bracing work of cultural criticism, Eric Harvey argues that reality TV emerged in dialog with another kind of entertainment that served as its foil while borrowing its techniques: gangsta rap. Or, as legendary performers Ice Cube and Ice-T called it, “reality rap.”

Reality rap and reality TV were components of a cultural revolution that redefined popular entertainment as a truth-telling medium. Reality entertainment borrowed journalistic tropes but was undiluted by the caveats and context that journalism demanded. While N.W.A.’s “Fuck tha Police” countered Cops’ vision of Black lives in America, the reality rappers who emerged in that group’s wake, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur, embraced reality’s visceral tabloid sensationalism, using the media's obsession with Black criminality to collapse the distinction between image and truth. Reality TV and reality rap nurtured the world we live in now, where politics and basic facts don’t feel real until they have been translated into mass-mediated entertainment.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781477323953
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication date: 10/05/2021
Series: American Music Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 408
File size: 857 KB

About the Author

Eric Harvey is an associate professor in the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University. His writing has appeared in Pitchfork, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The LA Review of Books, Buzzfeed, MTV.com, and The Village Voice.

Table of Contents

Preface: Eavesdropping
 
Introduction: It’s Like That, and That’s the Way It Is
Chapter 1: Peace Is a Dream, Reality Is a Knife
Chapter 2: Don’t Quote Me, Boy, ’Cause I Ain’t Said Shit
Chapter 3: Get Me the Hell Away from This TV
Chapter 4: I’m Gonna Treat You Like King!
Chapter 5: Who Got the Camera?
Chapter 6: Stop Being Polite and Start Getting Real
Chapter 7: 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted
Conclusion: Deeper Than Rap
 
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Dart Adams

This exhaustively researched book becomes a page-turner as it untangles the way rap evolved with reality television, music corporations, tabloid media, and politicians seeking strawmen among some of hip-hop’s most important artists.

Hua Hsu

An excellent history of music, media, and culture, Who Got the Camera? reminded me of Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop as well as Andrew Hartman’s A War for the Soul of the Nation. Harvey is a skilled writer capable of unpacking and distilling complex ideas without sacrificing their depth. Significantly, he is also a polished storyteller, carefully hovering over moments that would become enormously important to the ways in which we came to understand culture, race, and free speech in the twenty-first century.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews