Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop

by Adam Bradley

Overview

If asked to list the greatest innovators of modern American poetry, few of us would think to include Jay-Z or Eminem in their number. And yet hip hop is the source of some of the most exciting developments in verse today. The media uproar in response to its controversial lyrical content has obscured hip hop's revolution of poetic craft and experience: Only in rap music can the beat of a song render poetic meter audible, allowing an MC's wordplay to move a club-full of eager listeners.

Examining rap history's most memorable lyricists and their inimitable techniques, literary scholar Adam Bradley argues that we must understand rap as poetry or miss the vanguard of poetry today. Book of Rhymes explores America's least understood poets, unpacking their surprisingly complex craft, and according rap poetry the respect it deserves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465094417
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	06/27/2017
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Adam Bradley is a professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder where he directs the Laboratory for Race and Popular Culture. The author or editor of six books, Bradley has contributed to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among others. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

Rap Poetry 101 xiii

Rap Poetry 201 xxv

Part 1

1 Rhythm 3

2 Rhyme 41

3 Wordplay 73

Part 2

4 Style 103

5 Storytelling 133

6 Signifying 149

Epilogue 173

Appendix 181

Acknowledgments 211

Credits 215

Notes 217

Index 227

Editorial Reviews

…essentially English 101 meets Hip-Hop Studies 101…Bradley, who teaches literature at Claremont McKenna College in California, distinguishes himself from the growing glut of hip-hop scholars by writing a book about rap, as opposed to hip-hop: not a study of the culture or a history of the movement, but a formalist critique of lyrics—almost an anachronistic effort in the era of cultural studies.
—The New York Times

Baz Dreisinger

With hip-hop's tremendous growth over the last decade, the amount of literature covering the genre has increased considerably. Yet, few books have been devoted exclusively to the poetic elements of hip-hop. Having studied under such luminaries as Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates Jr., Bradley (literature, Claremont McKenna Coll.) is emerging as a pioneering scholar in the study of hip-hop. Here, he shows that rap can be analyzed as literary verse while recognizing its essential identity as music. Dissecting hip-hop's dual rhythmic voice-rhymes over beats-Bradley uncovers rap's poetic tradition as well as its progressive contributions to the medium of poetry. He explains terms such as assonance and consonance through the lyrics of Keats and Eminem. Rap is a relatively new genre of music, but lyrical analysis reveals the use of intricate structures steeped in poetic tradition. This refreshing read challenges common assumptions that hip-hop is simple or mundane. Recommended for all public and academic libraries; this will particularly appeal to hip-hop artists and aficionados, poets, and literature students and scholars of the hip-hop generation or younger.
—Joshua Finnell

Library Journal

Boston Globe
“[Bradley] lays out a nuanced, academically rigorous argument that the best hip-hop deserves attention as genuine artistry.... He traces the word rhythm from the Greek rheo, or flow. Biggie had flow; Jay-Z has flow. For an English professor, Adam Bradley got some flow of his own.”

Dallas Morning News
“Excellent.... Where so many hip-hop studies lean heavily on politics and sociology, Book of Rhymes is a welcome and thorough exploration of rap aesthetics that isn't afraid to be learned.”

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“As comfortable in the company of Jay-Z as he is with John Donne, Adam Bradley is a visionary critic, skillful and wise. His Book of Rhymes is a tour de force, brilliantly renovating hip hop criticism as he rescues the forgotten vanguard of American poetry.”

Cornel West
“Adam Bradley's Book of Rhymes is a marvelous exploration into the poetic genius of rap and the cultural gravity of Hip Hop. His analysis is subtle, sophisticated, and soulful!”

From the Publisher