Mark Costello (3) (1962–)

This is a very wordy book written by a couple of late 20-year-olds who possess great knowledge of the English language and of hip-hop. This is written in the late 1980s, and as such, it's a great testament of both culture and music of the day, in the USA.

The authors collaborated on the whole, but each chapter is written individually.

All in all: surgical precision when it comes to the authors' use of grammar and words, but at times the intellectual level of the book is its biggest downfall. "Stoopid fresh" isn't exactly it, when I got the feeling that this book was partly written as an intellectual exercise to impress peers, rather than to explain hip-hop and rap (which I don't hold as synonymous, despite the authors wishing to do so).

However, it does contain a lot of great insight into hip-hop, displaying it as "CNN for black people", to paraphrase Chuck D., also as the Shakespearian poetry of the now - and, indeed, during the 1980s.… (más)

Let's see are there any detective memes missing: the hero's pop was a dirty cop (bag man). The boss, the DA, plays dirty too. Our guy wants to stay clean. The feds do a cover up that he has to unravel. The snitch pulls a fast one. Our guy's brother is wild but becomes a cop--one that need some protection provided by his bro. The wife is leaving. The bad guy is a psycho. Things go wrong. The good cop dies.

Nothing was left out.

Ans some new ideas were thrown in: The riot when the Catholic mass was said in English and The LSD twist at the end, along with the lyrics to "White Rabbit."… (más)