About the Book
Rap and Hip Hop Culture traces the ideological, social, historical, and cultural influences on a musical genre that first came to prominence in the mid-1970s in one of New York's toughest neighborhoods, the South Bronx. Orejuela describes how the arts of DJing, MCing, breakin' [b-boying], and
graffiti developed as a way for this community's struggle to find its own voice. He addresses rap's early successes on the pop charts; its spread to mainstream culture; the growth of gangsta rap and mainstream society's reaction to it; the commercial success of rap music from the '90s through
today; and the diffusion of hip hop throughout the world as a global phenomnenon. Throughout, this enlightening text highlights key performers, producers, and voices in the rap and hip hop movements, using their stories to illuminate the underlying issues of racism, poverty, prejudice, and artistic
freedom that are part of rap and hip hop's ongoing legacy.
About the Author:
Fernando Orejuela, Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. Dr. Orejuela specializes in youth culture and popular entertainments in the United States, focusing on hip hop, social justice issues and cultural or subcultural traditions. He
teaches courses on hip hop culture, Latino hip hop, subcultures and youth music scenes, critical race/ethnic theory and music, musical subcultures and social movements, children's folklore and service learning, as well as sports and gaming cultures. He served as a consulting scholar for the National
Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a member of the advisory team for Carnegie Hall's Digital Timeline: A History of African American Music. He is the co-editor of Black Lives Matter and Music (Indiana University Press, 2018) and his chapter Play, Game, and Sport in
American Folklore and Folklife appears in The Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklore Studies (Oxford University Press, 2019).
