Holler If You Hear Me - Softcover

Dyson, Michael E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465017282 ISBN 13: 9780465017287

Publisher: Civitas Books, 2006

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop and What Truth Sounds Like, and the author of Jay-Z: Made in America, the classic biography of Tupac Shakur and portrait of hip hop culture.
Decades after his murder, Tupac Shakur is even more loved, contested, and celebrated than he was in life. His posthumously released albums, poetry, and motion pictures have catapulted him into the upper echelon of American cultural icons. In Holler If You Hear Me, bestselling public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson offers a wholly original way of looking at Tupac that will thrill those who already love the artist and enlighten those who want to understand him.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Eric Dyson is one of America's premier public intellectuals and the author of the New York Times bestsellers Tears We Cannot Stop and What Truth Sounds Like. He occupies the distinguished position of University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and is a contributing editor of The New Republic and ESPN's The Undefeated. Ebony magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans and one of the 150 most powerful blacks in the nation.

From Publishers Weekly

A poor, urban, high school dropout and book-devouring autodidact who'd quote Shakespeare in conversation, Shakur would also sing along to Sarah McLachlan. Dyson (I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr.), a Baptist minister, reveals the complexity of Shakur and shows why even five years after his death his records, poetry and films continue to sell. "He was not hip-hop's most gifted emcee. Still, Shakur may be the most influential and compelling rapper of them all," writes Dyson. "He was more than the sum of his artistic parts." Complementing Dyson's articulate perspectives on the short life and extraordinary impact of the icon are his emotive interviews with writer Toni Morrison, actress Jada Pinkett Smith (Shakur proposed to her, but was turned down), rapper Mos Def and more than a dozen others. Most striking are the conversations about and with Shakur's beloved mother, a former Black Panther and ex-crack addict. Dyson uses themes in Shakur's raps to examine the larger ills of hip-hop culture such as misogyny and the new hostility between youths and elders without neglecting the rapper's positive acts and intentions. Shakur wanted to "combat the anti-intellectualism of hip-hop," Dyson persuasively writes. (Sept.)Forecast: This book will sell, for Shakur has a huge fan base that has only grown since his death. But more than a music bio, the book will draw the attention of socially conscious readers who are interested in how hip-hop affects society.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Civitas Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0465017282
• ISBN 13: 9780465017287
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300