Illmatic Consequences

Defending knowledge, history, and truth against erasure, Illmatic Consequences responds directly to attacks on Critical Race Theory by using Nas's classic album Illmatic as a framework for understanding the fight over truth-on campus and in the streets.

The contributors to this edited volume fuse hip hop and scholarship to show how:

• Lyrics from Illmatic expose the roots of disinformation and cultural erasure.
• CRT in the classroom mirrors hip hop's role in the streets as a site of truth-telling.
• Leading scholars confront the backlash against race-conscious teaching.
• Critical frameworks remain essential for protecting intellectual freedom and democracy.

Grounded in both cultural brilliance and scholarly urgency, Illmatic Consequences is an illuminating book for this moment-affirming that the struggle over truth belongs to classrooms, communities, and the wider culture alike.

Walter Greason is among the most prominent historians, educators, and urbanists in the United States. He has spent the past 30 years speaking to audiences in dozens of states, on over 100 college and high school campuses, at dozens of professional and academic conferences, and to community groups across the country.His most recent projects include professional development for organizations creating anti-racism initiatives in response to the global protests for systemic change; leadership of the T. Thomas Fortune Foundation (responsible for rehabilitation of a National Historic Landmark); research on Afrofuturism in the creation of the Wakanda Syllabus (for Marvel's Black Panther); and ongoing data collection about comparative economic history (similar to the 1619 Project by the New York Times).

Danian Darrell Jerry, a writer, teacher, and emcee, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Memphis where he teaches literature and English composition. He was a featured guest at the 2019 Mercedes-Benz SXSW MeConvention in Frankfurt, Germany. His work is discussed in This Ain't Chicago: Race, Class, & Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), Hip Hop In America: A Regional Guide (two volumes, Greenwood, 2009) edited by Mickey Hess, The Commercial Appeal, The Memphis Flyer, and Southern Soul Magazine. As a professor, he has taught fiction writing and performance reading at Memphis College of Art. Currently he revises his first novel, The Boy with the Golden Arm. His writing appears or is forthcoming in Marvel's Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda, Trouble the Waters: Tales of the Deep Blue, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fireside Fiction, Cracking The Wire During Black Lives Matter, Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, and other notable publications.