Signifying Rappers

The author of Infinite Jest and his co-writer discuss rap and popular culture, power, money, racial politics, and language in the first book to seriously consider rap and its position as a vital force in American culture.

Signifying Rappers is an old-school classic from David Foster Wallace and his friend and room-mate Mark Costello, first published in 1990, long out of print, and previously unavailable outside the USA.

A paean to the golden age of Hip-Hop and the first book to consider seriously its position as a vital force in American culture, Signifying Rappers is a must-read for fans of both Wallace and hip-hop. Set against the legendary 1980s scene, it maps the bipolarities of rap and pop, rebellion and acceptance, glitz and gangsterdom, with an energy and exuberance which is as fresh today as when it was written.

"Costello and Wallace's pioneering study is a dazzling performance: informative, provocative, funny, brilliantly written... great wit, insight and in-your-face energy."
Review of Contemporary Fiction

"Both a cogent explication of rap and a cutting, revealing parody of overinflated, pseudointellectual rap criticism."
Seattle Weekly