A fascinating look at hip hop, the world's most popular music, and
what it means to young people all over the globe, written by an
acclaimed pop-culture critic. An excellent introduction to hip hop for
young adults.
Hip hop is arguably the predominant global youth subculture of this
generation. In this book Dalton Higgins takes vivid snapshots of the hip
hop scenes in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and more.
American hip hop has gone through growing pains, and is questioned for
being too commercialized to articulate the hopes, concerns and dreams of
marginal youth and community members. Outside the US, hip hop culture is
often a political tool to mobilize disenfranchised communities around
hard issues, with little support from mainstream corporations or
sponsors.
Higgins taps into his own powers of pop culture prognostication to
predict the future of the genre and the youth culture that spawned it,
as hip hop spreads its tentacles to the furthest reaches of humanity.
"[The Groundwork Guides] are excellent books, mandatory for school
libraries and the increasing body of young people prepared to take
ownership of the situations and problems previous generations have left
them." -- Globe and Mail
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language
Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.1
Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.2
Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through
particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal
opinions or judgments.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.3
Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced,
illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or
anecdotes).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how
it is conveyed in the text.
