In writing style only We Still Here: Hip Hop North of the 49th Parallel reminded me of Julia Christensen's No Home in Homeland which I read a couple of years back. Both books were clearly written for university scholars and then pushed to the general market, and I would guess both publishers assumed it was sufficient not to make any changes.
I'm not asking for things to be dumbed down. I'm university educated. But good lord, it seems a bit of a crime to make hip hop boring. There are compelling ideas for sure; the role of hip hop culture intersecting with indigenous and immigrant cultures, for instance, but the delivery is so academic. I'll grant that as a collection of essays written by different authors, some are likewise more accessible than others, but overall this book was a challenge to get through and as important as these ideas are, it's doubtful anyone outside a university setting will wind up caring. I did at least explore a lot of music from the hip hop artists mentioned in the book and that was far more interesting.
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