Material witness [videorecording] : race, identity and the politics of gangsta rap / Michael Eric Dyson
- Additional Titles:
- Race, identity and the politics of gangsta rap
- Published:
- Northampton, MA : The Media Education Foundation, 1995.
- Physical Description:
- 1 videocassette (42 min.) : sound, color ; 1/2 in.
- Additional Creators:
- Dyson, Michael Eric
Jhally, Sut
Media Education Foundation
- Series:
- Race & diversity series
- Contents:
- Living with difference -- The denial of race -- Race and language -- Black essentialism as defense -- American hybridity -- Complexity of black identity -- An American mix: DuBois & the classics -- Hip-hop culture as material witness to urban neglect -- Representin' the afflicteds' story -- Gangsta rap and the market -- The burden of the race artist -- A limited choice: purity or stereotype -- A wrong response: the elders react -- Towards a politics of anti-essentialism.
- Summary:
- Communication scholar, ordained minister, and writer Michael Eric Dyson leads an intellectual journey designed to help viewers think in new ways about identity, race, and representation as he combines critical theory with an appreciation of popular culture, rap lyrics with classical poetry, and anecdotes of personal history with a sweeping geopolitical analysis. Dyson, a college professor called by ₃New Yorker₄ magazine one of the "new generation of black thinkers," discusses the marketability of gangsta rap, negative perceptions of black culture, and the complexities of black identity, positing that the hip-hop culture and rap serve as material witness to the "tortuous twists of urban fate."
- Subject(s):
- Creation/Production Credits Note:
- Executive producer, director, editor, Sut Jhalley
- Participant/Performer Note:
- Michael Eric Dyson.
View MARC record | catkey: 2368359