Psalms of My People: A Story of Black Liberation as Told through Hip-Hop
A Story of Black Liberation as Told through Hip-Hop
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- £16.99
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- £16.99
Publisher Description
If you want to understand the Black experience in the US, you have to understand hip-hop.
James Baldwin, in his famous talk "The Struggle for the Artist's Integrity," suggests that "the poets (by which I mean all artists) are finally the only people who know the truth about us." And to understand the truth about the history of Black peoples in America, argues lenny duncan, we must look to the modern Black poet: the hip-hop artist.
In Psalms of My People,artist, scholar, and activist lenny duncan treats the work of hip-hop artists from the last several decades--from N.W.A, Tupac, and Biggie to Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar--like sacred scripture. Their songs and lyrics are given full exegetical treatment--a critical and contextual interpretation of text--and are beautifully illustrated, with a blend of ancient and modern art styles illuminating every page.
All the while, duncan traces the history of hip-hop, revealing it as a conduit to tell the modern story of Black liberation in this country, following the bloody trail from the end of the Civil Rights Era through the day George Floyd was sacrificed on the streets of America.
"Who else but the hip-hop artist," asks Duncan, "has embodied the cries, pain, and secret concrete ? Whose art? Our art. Whose story is written in the book of life with crimson lines dipped in a well that is 400+ years deep? Whose story? Our story. For whom does God bring down empires? Us."
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Activist and media producer duncan (Dear Church) weaves prose with poetry in this provocative if scattershot "attempt to create a Black sacred cultural artifact" at the intersection of hip-hop and history. Noting that accounts of Black people in America have frequently been "policed, destroyed, and written by our oppressors," duncan aims instead to render a "poetic liberation narrative history of Black america" through "our prophets: hip-hop artists." Genre legends such as DJ Kool Herc, Lauryn Hill, and the Roots provide the springboard for duncan's perceptive cultural critique ("N.W.A. artfully transmitted a visceral experience, gripping the nation by its throat and forcing it to bear witness to the experience of Black peoples in this country in real time"). Other insights are earnest and intimate ("The Roots were the first time hip-hop respected/someone/like me"). Elsewhere, duncan follows a 22-page list of the names Black people killed by U.S. law enforcement since 2000 with a gut-punch question: "How many names did you skip over just now?" Unfortunately, the work is marred by verse that underwhelms ("One of two plants, most likely male and/ unable to make/ buds. I wish me and my dad were better buds") or detracts from its worthy message by telling rather than showing ("What will white america do/when no longer it is just HISstory?"). The result is a mixed bag.
