The best book of 2009!

So all of the "best of 2009" lists may be over already but I felt I HAD to write about this book. I read it TWICE in 2009 and I frequently go back to read my favorite parts when I want to feel inspired. This book is the TRUTH! It's called "Its Bigger than Hip-Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation, written by filmmaker/professor M.K. Asante Jr.

Here's a synopsis from www.barnesandnoble.com:

It's Bigger Than Hip Hop takes a bold look at the rise of a generation that sees beyond the smoke and mirrors of corporate-manufactured rap and is building a movement that will change not only the face of pop culture, but the world.

M. K. Asante, Jr., a passionate young poet, professor, filmmaker, and activist who represents this new movement, uses hip hop as a springboard for a larger discussion about the urgent social and political issues affecting the hip-hop and post-hip-hop generations.

Through insightful anecdotes, scholarship, revolutionary rap lyrics, personal encounters, and conversations with youth across the globe as well as icons such as Chuck D and Maya Angelou, Asante illuminates a shift that can be felt in the crowded spoken-word joints in post-Katrina New Orleans, seen in the rise of youth-led organizations committed to social justice, and heard around the world chanting "It's bigger than hip hop."

Let me explain....this synopsis doesn't even do this book justice. This book not only calls out the non-political, non-creative and all around negativity that has become of mainstream hip-hop, but it also calls out the major music corporations that have aided in the downward spiral of a once revolutionary art form. Why has this musical genre become no more than bling bling braggadocio? Is this "thugish" act real or is it just a facade rappers and aspiring rappers take on to make it in the music industry? This book takes a look at all of that. What I really love about this book is that it doesn't just talk about music. It talks about the hip hop and post hip-hop generation and what plagues us through honest glimpses of poverty in our neighborhoods, our school systems, our prison system and our government's role in all of it. I couldn't put this book down! Its truly eye opening and I think EVERYONE should read it.