Jason Tanz

2007. This book is due to be released in Feb. '07. I read an advance reading copy. Tanz talks to many white fans of various types of Hip-Hop about why they like the music. He seems to think it's a question of white kids wanting to escape from safe (boring) suburban lives through Hip-Hop. There is a question of authenticity, what is authentic? White kids seem to feel that the life in the ghetto portrayed in rap music is more real somehow than their experiences in malls and tract houses. Are show more white kids just bored? It also looks at how listening to rap influences racism for good and ill. Reads rather like a New Yorker article. Tanz visits various places: Nerdcore/Geeksta rap conventions; a Hip-Hop history tour through the Bronx; a short-lived rap radio station in Green Bay, Wisconsin; and discusses his theories about the white rap audience without really drawing any firm conclusions. Fascinating, but ultimately left me wondering why do I like rap so much? show less