Book of Rhymes

Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop is a book by literary scholar Adam Bradley that looks at hip hop music’s literary techniques and argues “that we must understand rap as poetry or miss the vanguard of poetry today.”[1] The Dallas Morning News described it by saying, “You'll find Yeats and Frost alongside Nas and...Wu-Tang Clan, together forming a discussion on meter and accent, scansion, and slant rhymes”.[2] Bradley is an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a PhD in English from Harvard University.[3][4]

Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop
AuthorAdam Bradley
Cover artistKeenan
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectHip hop
GenreNon-fiction
PublisherBasic Civitas Books
Publication date
February 23, 2009
Pages272 pp
ISBN0-465-00347-8
OCLC246894813
782.421649 22
LC ClassML3531 .B73 2009

Contents

The book breaks hip hop’s poetics down into the following parts:[5]

Reception

The book was praised by various press outlets such as the Los Angeles Times,[6] The Dallas Morning News,[7] The Boston Globe,[8] and The New York Times.[9]

In particular, the book is praised for focusing on the poetics of hip hop music rather than examining the outlying societal factors—the Los Angeles Times noted, “As a key part of America's youth culture and a central battlefield in our culture wars, hip hop often seems to have forfeited the right to be discussed as art. Most academic and popular writers subjugate its aesthetics to its politics…until very recently, such writers could be counted on to begin around the time of hip-hop's birth and attempt to tackle the entire culture. Luckily, a new paradigm of scholarship is emerging, and Adam Bradley's "Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop" is a solid contribution.”[10] and The Dallas Morning News commented, “Where so many hip-hop studies lean heavily on politics and sociology, Book of Rhymes is a welcome and thorough exploration of rap aesthetics that isn't afraid to be learned.”[11] The New York Times observed, "It is a "crash course. . .essentially English 101 meets Hip-Hop Studies 101."[12]

Criticism of the book came from The New York Times, which said, "Bradley wants to legitimize rap by setting it in a canonical context, but aren’t we past the point of justifying it? No one is really still debating whether hip-hop is a bona fide art form. In his tone of unwarranted protectiveness, he seems to forget that hip-hop now earns highbrow props worldwide. After three decades, it doesn’t require a defense attorney."[13]

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-01-10. Retrieved 2009-08-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-bk_rhymes_0419gd.State.Edition1.4a68c86.html
  3. Bradley, Adam, 2009, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop, Basic Civitas Books, back cover.
  4. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-bk_rhymes_0419gd.State.Edition1.4a68c86.html
  5. Bradley, Adam, 2009, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop, Basic Civitas Books, p. vii.
  6. "Better versed in hip-hop". 19 February 2009.
  7. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-bk_rhymes_0419gd.State.Edition1.4a68c86.html
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2009-08-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/books/review/Dreisinger-t.html
  10. "Better versed in hip-hop". 19 February 2009.
  11. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-bk_rhymes_0419gd.State.Edition1.4a68c86.html
  12. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/books/review/Dreisinger-t.html
  13. Baz Dreisinger, Def Poetry, The New York Times, September 8, 2009.
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