Includes bibliographical references and index.

Of the black souls who sang neo-sorrow songs at the dawn of the twenty-first century -- "It's bigger than hip hop!": toward a critical theory of hip hop culture and contemporary society -- "Civil rights by copyright" (da remix!): from the Harlem renaissance to the hip hop generation -- "Say it loud! I'm black and I'm proud!": from the black arts movement and blaxploitation films to the conscious and commercial rap of the hip hop generation -- "The personal is political" (da hip hop feminist remix): from the black woman's liberation and feminist art movements to the hip hop feminist movement -- Is hip hop dead? or, At the very least, dying?: on the pitfalls of postmodernism, the riddles of contemporary rap music, and the continuing conundrums of hip hop culture.