Michael eric dyson born to use mics

Despite the two stars I gave this book, I feel this is a must read for anyone who even remotely enjoys the Illmatic album.

Personally, I am a huge Nas fan and I consider Illmatic to be one of the top 5 or 10 artistic achievements of the past 25 years, in any medium... but this book was very disappointing to me for several reasons.

Born to use mics pdf

The biggest one is that the writers of the essays in the book tend to think that the majority of the album's value lies in what it says, tangentially, about sociology and politics. And while they are often right in their assessments, I find myself growing increasingly annoyed that hip hop as a whole is considered most valuable when it is primarily assessed as a form of social criticism.

It frustrates me that critics can't just interpret the best of hip hop as great art and explain what makes it great art in and of itself, regardless of its politics.

The books is divided for about the first two-