Writing the Future of Black America

"Daniel Grassian has chosen one of the most glaringly neglected topics in literary criticism and hip-hop discourse and begins here to fill in a gaping hole in popular and literary inquiry. With impressive critical nuance, Grassian works to situate some of the freshest voices in African American writing against the older guard of black writers to demonstrate in their collective world view and expressive tendencies the emergence of new ideas about race, class, and identity. He considers holistically his subjects' relationship to hip-hop culture and proceeds to address a major medium of hip-hop expression in a compelling way that holds important ramifications for the character of current and future literary discourse."—Molefi Kete Asante, Temple University

"The hip-hop generation has been discussed, deconstructed, and devalued. Grassian's goal is to bridge the gap between music and literature. . . . In doing so, he begins to close the divide between hip-hop writers and hip-hop literary critics and showcases both the conflicts and convergences of the hip-hop generation."—Choice