Where You're at: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip Hop Planet

Rating:
Summary: Get it -- now!
Review: I picked this book up at a literary agency I was interning at this summer and I was completely blown away. I am not a hip-hop head (is this a British term?) myself -- in fact, metal and hard rock are my genres -- but this book manages to explore the dialectics of a marginalized subculture in a way that is immediate and enlightening, bringing the grim urban realities as well as the privileged suburban fantasizings involved in hip-hop subculture to life, offering a very intimate view into what drives this passion both for the author himself and for a variety of cultures and key cities around the globe.

It presents a variety of interesting socio-cultural issues without being pedantic, and best of all, the author is very unapologetic about making the book strictly his own -- his quest for his truth, his answers, all situated within possible truths and answers that may exist for other people.

For someone coming from the other side of the mythical music border (I know, I know, metal has grass-roots in hip hop) this book was an amazing read, and has offered me an inside glimpse into this genre that has heightened my respect and admiration for it even more. Just think what it could do for you -- a hip hop head!