Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Sounding Race in Rap Songs

PART I. STYLISTIC CHANGE AND RACIAL FORMATION IN RAP’S FIRST DECADE

1. “Rapper’s Delight”: From Genre-less to New Genre

2. “Rebel Without a Pause”: Public Enemy Revolutionizes the Break

PART II. REARTICULATING RACE IN THE NEOLIBERAL NINETIES

3. “Let Me Ride”: Gangsta Rap’s Drive into the Popular Mainstream

4. “My Name Is”: Signifying Whiteness, Rearticulating Race

Conclusion: Sounding Race in the Twenty-First Century

Notes

Discography

Filmography

Bibliography

Index