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Signifying Rappers

by David Foster Wallace

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Rap, pop, and cultural contradiction in late-1980s Boston

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Rap, pop, and cultural contradiction in late-1980s Boston

Co-written by David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello, Signifying Rappers examines rap/hip-hop from the perspective of two self-described white fans living in Cambridge in 1989. The book places the music alongside the Boston scene of that summer and traces tensions the authors identify within rap’s public identity: underground rebellion and mainstream acceptance, pop appeal and gangster imagery, street beats and commercial spectacle. First published as an inquiry into whether rap could carry the cultural promise long attached to rock, this edition also includes a new foreword by Costello about the collaboration.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in rap and hip-hop’s late-1980s cultural context
  • Fans of David Foster Wallace or Mark Costello’s nonfiction
  • Music readers interested in the relationship between popular culture, race, and commercial success

Themes

Rap and hip-hop culturePopular music criticismRace and fandomRebellion and commercializationBoston music scene

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello's exuberant exploration of rap music and culture.

Living together in Cambridge in 1989, David Foster Wallace and longtime friend Mark Costello discovered that they shared "an uncomfortable, somewhat furtive, and distinctively white enthusiasm for a certain music called rap/hip-hop."

The book they wrote together, set against the legendary Boston music scene, mapped the bipolarities of rap and pop, rebellion and acceptance, glitz and gangsterdom. Signifying Rappers issued a fan's challenge to the giants of rock writing, Greil Marcus, Robert Palmer, and Lester Bangs: Could the new street beats of 1989 set us free, as rock had always promised?

Back in print at last, Signifying Rappers is a rare record of a city and a summer by two great thinkers, writers, and friends. With a new foreword by Mark Costello on his experience writing with David Foster Wallace, this rerelease cannot be missed.
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