"A lot of people are unaware that there are huge sections of Twitter that are all about Def Jam being the root of all evil." Last month, I got to Skype with Nelson George about his new book The Plot Against Hip-Hop (Akashic Books, 176pp, $15.95), a noir mystery that explores the commercialization of the music through the fictional death of a renowned hip-hop historian named Dwanye Robinson. You can catch George at City Lights Bookstore (Thu/1) and Marcus Books' Oakland location (Fri/2) this week.
Robinson bears more than a passing resemblance to George, who has written decades worth of academic looks at hip-hop and R&B. So naturally, our conversation turned to to the more sinister workings of the world (to be clear, he's not committed to the Russel Simmons-as-devil version of things). Turns out George is more than a little frustrated with the state of the music today -- and he thinks the Occupy movement might be the answer to hip-hop's woes. Read more »
