“For the past dozen years commercially successful hip-hop has been saturated with caricatures of black gangsters, thugs, pimps, and hoes. The controversy surrounding hip-hop is worth attending to because, as scholar and cultural critic Tricia Rose argues, hip-hop has become a primary means by which we talk about race in the U.S. With fervor, subtlety and fairness to both sides, The Hip-Hop Wars explores the divisive, vitriolic debate about race and culture in America, concluding with a call for the revitalization of the progressive and creative heart of hip-hop.”

- Illustration by Aniekan Udofia

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