One of the foremost chroniclers of the contemporary black experience offers an undeluded perspective on the 1980s. Here are crack, AIDS, and the Reagan rollback of the major advances of the civil rights movement. But Nelson George also shows how black performers, athletes, and activists made increasing inroads into the mainstream. This fast-paced, chronological retrospective profiles personalities from Bill Cosby to Louis Farrakhan and explores such flashpoints as the first rap single and the infamous Willie Horton ad campaign.

Slicing through the main layers of the world of R & B, George, music critic for Billboard and Playboy , profiles his personal heroes in the recent history of black musicespecially in the evolution of black radio, the growth of independent record labels and the development of retail outlets for R & B records. Here are perceptive summations of the contributions of such star creative performers as Chuck Berry, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson, as well as of lesser-known musicians, and of the links between black social and economic affairs and the changes in contemporary black culture. Above all, George examines the business of black music and probes the ways in which it has affected the "symptoms of illness" in R & B. He is convinced that "black America's assimilationist obsession is heading it straight toward cultural suicide." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

“这个星球上最博学的嘻哈作者。”——《滚石》
他这一代最有学问的黑人音乐批评人。——《华盛顿邮报》
“（尼尔森•乔治）是写作美国黑人音乐最棒的黑人作家。”——《新闻周刊》
——《今日美国》
大神有几个特点：一是神迹彰显，无可匹敌，万众膜拜，须仰视才见；二是孤单寂寥，遗世独立，无敌无友，自生自灭，享受不到人间亲情、爱情、友情标配的温暖；三是前无古人后无来者，无师无徒，之前毫无迹象，之后除了模仿，无法继承。……本人弹琴写歌二十年，大概只有三四个瞬间感到上天握住我手，写出几句超出我能力的美好旋律，为此感谢至今。因此每每听MJ，除了叹，便是长叹——
——高晓松

Now with a new introduction by the author, Hip Hop America is the definitive account of the society-altering collision between black youth culture and the mass media.

In this new and expanded edition of Nelson George's classic cultural study, contemporary black culture is chronicled through essays on music, film, sports, publishing, politics and city life, both uptown and down. "Buppies" enters nearly every arena of the black urban USA: roisterous rappers and legendary hoopsters, streetwise hustlers and influential filmmakers, unsung musicians and drug dealers at work.