
Break and Flow
Hip Hop Poetics in the Americas
Charlie D. Hankin(Author)
University of Virginia Press
Published on 31. July 2023
Book
Hardback
290 pages
978-0-8139-4981-9 (ISBN)
Description
Hip hop is a global form of creative expression. In Cuba, Brazil, and Haiti, rappers refuse the boundaries of hip hop's US genesis, claiming the art form as a means to empower themselves and their communities in the face of postcolonial racial and class violence. Despite the geographic and linguistic borders that separate these artists, Charlie Hankin finds in their music and lyrics a common understanding of hip hop's capacity to intervene in the public sphere and a shared poetics of neighbourhood, nation, and transatlantic yearnings. Situated at the critical intersection of sound studies and Afro-diasporic poetics, Break and Flow draws on years of ethnographic fieldwork and collaboration, as well as an archive of hundreds of songs by more than sixty hip hop artists. Hankin illuminates how new media is used to produce and distribute knowledge in the Global South, refining our understanding of poetry and popular music at the turn of the millennium.
Reviews / Votes
"Break and Flow is the product of great learning and greater passion. It draws on Hankin's extensive fieldwork in Cuba, Brazil, and Haiti to showcase the poetic innovation and political impact of rap artists responding to colonial legacies, present-day political circumstances, and their own aesthetic imperatives. Hankin's book exercises close analysis (by eye and by ear), critical theory, and a keen historical sensibility to produce a work of scholarship that celebrates three underexplored sites of hip-hop artistry." - Adam Bradley, UCLA, author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip HopMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Charlottesville
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
6 b&w illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8139-4981-9 (9780813949819)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2023
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
from
€74.99
Available for download
Person
Charlie D. Hankin is Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Pitzer College.
Content
Introduction
1. Yearning: "Nan lot dimansyon"
2. Raplove: "Es lo que hay"
3. Uprooting: "Que importa si sonamos americano hermano"
4. Scale: "Rap e meu lugar"
5. Writing: "Enraizados da letra"
6. Violence: "Sou fey blanch"
Epilogue: En-/un-gendering Hip Hop
1. Yearning: "Nan lot dimansyon"
2. Raplove: "Es lo que hay"
3. Uprooting: "Que importa si sonamos americano hermano"
4. Scale: "Rap e meu lugar"
5. Writing: "Enraizados da letra"
6. Violence: "Sou fey blanch"
Epilogue: En-/un-gendering Hip Hop