Contemporary Black Urban Music

Widely regarded as one of the greatest music educators of our time, Ron Westray continues to expand upon the legacy set before him.

"Westray’s Contemporary Black Urban Music is a guide that musicians, teachers and students will want to keep close to hand. Westray’s historical survey provides brief but illuminating capsule portraits of more than a hundred major Hip-Hop artists and many of their predecessors. The book takes the classroom of a non-specialist university course as its source of orientation. Though not a theoretical work, for the student it offers a rich panorama of incentives to explore historical relations and critical issues. (Westray doesn’t take sides.) The abundant links to examples on the public internet guarantee that any reader who wants to study an artistic movement in Hip-Hop, a particular artist, or artistic controversy will have the needed resources. Westray often concludes his short chapters with ‘zoom outs’, adding context and perspective to this book about music that does not neglect associated Hip-Hop arts" — David Lidov, Professor Emeritus, York University, Canada.

• Preface; Acknowledgments; 1 Learning Objectives: Introduction; 2 Characteristics of Music and Musical Terminology; 3 Evolution of Early African American Music; 4 Bebop: Afro Modernism via the African Diaspora; 5 Rhythm and Blues: The Proto-Rock and Roll; 6 Memphis Soul-Chicago Soul; 7 Motown; 8 Transition to Funk; 9 Funk Jazz; 10 Hyper Funk; 11 Dub; 12 Origins of East Coast Hip-Hop; 13 The Arrival of Hip-Hop; 14 Early Sneaker Culture; 15 Electro-Funk; 16 Earlier Styles versus Later Styles; 17 Turntablism: The Early Years; 18 Battle Royale: Dissing on Record; 19 The British Invasion: Proto-Neo-Soul; 20 The Golden Age of Hip-Hop; 21 Miami Bass: 2 Live Crew/East Coast Dirty Rap; 22 The New Divas; 23 WHAT’S BEEF?—Not Meat ; 24 East Coast Mafioso Rap; 25 Origins of West Coast Hip-Hop; 26 West Coast ‘Gangsta’ and the Midwest; BEEF: PART II; 27 Beats and Rhymes and Beyond; 28 Neo-Soul; 29 Underground Hip-Hop; 30 Conscious Commercial; 31 Southern Exposure: “Street Fame”; 32 Alternative Hip-Hop; 33 The Neo Cannabis Crew; 34 The Mainstream; 35 Globalization: The Revolution of Hip-Hop; 36 Lamont Coleman: ‘BIG L’—In Memoriam; Appendix: Assessment Index; Appendix: Quizzes