"Taking its title from Danger Mouse's pioneering mash-up of Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' The White Album, Kevin Young's encyclopedic book combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical chorus to illustrate the African American tradition...
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"Taking its title from Danger Mouse's pioneering mash-up of Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' The White Album, Kevin Young's encyclopedic book combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical chorus to illustrate the African American tradition of lying--telling tales, fibbing, improvising, jazzing up, "storying." What emerges is a persuasive argument for the many ways that African American culture is American culture, and for the centrality of art--and artfulness--to our daily lives. Moving from gospel to soul, funk to freestyle, Young shifts through the shadows, the bootleg, the remix--all the grey areas of our history, literature, and music."--P. [4] of cover
Overturebk. 1. Elsewhere. The shadow book -- How not to be a slave : on the Black art of escape -- Chorus one : steal away : slavery and its discontents -- bk. 2. Strange fruit. Broken tongue : Paul Laurence Dunbar, his descendants, and the dance of dialect -- Chorus two : it don't mean a thing : the blues mask of modernism -- "If you can't read, run anyhow!" : Langston Hughes and the poetics of refusal -- bk. 3. Heaven is Negro. Chorus three : ugly beauty : postmodernism and all that jazz -- Broken giraffe : Bob Kaufman, the song, and the silence -- Chorus four : moanin' : soul music and the power of pleasure -- bk. 4. Cosmic slop. Interstellar space : toward a post-soul poetics -- Final chorus : Planet Rock : the end of the record: The third coming ; 100 guns ; 36 chambers ; 99 problems -- Deadism.
