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ebonyutley's review against another edition
2.0
I couldn’t believe that Michael Eric Dyson’s Know What I Mean? is another collection of interviews. Can I get famous so I can write books without having to write them? Don’t get me wrong, the interview as track on an album was clever, but this is Dyson sampling Dyson sampling Dyson and I know the man is genius and a clever phrase turner but some of those witticisms I find impossible to believe were spewed on the spot despite his presentation.
I had a hard time determining the audience for the book. As a hip hop professor, there are no new ideas here. I wouldn’t assign it to my students because it’s too much of a gloss over really important issues. It could be assigned to high school students but the theory references would definitely be over their heads. Regular literate hip hop heads could digest the book easily but what would convince them to care about the race and gender issues he mentions in the text? He’s not just hyping his favorite artists. It’s a tough spot to be in to write (or give interviews as the case may be) on hip hop because the people you want to listen have to be persuaded to care and the listeners are the choir. I suppose while it’s not a good textbook, college students would be most interested as they bridge that tough spot between their communities and the college world.
I had a hard time determining the audience for the book. As a hip hop professor, there are no new ideas here. I wouldn’t assign it to my students because it’s too much of a gloss over really important issues. It could be assigned to high school students but the theory references would definitely be over their heads. Regular literate hip hop heads could digest the book easily but what would convince them to care about the race and gender issues he mentions in the text? He’s not just hyping his favorite artists. It’s a tough spot to be in to write (or give interviews as the case may be) on hip hop because the people you want to listen have to be persuaded to care and the listeners are the choir. I suppose while it’s not a good textbook, college students would be most interested as they bridge that tough spot between their communities and the college world.
kmritter's review against another edition
3.0
I wish this book wasn't organized into interviews. It made it seem less coherent, and seemed like a lot of the information repeated. The info presented was interesting, but I also wished there was somewhere that I could see where Dyson gets his information. Overall, quick, interesting read, but could have gone much further and done it much better.
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