Snell and Söderman, both of whom teach music education, explore how hip-hop music has come to be used 'by many artists throughout the world to articulate their unique sense of marginality.' The music has become the chosen mode of expression for young people—whether First Nations youth in the US and Canada or communities in Britain, Norway, and Sweden—who have experienced a sense of exclusion or disenfranchisement. Populations around the world borrow from hip-hop and blend it with their own traditions. In addition to discussing this, the authors explore efforts to add courses on hip-hop to college curricula and to music education coursework in secondary schools. And they examine the tension between scholars who write about and critique hip-hop and practitioners who create the music: Who is qualified to 'speak' for or about hip-hop? Whose voice is 'authentic'? Though it is dense, technical, and abstract—and marked by specialized jargon—the book offers significant theoretical insights. Intrepid readers will find this study valuable and worth the effort. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.

Choice Reviews

The section on the ‘academization of hip-hop’ – what the book’s title describes as ‘hip-hop within the academy’ – was promising as it is an area that is rarely well covered compared to the more common emphasis on the convergences of youth, politics and hip-hop. . . .Snell and Söderman are appropriately attuned to the ways in which public education is increasingly inflected by the demands and agendas of the neoliberal state.

Popular Music

Music educators will not be the only ones who benefit from this rounded, wide-ranging and yet focused study on the background, uses, meanings, and educational potential of hip-hop. This very readable account has the rare gift of being both entertaining and scholarly. It gives much food for thought as well as practical advice for teachers, and it represents a much-needed addition to the literature on both hip-hop and music education.

Lucy Green, UCL Institute of Education, London

Snell and Söderman’s book is a welcome and timely text that draws attention to hip-hop beyond its most visible, commodified forms in popular culture and that challenges the bases of assumptions made surrounding hip-hop scholarship. The authors approach their subject matter with humility, and in doing so, provide a thought-provoking and valuable collection of essays that will surely appeal to scholars in a range of fields, including popular music studies, ethnomusicology, applied ethnomusicology, music education, and music teacher education.

Gareth Dylan Smith, Institute of Contemporary Music Performance

A block party of a book—Snell and Söderman mix and remix educational orthodoxies into a whole new sound.

Randall Everett Allsup, Teachers College Columbia University