Assignment # 5 for Oct. 7th Part 2

Joseph Carrano
10/6/08
BLS 3085
2nd Year

Comment on the introduction and first chapter of "Till the Break of Dawn"

I really enjoyed the way Cobb's book is written. In the introduction he gives his background in Hip-Hop so that the reader can get a sense of his perspective. He answers the question of how he first fell in in love with Hip-Hop, and gives a sense of the the atmosphere around the Hip-Hop scene in the late 80's. I enjoyed how he describes the history making events he saw, and how at the time they were not history making at all, they were just what was happening at the time. The first chapter of the book links Hip-Hop to the earlier Black linguistic arts, such as the art of the preacher and the Blues man. Each of these have traits passed down to Hip-Hop and I think the purpose of this book will be to trace the genealogy of the movement, and go further into its present incarnations, and constant evolution. This seems to be a stylistic history of Hip-Hop not so much a history of events.
I also think that Cobb's style of writing is very simple to understand. I think he makes good use of Hip-Hop terms, and does it in a way that doesn't seem like there is unnecessary slang present, but rather that the "slang" used flows with and becomes a integral part of the writing. I also like the comparisons between the lyrics in Hip-Hop verses and the Lyrics to blues songs or Black sermons,which really visualize the connection between the two mediums. Over all it is very easy to read, and its points are clear to the reader.