What's Good: Notes on Rap and Language
Daniel Levin Becker
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
What's Good: Notes on Rap and Language
Daniel Levin Becker
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
... an often hilarious, surprisingly moving and always joyful paean to rap’s relationship to words.
Levin Becker has an infectious, Whitmanesque enthusiasm for rap’s demotic versifying but sometimes lapses into mannered critical theory...Still, his writing crackles when his shrewd insights collide with punchy evocations of hip-hop’s vigor and style.
Levin Becker delivers stunningly deep readings of 50 Cent’s In Da Club and takes odd swipes at Jay-Z’s occasional nods to rhymes from other rappers, and he discusses the use of the N-word and hip-hop’s preoccupation with drug dealing as a metaphor or plot point. Whether or not you agree with the author’s feelings on those issues, or even the success of the book itself, will likely depend on your point of view and interest in the minutiae of lyrics and song construction—not to mention asides on nearly every page. Levin Levin Becker is candid about how his life differs from those of many rappers.