Reviews for Buppies, B-boys, Baps & Bohos

The average rating for Buppies, B-boys, Baps & Bohos based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-07-30 00:00:00 Nicholas Toldi solid collection of george's columns over the course of the 1980s. the selections on music bring back a time of excellent new jack swingers, early hip-hop stars, and soul icons. the political or social commentary is, sadly, still frighteningly relevant today. the author's voice and verve is absolutely wonderful and tinged with humor, and it was a damned shame to have to close the book.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-11-07 00:00:00 James Morris I always enjoy Nelson George, and this volume--which collects pieces he wrote mostly for The Village Voice in the late 80s and early 90s--definitely evokes African American music and American race politics tangibly. The period is an intriguing but forgotten one--that is, that murky historical epoch between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama--and George does a good job of singling out in the moment what were questions of concern regarding the dilution of African American musical culture amid a broader integrationist wave, and, more pressingly, the ways that systemic racism and white supremacy continued to be malignancies in American life despite the visible gains of the Civil Rights Movement. If I have any complaint, it's with the length. There's a lot that might have been pruned here, so as not to take away from the power of the best parts.