Signifying Rappers

Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present is a nonfiction book by David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello. The title is a reference to the practice of "signifying" used in rap lyrics whereby words have meanings beyond their conventional interpretations, such as "cut" (turntable technique), "bite" (stealing someone else’s rhymes), "dope" (great), "dawg" (male friend) and such neologisms as "edutainment" (KRS-One) or "raptivist" (Chuck D of Public Enemy). The book explores this music's history as it intersects with historical events, either locally and unique to Boston, or in larger cultural or historical contexts.