Signifying Rappers
 |
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Mark Costello and David Foster Wallace |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Ecco Press |
Publication date | November 1990 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 140 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-88001-255-2 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| OCLC | 20992523 |
| Preceded by | Girl with Curious Hair |
| Followed by | Infinite Jest |
Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present is a nonfiction book by David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello. 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.
Title
The title is based on the track "Signifying Rapper" on the album Smoke Some Kill by Schoolly D. In rap, this 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), and specifically a play on the traditional African image of the signifying monkey. It is also a play on the notion of a signifier in critical theory, as elaborated by Ferdinand de Saussure; this connection of the African-American usage and the critical theory usage had previously be made in The Signifying Monkey (1988) by Henry Louis Gates Jr..
External links
- Signifying Rappers at The Howling Fantods
- "Signifying Rappers" essay (1990) in The Missouri Review
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