The Hip-Hop Underground and African American Culture

The underground is a multi-faceted concept in African American culture. Peterson uses Richard Wright, KRS-One, Thelonius Monk, and the tradition of the Underground Railroad to explore the manifestations and the attributes of the underground within the context of a more panoramic picture of African American expressivity within hip-hop.

1. Roots Rhymes and Rhizomes: An Introduction to the Concepts of the Underground 2. Verbal and Spatial Masks in the Underground 3. The Deep Structure of Black Identity in American Literature 4. Defining an Underground at the Intersections of Hip-Hop and African American Culture 5. A Cipher of the Underground in Black Literary Culture 6. Tears for the Departed: See(k)ing a Black Visual Underground in Hip-Hop and African American Cultures 7. The Depth of the Hole: Intertextuality and Tom Waits's "Way Down in the Hole." Epilogue: The Ironies Underground: Revolution, Critical Memory, and Black Nostalgia