ESSAYS
2024
Los Angeles Times | When Questlove Says Hip-Hop is ‘History,’ He Means It In More Ways Than One (Book Review)
The Conversation | Rap ‘beef’ as public spectacle is a dangerous game that artists rarely win
The Conversation | Ben Shapiro’s hip-hop hypocrisy and white male grievance lands him on top of pop music charts for a brief moment
2023
Bloomberg | André 3000’s Flute Album Is Exactly What Hip-Hop Is About
SPIN | “HIP HOP IS DOPE AND AMERICA IS A DOPEFIEND HOOKED ON THE FRUIT OF ITS OWN BRUTALITY”
The Conversation | Hip-hop and health – why so many rap artists die young
Washington Post (with Felicia Angeja Viator) | “Will AI inspire hip-hop artists — or displace them?”
Rolling Stone | “How Hip-Hop Gave Me a Second Chance at Life”
The Conversation | “Tupac’s ‘Dear Mama’ endures as rap artists detail complex relationships with their mothers”
The Conversation | “A hip-hop professor explains what the word ‘dope’ means to him”
2022
The Conversation | “Rappers are victims of an epidemic of violence–like all of America”
The Conversation | “Hip-Hop fosters a love of Literature”
Scalawag | “beyond a better hell”
The Conversation | “Roe v. Rap: Hip-hop artists have long wrestled with reproductive rights”
The Conversation | “Scapegoating rap hits new low after July Fourth mass shooting”
The Conversation | “When all else fails to explain American violence, blame a rapper and hip-hop music”
Washington Post | “Grammys have little credibility in the hip-hop community. Here’s why.”
2021
Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy – Issue 26.1 | “Listening roundtable for Sleepwalking 2”
Art Papers | “Review – The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse”
The Conversation | “Hip-Hop Holiday Signals a Turning Point in Education for a Music Form that Began at a Back-to-School Party in the Bronx”
Inside Higher Ed | “Colleges and Universities Need More Rappers”
The Conversation | “Why Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Whitey on the Moon’ Still Feels Relevant Today”
The Conversation | “10 Hip-Hop Songs to Take You On a Voyage Into Space”
NPR Code Switch | “A Letter to My Mother – Just in Case”
The Conversation | “Hip-Hop Professor Looks to Open Doors with World’s First Peer-Reviewed Album”
2020
UVA Today | “On Words: Ampersand”
2018
Scalawag | “Under the Cover of Darkness”
C-Ville | “Decades in The Making: Reflections On Film And Reality with Menace II Society’s Allen Hughes”
2017
The Offing | “Anna, Illinois”