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throughout the chapter where the reader can draw parallels between dystopian society and the ill-equipped, unfunded neighborhoods prevalent in the lyrics of hip-hop songs and hip-hop lives. When the author mentions the city of Atlantis, there is a sense that hip-hop longs for the utopia, the golden city, and the means to get there. But “The city is lost” and there is “so much emotional weight, so much discontent” (101) in modern hip-hop and hip-hop communities. Paradoxically, hip-hop rejects such perfection and such order. It thrives well in chaos. Had Bailey included more transitions and direct statements, the reader would more likely be able to understand the purpose of this chapter. Bailey’s next chapter, “Hip-Hop and International Voices of Revolution,” makes up for the previous one. In this rumination, he shifts his focus to Brazil, Cuba, Ghana, and Egypt to answer this one question: Is hip-hop a genre of revolution or renaissance? Bailey’s ability to shed light on hip-hop and how it is stitched in the fabric of countries other than America adds extraordinary depth to his book. The artist, his image, the worry of “developing a false persona” (127) or “keeping it real” (129), has always been top priority for the hip-hop artist, and Bailey takes his final ruminations to explore this theme. He mentions artists such as Rick Ross, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Nicki Minaj, who struggle with the identities “needed to sustain themselves and the work they give birth to” (138). Bailey raises “ideas of performativity” and “the death of the author” in hip-hop, rightfully so because several artists pretend to “be bout it,” rap about “slinging drugs,” or pretend to have struggles but live contrastingly lavish lifestyles (132, 130). Bailey’s last two chapters raise questions for hip-hop, a genre where the person singing the song cannot be assumed as author. Rap is a genre that is historically autobiographical, so for an artist to “fake the funk” and sing a life he knows nothing about changes the position of the hip-hop artist. There are other jewels in this section as well: for instance, Bailey’s discussion of the reluctance of artists becoming mainstream, the representation of the artist in the media, and issues of the iconized artist. Electric, eclectic, and aesthetic are the three words that best describe the profundity and radiating intelligence of Julius Bailey’s Philosophy and Hip-Hop: Ruminations on a Postmodern Cultural Form. Bailey examines thoroughly hip-hop as both genre and culture. He approaches the ideas with an unbridled and fierce mastery of the content. It is a rich and well-written text, one that imposes itself on the reader with the same fondness and uplifting spirit of a sermon, guiding the reader to several revelations, while also exhibiting the knowledge of a person who has thought and studied incessantly and who has lived a mighty long time.