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Sign up todayHoller If You Hear Me
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Learn moreTupac Amaru Shakur (1971–1996) was an American rap artist, actor, and social activist. More than seventy-five million of his albums have sold worldwide, making him one of the bestselling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time.
Shakur also gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law and time spent in prison.
Most of Tupac’s songs are about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, other social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast–West Coast hip-hop rivalry.
In September 1996, after attending a boxing match in Las Vegas, Shakur was shot four times and died several days later.
Shakur’s double album, All Eyez on Me, is one of the highest-selling rap albums of all time, with more than five million copies of the album sold in the United States alone. A Vibe magazine poll in 2004 rated Shakur “the greatest rapper of all time” as voted by fans. In 2010, he was inducted to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
More than a decade after his murder, Tupac Shakur is even more loved, contested, and celebrated than he was in life. His posthumously released albums, poetry, and motion pictures have catapulted him into the upper echelon of American cultural icons. In Holler If You Hear Me, “hip-hop intellectual” Michael Eric Dyson, acclaimed author of the bestselling Is Bill Cosby Right?, offers a wholly original way of looking at Tupac that will thrill those who already love the artist and enlighten those who want to understand him.
*Produced by Buck 50 Productions
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of over twenty books, a widely celebrated professor, a prominent public intellectual, an ordained Baptist minister, and a noted political analyst. He is a two-time NAACP Image Award winner, and the winner of the American Book Award for Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. His book The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America was a Kirkus Prize finalist. He is also a highly sought after public speaker who is known to excite both secular and sacred audiences. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee. This is his first book for teens. Follow him on Twitter @michaeledyson and on his official Facebook page (facebook.com/michaelericdyson).
Marc Favreau is the acclaimed author of Crash: The Great Depression and the Fall and Rise of America and Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia, and co-editor (with Ira Berlin and Steven F. Miller) of Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation. Favreau is also the director of editorial projects at The New Press. He lives with his family in New York City and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Cary Hite has performed in several theaters across the country as a cast member in the longest-running African American play in history, The Diary of Black Men. He also appeared in Edward II, Fences, Macbeth, Good Boys, Side Effects May Vary, and the indie feature The City Is Mine. He has voiced several projects for AudibleKids, including Souls Look Back in Wonder, From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, and Papa, Do You Love Me?
Reviews
“A well-written, intelligent, and energetically investigative work.”
“Paints a nuanced picture of his subject while illuminating the effect hip-hop has had on America.”
“Riffs with speed, eloquence, bawdy humor, and startling truths that have the effect of hitting you like a Mack truck.”
“A major American thinker and cultural critic.”
“An earnest attempt to explain the ever-growing appeal of ‘the black Elvis’ to fans’ parents, and even more so, to cultural critics and academics…It is worth reading.”
“More than a music bio, the book will draw the attention of socially conscious readers who are interested in how hip-hop affects society.”
“Perceptive, informative, and certainly timely.”
“Considers how Shakur’s life and spirit, in ways good and bad, continue to challenge popular culture and inform the world he left behind.”
“[Dyson] makes a distinctly substantial contribution to deconstructing the mystique of Tupac Shakur.”
“This elegantly written and extremely well-researched book…[is] sympathetic but not sentimental.”
“In literate and streetwise style, Dyson describes and dissects Shakur’s world.”
“[Dyson’s] insights are deeply rooted in an understanding of history, and our people’s place in it, as is abundantly clear in Holler If You Hear Me.”
"Provides the most profound analysis of the significance of Tupac Shakur and the most sophisticated understanding of the complexity of today’s hip-hop culture and the plight of its major creators—Black young people.”
“A riveting read that brings together the wisdom of people who knew, loved, and thought about his lost talent. Miss this book and you’ll lose a chance to understand the enduring creativity and power of Black youth.”
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