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The first study of hip-hop and aging, featuring insights from over twenty hip-hop pioneers and veterans.
Hip-hop is now in its sixth decade. How are the culture’s oldest innovators aging in, and with, hip-hop? In In Old in the Game, Murray Forman examines how hip-hop artists, audiences, and entrepreneurs negotiate the cultural process of aging.
Featuring commentary from hip-hop pioneers Grandmaster Caz, Grandwizzard Theodore, and Sha-Rock as well as veterans like Chuck D, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Pepa, and Yo-Yo, Forman reveals age as an essential component of identity and a mode of expression through which hip-hop–identified heads comprehend the world and present themselves. The book covers themes of generational difference and dissonance, ageism, memory and nostalgia, and retirement and death and offers a new way of understanding hip-hop as generations of hip-hop elders come of age, mature, and learn to grow old within the culture.
Murray Forman is Professor Emeritus of Media and Screen Studies at Northeastern University and is author of The ’Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop.
"Murray Forman's insightful and timely book explores how hip-hop—which is itself now more than fifty years old—has become far more than a soundtrack of youth, serving instead as a lasting cultural home for generations of artists and fans. Old in the Game blends thoughtful analysis with engaging storytelling and close attention to hip-hop history to shed new light on longevity and creativity in hip-hop and beyond."—Tricia Rose, author of Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, 30th Anniversary eBook Edition
"If you’re wondering what Murray Forman has been up to, he’s been making his masterpiece. One of the pioneers of hip-hop studies has broken new ground in writing the first holistic exploration of how hip-hop engages with the concept of aging. The culmination of his career-long dedication to the culture, Old in the Game reminds us that Forman is still among the most thoughtful, rigorous, and righteous scholars we have."—Anthony Kwame Harrison, author of Hip Hop Underground: The Integrity and Ethics of Racial Identification
"Old in the Game is a timely addition to studies of music and aging. A highly respected hip-hop scholar, Forman delivers a book that is incisive and engaging. A must-read for anyone interested in how aging hip-hop artists articulate their ongoing relevance to the genre and its legacy."—Andy Bennett, Professor of Cultural Sociology, Griffith University
“In Old in the Game, Murray Forman examines how hip-hop’s trailblazers confront aging, legacy, and shifting cultural relevance as the genre matures alongside them. Through reflections from icons like Chuck D, LL Cool J, and Ice-T, the book reframes hip-hop as a lifelong identity shaped by memory, resilience, and evolution.”—Edo.G, veteran MC
"What does it mean that the Hip-Hop Generation is now middle-aged? What does it mean that this young and famously ‘freshhh’ culture is now into its second half-century? Applying a range of scholarly and community-centered methods, hip-hop studies mainstay Murray Forman helps us better understand the culture in its ever-changing social, commercial, and political contexts over the last fifty years. A landmark work."—J. Griffith Rollefson, founding coeditor of Global Hip Hop Studies