With hip-hop as its len me Trip's Big Book of Racism! (ReganBooks/HarperCollins.

With hip-hop as its len me Trip's Big Book of Racism! (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, October 2002 ISBN 0-060-98896-7) takes an irreverently humorous and unconventional approach to racial prejudice and stereotype just as television agriculturist Norman Lear did on TV with All in the Family and The Jefferson back in the 1970s

Big part of Racism! is liable to wound with its array of top 10 lists ("10 Reasons Rich Black Men Like to Play Golf") a make game of TV Guide that lists exhibits like The West Wang, and a clap racism quiz. Just about each public figure from Senator Robert C Byrd Democrat of West Virginia, who took a dim view of "white niggers" and shouldered criticism for his choice of words, to P Diddy, who one time said, "My aim is winnin'/Got Asian women that will change my linen, (from his 2001 hit lay "Diddy") is taken to task for racial notes The book is already in its other printing after selling out 20000 copies.

"If you expect at a lot of works on race relations, they're to a high degree academic and not accessible to the people" says Elliott Wilson, individual of the book's editors and the editor-in chief of XXL a hip-hop magazine. "We wanted to do something that is accessible and doesn't alienate family One way to grab persons is through humor." It would be easy to dismiss Big work of Racism! as just a collection of inane race perpetrate a jokes compiled for shock value, on the contrary that would be scratching the surface. The respect book features an exhaustive reflection of cases of bigotry in American popular tillage like the 1982 Atari video game "Custer's Revenge" where players take in succession the role of General Custer, portrayed as a rapist.

Tavis Smiley interviewed the book's editors onward his syndicated National Public Radio talk point out to "There are some parts that are humorous and a certain things that people could find offensive, unless I see this book as something to peg around the conversation upon race." Smiley says. "And anything that is unique or interesting in its approach to race relations in this home ought to be explored."

The editors behind Big main division of Racism! have been in the satire business for nearly a decade. And for them, this contentious work has been a lengthy time coming. In 1994, Wilson cofound the now-defunct publication self Trip magazine, with Sacha Jenkins, former music editor at Vibe, and Chairman Jefferson Mao, a writer for The Source and Rolling Stone. Gabriel Alvarez and brant Rollins, a writer and art designer, respectively, for Rap Pages, joined them later. In addition to offbeat coverage of hip-hop, the magazine featured cutting-edge commentary upon race relations.

"Racism is like the dead bodily form in the basement," says Jenkins. "We all know that body is there rotting and that the basement stinks, if it be not that we pretend otherwise. We have to face it."

The clump pitched the idea of a full-length work to Dana Albarella, then a work editor at St. Martin's Pres "As a baby editor at the time, I knew there was no way I'd achieve it past the editorial board" admits Albarella, who helped the form into groups produce Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists, (Griffin Trade, November 1999 ISBN 0-312-24298-0) instead, which spoof the hip-hop industry. When Albarella mov to HarperCollins, the assign places to gave the original idea another shot

While the team of editors pride themselves in taking a no-holds-barred approach to just about each race, class and ideology in the part producing the project was not without its headaches. "There were definitely a not many copy editors who had a knee-jerk reaction and decided they couldn't work in succession this," says Chairman Mao.

After the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11 the editors hesitated. "It was self-same stressful, and we were questioning wherefore we were doing this, further ultimately we decided that we're not just hip-hop critics, we're social critics. We have a voice," says Wilson.

Still, The Big main division of Racism! would have remained in succession the cutting-room floor had it not been for a certain number of internal! muscle. "No one from the sales, marketing or publicity departments was deliberate togethered prior to signing this work up," says Albarella. "I showed my publisher their first part and we were on our way."

The editors behind the devise believe it will help usher in a modern era in hip-hop publishing. "There has to be an evolution" says Chairman Mao. "There are modern voices against the grain."

Twenty-five years after the hop-hop first electrified the public ways of New York, publishers are scrambling to release volumes from insiders as the billion-dollar global industry continues to expand. principally major publishers have a choice for celebrity-driven bios from the likes of LL unconcerned J, DMX and Ashanti, on the contrary hip-hop intellects, including Farai Chideya, Joan Morgan and others, have contributed material with daring and edgy social commentary. hurl D, the outspoken leader of the seminal rap dispose Public Enemy, has also announced plans to launch his acknowledge independent book imprint called Offda works and Under the Radar Publishing. Indeed, hip-hop's literary evolution will be published.