Book Review: “The Death of Hip Hop, Marriage & Morals” by Brady Goodwin,

By Chris Lassiter

The views and opinions expressed in the following feature editorial are those expressly of the writer of this piece and do not necessarily reflect those of HipHopDX. This was a reader-submitted book review.

What if there was a better way to approach the “Hip Hop is dead” debate?

What if, instead of continuously circling through the revolving door of opinions, we investigated the supposed crime scene?

That’s just what Brady Goodwin, Jr., a/k/a Philadelphia-bred rapper Phanatik, does in his new self-published book, The Death of Hip Hop, Marriage & Morals.

Warning: His findings may shock you.

Assuming the role of your favorite TV crime scene investigator, the rapper-slash-author puts on the rubber gloves and begins collecting evidence. Goodwin examines how the Civil Rights baton dropped by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was picked up by Afrika Bambaataa and others a decade later.

Then, with skill of a NCIS detective, he carefully combs through the current state of Hip Hop to determine why the baton has been dropped again.

In the opening chapter, cleverly entitled, “Hip Hop: The new NAACP,” Goodwin sheds light on a long-standing dilemma in Hip Hop.  

“With commercial success in the air, a critical decision had to be made. Was Hip Hop going to be about “We the people” or “Me the person?” If men like Bambaataa had their way, we suspect it would have been about the people. But once Rap was seen as the cultural cash cow of the ghetto, it became hard to distinguish “Hip Hop the culture” from “Rap the commodity'” 

As the book progresses, the reader soon learns that Hip Hop isn’t the only casualty. There’s been a triple murder. Somewhere along the line, marriage and morals got murked, too.  

In a chapter entitled “The Grown Boy Syndrome,” Goodwin writes:  

“Hip Hop has a more colorful way of expressing what the generation at large is feeling. In his song, ‘My Life,’ west coast rapper The Game bares his emotional pain like one of his many tattoos. He shows that fractured family is the number one struggle of this generation when he talks about how, as a child, he needed his father, but tragically, his father ‘needed a needle.’”  

As Goodwin pores through Rap lyrics, movies, court cases, statistics, and Hip Hop interviews, it becomes apparent that Hip Hop’s killer wasn’t all that clever. He or she left a trail of clues.

After examining the evidence, readers will likely connect all three murders to one suspect. In order to find the alleged killer, Phanatik turns to the history books. It’s there that he leads readers to another alleged murder, one that set the wheels in motion for the other three. Before the “Hip-Hop is Dead” slogan took shape in 2006 with Nas‘ album of the same name, there was the “God is Dead” mantra of the 1880s.

Before the closing credits roll, Goodwin seals the case by explaining the relation between the two slogans in a chapter entitled, “More-ality – What’s Really Good?”  
 
“Perhaps, we are beginning to regret that we have killed God. We have buried him in our past, and it’s just our luck; the morality we so desperately need is tucked underneath his heavy, Holy Ghost in his star-studded, cloud-covered casket in the sky; buried too high for us to dig him down. What type of morality will we have now? What’s really good?”  

Phanatik’s The Death of Hip-Hop, Marriage & Morals is a must-read for all Hip Hop fans, especially those concerned with the current state of the culture. With a surgeon’s accuracy, Phanatik writes with authority, intelligence and insight into the issues currently facing the culture.

Much like Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, and Bakari Kitwana’s The Hip-Hop Generation, Phanatik provides readers with a much deeper look into Hip Hop culture than even the most talented emcee could do with 48 bars.

A clever mix of anecdotes, black history, Biblical theology and current events in Hip Hop culture, Goodwin also shows what must happen for the culture to scoop up the baton and get back in the race.

Additional Information: Phanatik is a member of the pioneering, Grammy-nominated Christian Hip Hop group Cross Movement, where he could easily be identified by his witty word play and east coast-influenced rhyme style on songs like “Card Sharks” and “95 Angles.”

The Lancaster Bible College graduate spent a few years in Philadelphia’s public school teaching character education. His first book is available at www.UrbanRemixProject.com and his music is available at www.CrossMovementRecords.com 

Purchase The Death of Hip Hop, Marriage & Morals by Brady Goodwin