Who Got the Camera?: A History of Rap and Reality (American Music Series)

Reality first appeared in the late 1980s—in the sense not of real life but rather of the TV entertainment genre inaugurated by shows such as __Cops__ and __America’s Most Wanted__; the daytime gabfests of Geraldo, Oprah, and Donahue; and the tabloid news of __A Current Affair__. In a bracing work of cultural criticism, Eric Harvey argues that reality TV emerged in dialog with another kind of entertainment that served as its foil while borrowing its techniques: gangsta rap. Or, as legendary performers Ice Cube and Ice-T called it, “reality rap.” Reality rap and reality TV were components of a cultural revolution that redefined popular entertainment as a truth-telling medium. Reality entertainment borrowed journalistic tropes but was undiluted by the caveats and context that journalism demanded. While N.W.A.’s “Fuck tha Police” countered __Cops__’ vision of Black lives in America, the reality rappers who emerged in that group’s wake, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur, embraced reality’s visceral tabloid sensationalism, using the media's obsession with Black criminality to collapse the distinction between image and truth. Reality TV and reality rap nurtured the world we live in now, where politics and basic facts don’t feel real until they have been translated into mass-mediated entertainment. An illuminating cultural study arguing that, in the late 1980s, the reality TV of Cops and the reality rap of "Fuck tha Police" were two sides of the same coin, redefining popular entertainment as a truth-telling medium. Reality first appeared in the late 1980s--in the sense not of real life but rather of the TV entertainment genre inaugurated by shows such as Cops and America's Most Wanted; the daytime gabfests of Geraldo, Oprah, and Donahue; and the tabloid news of A Current Affair. In a bracing work of cultural criticism, Eric Harvey argues that reality TV emerged in dialog with another kind of entertainment that served as its foil while borrowing its techniques: gangsta rap. Or, as legendary performers Ice Cube and Ice-T called it, "reality rap." Reality rap and reality TV were components of a cultural revolution that redefined popular entertainment as a truth-telling medium. Reality entertainment borrowed journalistic tropes but was undiluted by the caveats and context that journalism demanded. While N.W.A.'s "Fuck tha Police" countered Cops' vision of Black lives in America, the reality rappers who emerged in that group's wake, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur, embraced reality's visceral tabloid sensationalism, using the media's obsession with Black criminality to collapse the distinction between image and truth. Reality TV and reality rap nurtured the world we live in now, where politics and basic facts don't feel real until they have been translated into mass-mediated entertainment "The book tracks the parallel rise, from 1986 to 1996, of gangsta rap--a subgenre some artists preferred to call "reality rap"--and "reality-based" television programming, especially shows such as "Cops," which frequently depicted young black men being arrested. The book also discusses how rap stars have used the media's obsession with their criminal pasts in their art, collapsing the distinction between performance and reality"-- Provided by publisher The book tracks the parallel rise, from 1986 to 1996, of gangsta rap a subgenre some artists preferred to call "reality rap" and "reality-based" television programming.. The book also discusses how rap stars have used the media's obsession with their criminal pasts in their art, collapsing the distinction between performance and reality