Books

  • It's Bigger Than Hip Hop

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    It's Bigger Than Hip Hop

    St. Martin's Press, 2008 | Non-Fiction | By M.K. Asante

    It's Bigger Than Hip Hop uses hip hop as a springboard to discuss the urgent social and political issues affecting the hip-hop and post hip-hop generations. Named a Top Book of 2008 by the Kansas City Star.

    “An empowering book that moves you to action and to question status quo America. Reading It's Bigger Than Hip Hop is motoring through a new generation of America with one of its best storytellers.”
    —Ari Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times

    “A fantastic book! M.K. Asante, Jr. combines drive, skill and a commitment that buoys us all. The hip hop community should feel extremely blessed to have those qualities attached to its forward movement.”
    —Chuck D

    "Asante expertly blends historical information about hip-hop with personal narrative, interviews with artists, and classic poetry to create an original and daring work."
    —Library Journal

    "This is the book that many of us have been waiting for. The wisdom and overstanding he exemplifies in this work will astound the reader as he opens a third eye and breaks it all down."
    —Hip Hop Weekly

  • Beautiful. And Ugly Too

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    Beautiful. And Ugly Too

    Africa World Press, 2005 | Poetry | By M.K. Asante

    Beautiful. And Ugly Too reveals through its delicate rhythm, the plurality of being alive. The poems, sketched from influences and drawn from experiences around the world, are colorful portraits that reveal the spectrum of human conditions.

    Beautiful. And Ugly Too penetrates, casting an unflinching eye on humanity through a historical kaleidoscope."
    —Philadelphia Inquirer

    “Sensitive yet iconoclastic! His words channel ancestral resistance.”
    —Bruce George, Co-founder of Def Poetry Jam

    “A thought-provoking journey down the lonely road of wisdom and whiplash.” —Los Angeles Times

    “Vivid and timely.” —Philadelphia Tribune

  • Like Water Running Off My Back

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    Like Water Running Off My Back

    Africa World Press, 2002 | Poetry | By M.K. Asante

    “The poems in Like Water Running Off My Back, are driven by a music heard in the deep recesses of our collective African-American memory. What is remarkable about them is their energy, their focus, their truth -- and that they emerge from a generation many of us believe had been lost. Bravo!”
    —Charles Fuller, Pulitzer Prize Winner

    “He molds words like soft clay illustrating his thoughts and ideas on everything from culture to hip hop to life.” —Wendy Day, Rap Coalition

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Tour

  • 8/16/2010
    American Documentary Showcase
    Harare, Zimbabwe

  • 10/15/2010
    Duquesne University
    Pittsburgh, PA

  • 10/16/2010
    Diop Conference
    Philadelphia, PA

  • 10/20/2010
    Vanderbilt University
    Nashville, TN

  • 11/15/2010
    Penn State University
    State College, PA

  • 12/1/2010
    World Festival of Black Arts
    Dakar, Senegal