Emergence of Hip Hop

I know it dates back a few weeks, but this kind of relates to the "From Mambo to Hip Hop" film we watched earlier in Feb. I thought it was interesting to see how mambo slowly gave way to hip hop and other dance styles throughout the years, and it actually reminded me of a really good book that you guys might find interesting. Classmate Brittany and I were studying in London last semester and had to read Cut 'n' Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music by Dick Hebdige for one of our music courses. Although the book focuses more on the music rather than the dance style, it ties in nicely with the film. It discusses Caribbean music in its entirety, and how it led to the development of various other music genres such as calypso, ska, reggae, and then eventually hip hop music (particularly in the States). What the movie did not mention, which the book touches on, is the important role of the "soundsystem culture" and how it helped perpetuate the emergence of both hip hop music and dance. Many countries and regions where Caribbean music was popular (such as African nations, Jamaica, etc.) were poverty stricken and uneducated, therefore leading to the heavy reliance on soundsystems, because they were somewhat cheap and produced a lot of sound for a lot of people (in regions where music was an important cultural value). This eventually grew quite popular in modern culture, first spreading to the UK and then later to New York, followed by the rest of the U.S. Anyways, that's just the hip hop aspect of the book in a nutshell. It is a really cool book though, and thought that you guys would be interested in checking it out. I would lend it to anybody who wants to read it, but I unfortunately left it back home in California!