Description

The tape begins with rap music The tape is labeled as an interview on San Diego radio station KPBS, a show called “These Days." Cruz talks about the similarities between his writing and music that he is able to produce on his home turntable and mixer. McCaffery asks him to read from his book Straight Outta Compton. The title of the book is the same as that of an album by N.W.A. Cruz talks about one of his themes, “how to escape a ghetto of the mind.” They discuss what “reclaiming your imagination” means as used in the text read. McCaffery invites his listeners to call. McCaffery asks about rap history, starting with contests. Cruz agrees that rap emerged from “talking games,” but a “certain rhetoric” in rap is in the tradition of Greek orators. A caller says that “rap is given a bad name. McCaffery says that rap appears to “valorize sexual conquest” and consumption, and Cruz says rap uses “too much” of the images of wealth and sex. McCaffery and Cruz discuss how these same themes are in blues and jazz, and the improvisation format. McCaffery says that Cruz’s book is “more like collage,” and they discuss the structure of the narrative. Callers, McCaffery and Cruz continue to discuss rap music, including a caller who says that rap is an “extension of the African-American tradition” and wonders if rap is being appropriated. Cruz answers, that rap “should be open to all.”