It's not just rap music. Hip-hop has transformed theater, dance, performance, poetry, literature, fashion, design, photography, painting, and film, to become one of the most far-reaching and transformative arts movements of the past two decades. American Book Award-winning journalist Jeff Chang, author of the acclaimed Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, assembles some of the most innovative and provocative voices in hip-hop to assess the most important cultural movement of our time. It's an incisive look at hip-hop arts in the voices of the pioneers, innovators, and mavericks. With an introductory survey essay by Chang, the anthology includes: * Greg Tate, Mark Anthony Neal, Brian B+ Cross, and Vijay Prashad examining hip-hop aesthetics in the wake of multiculturalism. * Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony Neal discussing gender relations in hip-hop. * Hip-hop novelists Danyel Smith and Adam Mansbach on "street lit" and "lit hop". * Actor, playwright, and performance artist Danny Hoch on how hip-hop defined the aesthetics of a generation. * Rock Steady Crew b-boy-turned-celebrated visual artist DOZE on the uses and limits of a "hip-hop" identity. * Award-winning writer Raquel Cepeda on West African cosmology and "the flash of the spirit" in hip-hop arts. * Pioneer dancer POPMASTER FABEL's history of hip-hop dance, and acclaimed choreographer Rennie Harris on hip-hop's transformation of global dance theatre. * Bill Adler's history of hip-hop photography, including photos by Glen E. Friedman, Janette Beckman, and Joe Conzo. * Poetry and prose from Watts Prophet Father Amde Hamilton and Def Poetry Jam veterans Staceyann Chin, Suheir Hammad, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Kevin Coval. * Roundtable discussions and essays presenting hip-hop in theatre, graphic design, documentary film and video, photography, and the visual arts. Total Chaos is Jeff Chang at his best: fierce and unwavering in his commitment to document the hip-hop explosion. In beginning to define a hip-hop aesthetic, this gathering of artists, pioneers, and thinkers illuminates the special truth that hip-hop speaks to youth around the globe. (Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip-Hop Generation)