Vanderbilt University Professor Releases New Book on Woman in Hip-Hop

In light of the recent controversy surrounding hip-hop lyrics, Vanderbilt University Professor, Dr. Tracy D. Sharpley-Whiting, is currently promoting her new book, Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women. While the book was written a year before Don Imus’ comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, the book examines similar issues surrounding young woman and the hip-hop culture. “In the wake of the Imus affair, these issues are even more important to examine as woman, as consumers of popular culture, as Americans who are concerned about how incivility has become a form of entertainment in our culture,” Sharpley-Whiting says. In addition to Pimps Up, Ho’s Down, Sharpley-Whiting has written three other books and co-edited The Black Feminist Reader. She also teaches African American and Diaspora Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies and French at Vanderbilt University. For more information on Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women, visit www.tracysharpleywhiting.com.