As someone who volunteered with the National Hip Hop Political Convention Austin LOC, I obviously believe in the positive change that hip hop can foster, and I have seen it in action, even if it was on a small scale. At the same time, I’m perfectly aware that hip hop can prompt negative behavior such as violence, sexism, and homophobia. In his new book, Lester K. Spence, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, tries to examine to what extent hip hop has had an effect on politics in the United States.

The first three chapters of the book are a little dry, as Spence tries to develop an analytical method for measuring the change that hip hop has had on politics. As one might imagine, it’s an incredibly difficult thing to quantify, but Spence does an admirable job of isolating factors and doing research on sample groups. In the end, though, I’m not sure that a whole lot can be concluded, other than the vague notion that there are a lot of factors to consider and hip hop and politics are both hard to measure in tangible ways. If this was the only facet of the book, I don’t think I could recommend it to a large audience. However, the last chapter and conclusion discuss two politicians whose interaction with hip hop are absolutely fascinating - Kwame Kilpatrick and Barack Obama. While my frustration with Kilpatrick and the way he betrayed the citizens of Detroit is unending, knowing the details of the story is a must for anyone with concern for the intersection of hip hop and politics. Obama is clearly the only American president to embrace hip hop culture, and I’m sure much more will be able to be written about the subject when his tenure as president is over. Spence covers both cases very well, and it makes for fascinating reading.

This is Spence’s first book, and I’ll be very interested to see what else he covers. There’s plenty to discuss when it comes to hip hop politics, and hopefully Spence will continue to expound on the subject, because I think he’s capable of providing some good insight in these areas. Stare in the Darkness demonstrates that Spence can look at the subject matter objectively and critically, while still relaying his findings in a matter that is easy to understand.