Respected
journalist specializing in
hip hop.
William Upski Wimsatt (author of
Bomb the Suburbs and No More Prisons) has called him the "godfather of hip-hop journalism".
George is the author of (among other things):
The Death of Rhythm & Blues
Elevating the Game: Black Men and Basketball
Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture
Blackface: Reflections on African-Americans and the Movies
and, perhaps most famously,
Hip Hop America
His bio, as printed on the dustjacket of Hip Hop America, is as follows:
Nelson George is the author of eight nonfiction books on African-American culture and of two novels. He has received two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards and a Grammy; The Death of Rhythm & Blues was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. He has written for national magazines, including Playboy, Billboard, Esquire, Essence and the Village Voice, and has written and produced several television programs as well as two feature films. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he still lives.
Hip Hop America is an excellent introduction to hip hop culture and history for the beginner, or at least for the beginner white boy (i.e. Me).