In Conversation With Todd Boyd
Author of Young Black Rich & Famous

In this controversial look at the impact of cutting-edge black urban culture on contemporary America, Dr. Todd Boyd, the man CNN deemed "the hip-hop professor," uses the intertwining worlds of basketball and hip-hop as a powerful metaphor for exploring the larger themes of race, class, and identity.

In the 1970s, as a direct result of both the civil rights and the black power movements, black popular culture became a visible, influential presence in mainstream film, television, music, and sports. Basketball, in particular, reflected the changing landscape. The NBA came to be dominated by young black men whose potent combination of fame and wealth, often coupled with a defiance of white mores, profoundly disrupted the status quo. At the same time, hip-hop music was emerging from the streets of New York City. An expression of and a response to urban conditions, it served as a way of being heard when many other forces attempted to suffocate the black voice. It, too, aroused strong reactions.

In Young, Black, Rich and Famous, Todd Boyd chronicles how basketball and hip-hop have gone from being reviled by the American mainstream to being embraced and imitated globally. For young black men, he argues, they represent a new version of the American dream, one that embodies the hopes and desires of those excluded from the original version. Shedding light on both perceptions and reality, Boyd shows that the NBA has been at the forefront of recognizing and incorporating cultural shifts-from the initial image of 1970s basketball players as overpaid black drug addicts, to Michael Jordan's spectacular rise as a universally admired icon, to the 1990s, when the hip-hop aesthetic (for example, Allen Iverson's cornrows, multiple tattoos, and defiant, in-your-face attitude) appeared on the basketball court. Hip-hop lyrics, with their emphasis on "keepin' it real" and marked by a colossal indifference to mainstream taste, became an equally powerful influence on young black men. These two influences have created a brand-new, brand-name generation that refuses to assimilate but is nonetheless an important part of mainstream American culture.

A thought-provoking examination of basketball and music-"the two rarefied spaces where the most fundamental elements of blackness are articulated and played out, both internally and for the masses"-Young, Black, Rich and Famous brilliantly captures a culture and a sensibility that are at once unique, influential, and sometimes intimidating to so many.

Dr. Boyd recently told us more about why he wrote YOUNG, BLACK, RICH AND FAMOUS, the role of hip-hop in his writing, Kobe, and more.

Why did you write this book and what is the book's main message?

When you look at the culture at large, basketball and hip-hop are amazing because they're both extremely popular and are dominated by young black men. And are both mainstream in their popularity. I was interested in how basketball and hip-hop have become these cultural entities that demand so much attention and at the core is black masculinity. When you look around there's nothing else that demands the attention of the future.

What's the attraction? Why are they able to operate so freely in that environment and not in other parts of society?

Society has always been interested in urban black male style. There was jazz in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. There were racial hindrances, but increasingly jazz started to hit the mainstream. Frank Sinatra's whole sense of identity came from the gangsters that he grew up with, but also the black jazz musicians. The same could be said for the Beats, Jack Kerouac (et al.) mimicked Bird and the whole bebop thing. Fred Astaire wouldn't be Fred Astaire if not for copying Bill Bojangles Robinson.

The theme of hip-hop is important to you-all four of your books deal with the topic. Why is hip-hop so significant to you and why has it become such a critical cultural indicator?

I love hip-hop, I grew up with it. I tell people all the time that I was in tenth grade in 1979 when "Rapper's Delight" came out. I'm from Detroit and that was the first time we heard hip-hop. I've grown up with hip-hop and it's always been a part of my identity. When everyone was listening to [Michael Jackson's] "Thriller," I was listening to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Hip-hop has always been interesting. The attitude is familiar to me and to see that attitude represented now in mainstream society and to see people's reaction to it is amazing. An attitude and a style that's common to black society and black men, but until hip-hop we hadn't seen that style and attitude in public so much. There have been some examples of that attitude, but they haven't been so overt: Miles playing with his back to the audience, and the Black Panthers and their imagery, the images were out there, but they weren't popularized, or broadcast in mainstream society in the same way that they are today.

Hip-hop is a movement in which a number of people exhibit an aloof, militant, distant, defiant, and creative style. There's an indifference to mainstream approval with hip-hop but ironically in the end it's received massive mainstream approval. And that approval has turned into dollars and cents. LeBron James a.k.a. "King James," has now received more than a hundred million dollars in endorsement contracts and he hasn't even played his first NBA game yet. [LeBron James was the #1 pick in the 2003 NBA draft.]

Do you think there will ever be another Jordan? I.e., an expert player who personifies cool and whose image is so tight and impenetrable?

There won't be a "next Jordan," but someone will one day surpass Jordan. He's one of one, as I like to say. Jordan's timing was perfect and he made the most of it, and he'll be an icon forever. There may be another player who comes along that makes Jordan seem less impressive than he is now, that's the way society goes. It may be Le Bron or it may be a player years from now, but someone will eventually surpass him, his talents and what he accomplished in basketball.

Despite the fact that mainstream culture still hasn't been able to completely embrace hip-hop, isn't it interesting to note that hip-hop with its sense of rugged individualism is essentially a very "American" concept?

I think that for young black men in urban America nothing has ever been guaranteed. Whatever these young men have accomplished, they've done it on their own and taken, shall we say, alternate routes. There's a sense of the hustle that's so endemic to black urban culture, we see it in basketball and we see it in hip-hop. In both hip-hop and basketball you're judged on your merits, and the extent to which you're superior as a rapper or as a baller-that superiority will determine how successful you are in that chosen pursuit. It's all on you, how you perform and what you can achieve-and that's a very American concept. And often when that sentiment is articulated-that sense of American-ness or rugged individualism--it's not intended for young black men. In basketball and hip-hop, these young black men take these two forms and make them their own and use these two vehicles as a means for social mobility. It's all summed up best in one of the quotes in the book from the late great Biggie Smalls: "If I wasn't in the rap game/I'd probably have a key knee-deep in the crack game/The streets is a short stop/either you're slinging crack rock/or you've got a wicked jump shot."

Why is it that people are so concerned about how much money young black basketball players make, and no one seems to be too concerned about how much money the NBA and it's top brass make? (To say nothing of the networks that carry the games . . . )

One of the most controversial things in America today is a young black man with money. When you have money in this society, you're approaching equality because America is based on capitalism. As Don Barzini says in The Godfather, "After all we're not communists." When it comes to young black men who come from impoverished circumstances and who are able to make large sums of money from their talent, that money gives them potential leverage as money gives anyone in this society leverage, and that leverage means that they're more inclined to think on their own and be equal as opposed to following a party line and being second-class citizens. This is a nuance of racism that is yet to be worked out because no one ever figured that these young black men would have any money in the first place.

What's the future of basketball?

It's global. That's the present and the future. Everybody in basketball circles in America is freaking out because they see America losing ground to foreign teams and foreign players but that's the greatest thing that ever happened to the game. As the level of competition increases, it benefits the game everywhere-more people have an opportunity to see basketball, the networks make more money, the apparel companies make more money, the league makes more money, players make more money, and fans all over the world have something to talk about. Like the world we live in, everything right now is global, and basketball is no different. Look at a guy like Yao Ming who represents the Chinese television market. There are a billion people in China, and if you can get a small percentage of that market-that's a lot of people. It makes sense that people would pay attention to something if one of it's citizens is participating, so the minute Yao came to the league the Chinese television, and Asian television market, for that matter, opened up dramatically. Just by the mere presence of one player. The same is true in various other locations throughout the world.

Will Kobe be able to "Marv Alpert" his way out of his current situation. What affect does race have on Kobe's case (i.e., the fact that the accuser is white)?

In the modern NBA, it's difficult to judge Kobe Bryant along the same racial axis as most other NBA players. Though Kobe is black, and the overwhelming number of players in the NBA players are black, it's less an issue of race with Kobe and more an issue of class. Kobe's class status, the fact that Kobe grew up upper middle class-his father played professional basketball in Europe-and that Kobe is fluent in Italian, makes him the equivalent of a white man in the modern NBA. The fact that so many people still seem to afford him the benefit of the doubt means that he stands a better chance than most other black men faced with similar circumstances. Though his image may be tarnished based on these accusations, so many people embraced his image beforehand that they won't be able to shake it lose, and his image will do him well in the long run, so he could very easily "Marv Alpert" his way out of his circumstances and resume a normal life in which these accusations are a footnote in a much larger career.


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