The Plot Against Hip Hop: A D Hunter Mystery

(Paperback)

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The stabbing and murder of esteemed music critic Dwayne Robinson in a Soho office building is dismissed by the NYPD as a gang initiation. But his old friend, bodyguard/security expert D Hunter, suspects foul play. A missing manuscript, an old cassette tape and some veiled threats suggest that larger and more sinister forces are at work. D Hunter's investigation into his mentor's murder ultimately leads into a parallel history of hip hop full of government agents, hidden power brokers and paranoid journalists.

Reviews

A welcome nostalgic trip.
--Chicago Tribune

Nelson George comes from an older generation that still remembers Hip Hop as the vital and dangerous voice it once was. This feeling for the past carries throughout the novel, and manages to convey the weight and importance of this profound shift in values without being nostalgic...The Plot Against Hip Hop is a fine piece of 'edutainment'--both exciting and thought provoking...it's great to finally have a novel about Hip Hop written by one of [its] original documentary journalists.
--ABORT Magazine

One of our coolest cultural critics has written a mystery page-turner about the underbelly of hip hop, and it's woven with signature whip-smart insights into music. Nelson George's smooth security-guard-turned-detective, a.k.a. D, scours a demimonde as glamorous as Chandler's Los Angeles. This plot has more twists and turns than a pole dancer, and D definitely needs an encore--he's destined to become a classic.
--Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club

There are few people who can put the past seventy years of urban reality into the perspective of the most recent hip minute like Nelson George. The Plot Against Hip Hop is no exception. Nelson George braids actual facts and fictional characters flawlessly into a time-tunneled walk along various developments in this now-megabusiness called hip hop. For those that say they love hip hop as well as the total legacy it evolved from, it bodes well for them to keep this very close to their head, heart, and attention.
--Chuck D, Public Enemy

Nelson George is one of my greatest influences as a writer...He inspired me in many ways, and he continues to inspire with The Plot Against Hip Hop.
--Talib Kweli

The most accomplished black music critic of his generation.
--Washington Post Book World

Praise for Nelson George:

Perhaps one of the seven greatest books ever written. It has the realness of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the warmth of The Color Purple, and the page count of Tuesdays with Morrie. It's a must read.
--Chris Rock, on City Kid

Reads like a hip-hop answer to Nick Hornby's High Fidelity.
--New York Times, on One Woman Short

Author Bio

NELSON GEORGE is an author, filmmaker, and lifelong resident of Brooklyn. His books include the first three novels in his D Hunter mystery series, The Accidental Hunter, The Plot Against Hip Hop, and The Lost Treasures of R&B. Among his many nonfiction works are The Death of Rhythm & Blues, Hip Hop America, and The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture & Style. As a filmmaker he has directed the documentaries Brooklyn Boheme, Finding the Funk, and A Ballerina's Tale. He is also a writer/producer on the Netflix series The Get Down. To Funk and Die in LA is his latest novel