Hip-hop prizes authenticity, yet its culture dictates how performers walk, talk, and express themselves artistically. Jeffrey Ogbonna Green Ogbar, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut who studies Black nationalism and social justice movements, explores what “keeping it real” means in this context.

Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap, which Ogbar published in 2007, traces hip-hop's rise as a powerful cross-racial force and examines how it negotiates its own sense of identity, problematic Black images including minstrelsy, and the artists’ own historical and political awareness.

Ogbar challenges widely held notions that hip-hop is socially dangerous – to Black youths in particular – by addressing the ways in which rappers critically view the popularity of crime-focused lyrics, the antisocial messages of their peers, and the volatile politics of the language.