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To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. By William Jelani Cobb. New York & London: New York University Press, 2007. 199 pp. ISBN 978-0-8147-1670-0 (cloth: alk. paper)

local dialect or slang of words (that are directed at local audiences), Japan has yet to find this. Therefore, rappers are gradually making up their own words aimed at a specific audience, as well as teaching themselves to rhyme by reading manga comics and listening to NorthAmerican hip-hop. Gender is the subject in Chapter 6, ‘Women Rappers and the Price of Cutismo’, an account of the struggle of female artists to succeed in hip-hop. Condry’s term cutismo, which means a form of female cuteness (i.e. young, innocent, teenage girls), sells more than those rappers expressing their rights as women. Only a few female artists have made it in hip-hop, and they try to resist their label turning them into cutismo. Hip-hop artists try to maintain their underground reputation by ‘keeping it real’ in Chapter 7, ‘Making Money, Japanese Style’. This demonstrates that artists are dedicated to resisting the major corporations in order to keep their identity and fans and that money-making is not a factor. In the conclusion, ‘Lessons of Hip-Hop Globalization’, Condry focuses on the expression of political issues in the music (e.g. Hiroshima and 9/11), which has helped the audience to understand the issues more and has also been praised by journalists who fight to express their political views in their work. Overall, Ian Condry has written a fine account of hip-hop music in Japan which can be aimed at any academic or general reader – especially if they have an interest in Japanese culture. He provides meaningful case studies of established artists (Rhymester, Zeebra, King Giddra). My only criticisms are that Condry has introduced many terms in Japanese – these are undoubtedly valuable, and it would have been useful to have a glossary – and that there was over-usage of the word ‘performative’ in a wide range of contexts. As this is a term that changes its nuances within different theoretical models, it would have been helpful if Condry had explained in the introduction his own intentions when using this term. Although there is no detailed musical analysis of the different styles of hip-hop itself (maybe this is held back for his future work), the book covers all the other necessary elements that comprise Japanese hip-hop as a whole. This book is certainly the first of its kind to tackle such issues, and for that it is most welcome.