Representing : Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema

In this text, S. Craig Watkins examines two of the important developments in the recent history of black cinema - the ascendancy of Spike Lee and the proliferation of "ghettocentric films". The work explores a distinct contradiction in American society - at the same time that black youth have become the targets of a fierce racial backlash, their popular expressive cultures have become highly visible and commercially viable.