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An editor of a popular Canadian hip hop website called for a ban last week of rapper Cam’Ron’s new “comeback” album saying that his lyrics glorify violence. Kemi Omololu Olunloyo, who operates Hiphossip.com, singled out the song, “I Hate My Job” off therapper’s latest record entitled, “Crime Pays,” in urging the Best Buy store chain not to carry the title. Olunloyo has also call for Canadian immigration officials not to allow Cam’Ron into the country for any potential tour dates. This recent controversy over rap and its lyrics has been an ever present one for much of hip hop’s history. However, a new scholarly work by Adam Bradley, an assistant professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College, is challenging the conventional conversation by appraising hip hop lyrics as a revolutionary innovation in contemporary poetry. “Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop,” analyzes rap though its rhymes, similes, storytelling, and wordplay in constructing the argument that the genre has changed a generation’s relationship to the spoken word. Dr. Cornel West has called Bradley’s work, “a marvelous exploration into the poetic genius of rap and the cultural gravity of hip hop. His analysis is subtle, sophisticated and soulful!”

GUEST: Adam Bradley, author of “Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop,” assistant professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College.

Adam Bradley will be in conversation with novelist Colson Whitehead on Wednesday evening at 7 pm at the Central Library, W 5th Street in Los Angeles.