Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation

Two smart Black women break the Tyrone code with affection, with respect, but with no illusions.

Black men as fathers, sons, teachers, lovers, rap stars, professionals, fantasy objects, and cultural constructs a multifaceted picture of American Black men today.

You know Tyrone. Smooth-talking, irresistible Tyrone the swagger in his step, the sexy drawl, the poetry and rhythm in his essence the militant revolutionary of the 1960s evolved into the pimp/thug of the hip-hop era. Tyrone is the Black man seen through the media lens, through stereotype, through the eyes of Black women. Hes "Talk Show Tyrone," all muscle and defiance, an archetype converted to a hit single.

In Deconstructing Tyrone, the authors, journalists Natalie Y. Moore and Natalie Hopkinson, examine Black masculinity from a variety of perspectives, looking not for consensus but for insight. With chapters on Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, on the complicated relationship between women and hip-hop, on babydaddies, on gay Black men on and off the down low, on strippers and their fathers, on Black men in the office, at school, and in jail, Deconstructing Tyrone presents a multifaceted picture of American Black men now.