I Mix What I Like!: A Mixtape Manifesto

by Jared A. Ball

"Jared Ball is determined to rescue hip hop and left activism from increasingly subversive corporate control. This book is a manifesto that needs to be read, argued about, and yelled from the rooftops. Let the bricks fly!"—Todd Steven Burroughs, co-author of Civil Rights Chronicle

"The Funkiest Journalist breaks it all down for all servants of Soul/Funk music and Art in the 21st Century. His Mixtape Manifesto explains what we are up against battling corporate empires that control the coveted consumer-merchant access points, and offers us an option to distribute, connect, and popularize our culture."—Head Roc, political hip-hop artist

"The revolutionary power of this book lies in its capacity to interrogate staid constructs of thought and re-pose vital questions pertaining to 'emancipatory journalism.' For the power to pose the question is the greatest power of all."—Frank B. Wilderson, III, author of Incognegro

In a moment of increasing corporate control in the music industry, Jared A. Ball analyzes the colonization and control of popular music and posits the homemade hip-hop mixtape as an emancipatory tool for community resistance. Equally at home in a post-colonial studies class and on the shelves of an indie record store, I Mix What I Like! is a revolutionary investigation of the cultural dimension of anti-racist organizing in African America.

Jared A. Ball, PhD, (a.k.a. The Funkiest Journalist) is the host of FreeMix Radio, and assistant professor of communication studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Politics

Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

Jared A. Ball is Professor of Communication Studies at Morgan State University, USA. He is the curator of imixwhatilike.org, an online hub of multimedia dedicated to the philosophies of emancipatory journalism and revolutionary beat reporting.

Reviews

[Andrew Dubber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A polemic, for sure - but one that contains within it some genuinely enlightening ways of looking at mass media, the music industry and the colonial project that is still well and truly underway within America. Even just five years on from this book, the political changes we see and the climate of escalated police brutality against black communities, the increasing control over media and popular culture output and the mechanisms by which approved messages are the only ones available to most people makes Mixtape Radio (the author's self-described failed project) seem a valuable and necessary approach to community media, activism and organisation.

One section really jumped out at me, which was a parallel drawn between Newtonian physics and the 'laws' of political activism:

These laws are the political extension of the laws of motion attributed to Sir Isaac Newton. He once gave name to the pre-existing universal laws of motion that can be summarized as (1) nothing changes course without force; (2) the size of what is to be changed determines the force required to change it; and (3) change comes to all involved in achieving it.

Which, as you come to understand the concept of internal colonialism theory, becomes clear that he's talking about some pretty serious force.

The book is pretty heavy going in parts - both linguistically in terms of its academic style, and in terms of the content - but it's important stuff, and it has not just pushed my own beliefs and ideas further down a particular political path, but also given some fairly solid intellectual artillery to support those ideas with.

[Erin Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling. The writing is a little like that of a textbook however, interesting. I specifically gravitated towards the parts about samples and etc and how hip-hop music is a little colonized. Also, the censorship aspect was the truth.

"Journalism, another function of the mixtape radio concept continues to play a similar role in limiting the conciousness and ultimately the behavior of it's target. What we see, read, or hear is a carefully produced product designed to encourage compliance among the population."

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book regarding colonialism, hip-hop, and mixtapes. Super awesome, in depth, may need to read it again. I remember seeing Jared at a conference a few years ago talking about the revolutionary/anti-colonial potential of mixtapes and feeling really inspired. This book was also really inspiring.

[Mark Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

black liberation should properly be conceptualised as a fight against (inner) colonialism