Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street by Onaje X. O. Woodbine PDF

J-Rod strikes like a small conflict tank at the court docket, his face suggest, staring down his rivals. “I play similar to my father,” he says. “Before my father died, he used to be an issue at the courtroom. I’m a problem.” enjoying basketball for him fuses earlier and current, conjuring his father’s reminiscence right into a strength that rivals can think in each bone-breaking force to the basket. in the street each ballplayer has a narrative. Onaje X. O. Woodbine, a former streetball participant who grew to become an All-Star Ivy Leaguer, brings the attractions and sounds, hopes and goals of road basketball to lifestyles. mammoth video games have a trickster determine and a grasp of black speak whose remark translates the sport for audiences. The beats of hip-hop and reggae make up the soundtrack, and the ball gamers are half-men, half-heroes, defying the ghetto’s obstacles with their flights to the basket.

Streetball is rhythm and circulation, and through its height moments, the 3 earrings of the asphalt cave in right into a singular band, each head and toe pressed opposed to the sidelines, stuck up within the spectacle. Basketball is renowned between younger black American males, yet now not simply because, as many declare, they're “pushed by way of poverty” or “pulled” via white associations to play it. Black males decide to perform basketball as a result transcendent event of the sport. via interviews with and observations of city basketball avid gamers, Onaje X. O. Woodbine composes an extraordinary portrait of a passionate, devoted, and resilient crew of athletes who use the court docket to mine what city existence can't corrupt. If humans flip to faith to reimagine their position on the earth, then black streetball avid gamers are certainly the adepts of the asphalt.