Anthony Kwame Harrison on Cassette Tapes and Hip Hop Culture

Summary

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Kwame Harrison, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Professor of Sociology at Virginia Tech. Harrison records and performs under the moniker “Mad Squirrel” and has co-founded two groups—the San-Francisco-based Forest Fires Collective and Washington DC’s The Acorns—as well as releasing various solo projects.

Harrison is the author of Hip Hop Underground: The Integrity and Ethics of Racial Identification (Temple UP, 2009).

Song credits from this episode:

  1. Murs/ F'Real/ Say Anything/ 1997
  2. Zagu Brown/Dont Believe It/ Projects/1996
  3. Top Ramen/ Hardly Celebrity: Pimp Shit/Freestyle/2000
  4. FundaMentals/The Pattern Fall Wars/Falling Down/1996
  5. Jun Dax/ Spills/2000AD—Two Zero/2000
  6. Mad Squirrel/ Pinko/Triple A/2002
  7. Salty Brown/ Salty Brown Is A Seasoned Vet/Salty Brown/2012
  8. Salty Brown/ Salty Brown Is A Seasoned Vet/O.W.M./2012
  9. Mad Squirrel/Last Days of Squirrel/Initiative—Intro/2021

Your Host

Lee Vinsel

Lee Vinsel is an associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Society at Virginia Tech. He studies human life with technology, with particular focus on the relationship between government, business, and technological change. His first book, Moving Violations: Automobiles, Experts, and Regulations in the United States, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in July 2019.

View Profile