Books by Robert Scoop Jackson

The Game is Not a Game: The Power, Protest and Politics of American Sports

by Robert Scoop Jackson

Part play-by-play, part op-ed, The Game Is Not a Game is an illuminating and unflinching examination of the good and evil in the sports industry. Liberating and provocative, with sharp wit and generous humor, Jackson’s essays explore the role that sports plays in American society and the hypocritical standards by which the athletes are often judged. The Game Is Not a Game is distinctly intended to challenge accepted ideology and to push the boundaries of mainstream sports media beyond the comfort zone. Chapters expose “Our Miseducation of LeBron James,” “#ThemToo: The UnRespected Worth of the Woman Athlete,” the duplicity of the NFL in its treatment of Colin Kaepernick and the anthem protests, the cultural bias of analytics, and the power of social activism versus the power and politics of professional sports ownership—all from the sharp, savvy, and self-critical perspective of one of the leading voices for social justice in sports media.

Birth of a Culture

by Grandmaster Flash, Robert Scoop Jackson

Birth of a Culture tells the chronological and comprehensive origin of hip hop. Over fifty years ago Joseph Saddler, a cool, nerdy, self-proclaimed kid scientist from the Bronx decided to create a new sound in American music. He grew up to become Grandmaster Flash and with the help of other DJs in his neighborhood, specifically Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc they created what would be the musical backbone on which hip hop was born.

The impact of their creation is one of the greatest stories in contemporary American history. Birth of a Culture is to hip hop what Eyes On The Prize was to the Civil Rights Movement. It tells the chronological and comprehensive origin and extended story of the last great creative contribution.

When I first met Grandmaster Flash he said something to me that stuck and sums up so much of his accomplishments and music history. "This thing that I did with duplicate copies of a record became the music bed for human beings to speak on. Today they call it rap and I am the inventor."

This book is for readers of Hip-Hop (And Other Things) by Shay Serrano, Rick Rubin's The Creative Way, and Dilla Time.

Birth of a Culture is cowritten by the widely respected journalist Scoop Jackson.