James McNally, 2023-2024 Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow ‘The Long Island Rap Renaissance: Hiphop’s Suburban Turn and America’s Changing Black Middle Class, 1986-1993’
James G. McNally is a cultural historian, rap critic, and co-ideator of Spotify’s UK rap podcast Decode, which won two gold medals each at the 2022 British Podcast Awards and the Radio Academy’s 2022 ARIAs.
As a fellow Dr. McNally’s book-length project is Long Island Rap Renaissance, a history exploring the interconnections of race, class and geography in the era-defining explosion of rap music from New York’s Black suburbia in the late 1980s.
