explores and explains the idea of authenticity, of keeping it real, as it relates to the multi-faceted meanings of blackness in the United States and the world. Including reflections on hip-hop, comedy, literature, intellectual history, and autobiography, the collection gives both a broad overview of and intervenes in the debates concerning blackness. A comprehensive introductory essay outlines the history of the idea of authentic blackness, while other chapters examine the contours of blackness in Canada and Jamaica; the relationship between middle-class status and real blackness; the link between blackness and hip-hop culture; Dave Chappelle's comedy; and the work of James Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Clarence Major, and John Edgar Wideman as it comments on authenticity in relation to race.