Best of
Hip-Hop

2012

When You've Been Blessed (Feels Like Heaven)


Adrienne Thompson - 2012
    A Gospel singer's world is ripped apart by an unexpected revelation, leaving her wondering if anything is really as it seems, and sending her on a journey towards healing and an unlikely love.

Hip hop : the illustrated history of break dancing, rap music, and graffiti


Steven Hager - 2012
    For anyone interested in "first generation," this is the most authentic portrait of hip hop before commercialization took over. Sadly, the hard copy book was published before its time and never saw the distribution or sales it deserved. Copies of the original edition sell for as much as $500. This version contains new material not found in the original print edition.

Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ


Mark Katz - 2012
    Today hip-hop is a global phenomenon, and the sight and sound of DJs mixing and scratching is familiar in every corner of the world. But hip-hop was born in the streets of New York in the 1970s when a handful of teenagers started experimenting with spinning vinyl records on turntables in new ways. Although rapping has become the face of hip-hop, for nearly 40 years the DJ has proven the backbone of the culture. In Groove Music, Katz (an amateur DJ himself) delves into the fascinating world of the DJ, tracing the art of the turntable from its humble beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s to its meteoric rise to global phenomenon today. Based on extensive interviews with practicing DJs, historical research, and his own personal experience, Katz presents a history of hip-hop from the point of view of the people who invented the genre. Here, DJs step up to discuss a wide range of topics, including the transformation of the turntable from a playback device to an instrument in its own right, the highly charged competitive DJ battles, the game-changing introduction of digital technology, and the complex politics of race and gender in the DJ scene. Exhaustively researched and written with all the verve and energy of hip-hop itself, Groove Music will delight experienced and aspiring DJs, hip-hop fans, and all students or scholars of popular music and culture.

Wish to Live: The Hip Hop Feminism Pedagogy Reader


Ruth Nicole Brown - 2012
    This multi-genre and interdisciplinary reader engages performance, poetry, document analysis, playwriting, polemics, cultural critique, and autobiography to radically reimagine the political utility of hip-hop-informed social justice efforts that insist on an accountable analysis of identity and culture. Featuring scholarship from professors and graduate and undergraduate students actively involved in the work they profess, this book’s commitment to making the practice of hip-hop feminist activism practical in our everyday lives is both compelling and unapologetic.

West Coast Hip Hop: A History in Pictures


Michael Miller - 2012
    The crazy stories that accompany these earliest photo shoots for most of the west coast’s biggest rap stars are just as priceless!

Hip Hop's Li'l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South


Bettina L. Love - 2012
    

Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World


Eric Charry - 2012
    Eric Charry and an international group of contributors look carefully at youth culture and the explosion of hip hop in Africa, the embrace of other contemporary genres, including reggae, ragga, and gospel music, and the continued vitality of drumming. Covering Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa, this volume offers unique perspectives on the presence and development of hip hop and other music in Africa and their place in global music culture.