Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office

"I'm not a businessman-I'm a business, man." --Jay-Z Some people think Jay-Z is just another rapper. Others see him as...

3:38 PM

Rapper, Writer, Pop-Cultural Player: Ice-T and the Politics of BlackCultural Production

This collection of essays critically engages with factors relating to black urban life and cultural representation in the post-civil righ...

9:05 AM

The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed

Here's what The Rap Year Book does: It takes readers from 1979, widely regarded as the moment rap became recognized as part of the cu...

12:01 PM

The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth

The Cultural Matrix seeks to unravel a uniquely American paradox: the socioeconomic crisis, segregation, and social isolation of disadvan...

5:57 AM

Inside A Thug's Heart

Rikers Island is the centerpiece of the New York City Department of Corrections, a sprawling prison city of concrete and steel with hous...

5:31 AM

Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation

From Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of the award-winning hip-hop group the Roots, comes this vibrant book commemorating the legacy ...

9:52 AM

Religion and Hip Hop

From Don Imus's "nappy headed-ho's" and default public scapegoating of Hip Hop culture to the burial of the "N...

10:23 AM

Dr. Dre (Hip-Hop Biographies)

There's no doubt about it, today's students listen to an average of 2.5 hours of music every day. Guess what they are listening ...

3:45 PM

The Book of Luke: My Fight for Truth, Justice, and Liberty City byLuther Campbell

The raw and powerful true story of how one man invented Southern Hip-Hop, saved the First Amendment, and became a role model for his disen...

1:46 PM

Kanye West: Hip-Hop Mogul

Even at a young age, Kanye West’s love for music gave him opportunities to make money. Even though Kanye had the chance to attend college...

7:01 AM

Jay-Z: Hip-Hop Mogul

Chronicles the life of the rapper who rose out of poverty to become one of the world's most popular musical artists, a CEO, and a phil...

6:54 AM

50 Cent: Hip-Hop Mogul

The life that 50 Cent was born into was anything but easy. From growing up without a father, to drug dealing, to being shot nine times and...

6:48 AM

The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--andWhy It Matters

Hip-hop is in crisis. For the past dozen years, the most commercially successful hip-hop has become increasingly saturated with caricatur...

1:45 PM

The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop

“Those who are hip have always known that Black music is about more than simply nodding your head, snapping your fingers, and patting you...

12:45 PM

LAbyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur andNotorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records' Suge Knight,and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal

Acclaimed journalist Randall Sullivan follows Russell Poole, a highly decorated LAPD detective who in 1997 was called to investigate a co...

12:08 PM

Ludacris: Hip-Hop Mogul (Hip-Hop Moguls)

Ludacris knew from a young age that he wanted to work in the music industry. But while most rappers don’t usually go this route, attending...

6:16 AM

Hip Hop Ukraine: Music, Race, and African Migration

In Hip Hop Ukraine, we enter a world of urban music and dance competitions, hip hop parties, and recording studio culture to explore uniq...

6:49 AM

The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama

Following his groundbreaking explorations of the blues and American popular music in Escaping the Delta and How the Beatles Destroyed Ro...

7:04 AM

Hip Hop Family Tree Three-in-On - Featuring Cosplayers

Featuring Ed Piskor's Hip Hop Family Tree series and Dash Shaw's Cosplayers! Piskor's half features excerpts from all three ...

6:17 AM

Diary of a Madman: The Geto Boys, Life, Death, and the Roots of Southern Rap

From Geto Boys legend and renowned storyteller Scarface, comes a passionate memoir about how hip-hop changed the life of a kid from the s...

9:55 AM