Rap category: 259 books

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Kanye West created the most compelling body of pop music by an American artist during the period. Having risen from obscurity as a precocious producer through the ranks of Jay Z's Roc-A-Fella records, by the time he released My Beautiful Dark Twisted...

The sequel to the New York Times bestseller Whatever You Say I Am, chronicling the last 20 years of rapper Eminem's life, based on new, exclusive interviews with the artist, his friends, family, and associates. In 1999, a former dishwasher from Detroit became the most significant, controversial,...

Public Enemy are an American hip hop group, formed in New York in 1982, known for their politically charged lyrics and criticism of the American media. This account focuses on the highs and lows of their career, provides an overview of their album releases, and examines what the future holds for them and hip hop as a whole.

This is a rare partnership between two geniuses at the top of their crafts -- Kanye West, who was named "the smartest man in hip-hop" by Time magazine, and Bill Plympton, an Academy Award-nominated animator, cartoonist, and illustrator. Through the Wire is a graphic memoir that illustrates...

Dylan Kwabena Mills, better known as Dizzee Rascal, has evolved from cutting-edge pioneer of grime and hip-hop into one of Britain's biggest pop stars. And the East London rapper, songwriter and record producer did it without compromising his startlingly original vision and persona. Paul Lester...

Tupac Shakur was a hugely influential American rapper, record producer, actor, and poet, who has sold over 75 million records worldwide - with his double disc albums All Eyez on Me and Greatest Hits being among the best-selling albums in the United States.Shakur has been listed and ranked as one of...

Geechi Suede and Sonny Cheeba are Camp Lo. These two emcees from the Bronx, NY entered the American hip hop scene with an insider slang that bewildered listeners as they radiated the look of a bygone era of black culture. In 1996, they collaborated with producer Ski and a host of other contributors...

Poor Superstar. All the money and fame in the world won’t prevent him from having a bad hair day. Or stepping in gum. Or not being able to fit into skinny jeans, or watching helplessly as a scoop of ice cream falls from its cone. Or so an unnamed Superstar’s life is ingeniously imagined...

urbansouls foreshadows the Ferguson uprising by offering keen insight on the social and cultural situation of the greater St. Louis region. Written while serving as a youth pastor and community center director in the late '90s, Sekou theorizes on race, class and gender. urbansouls reads the religious...

In Negro Soy Yo Marc D. Perry explores Cuba’s hip hop movement as a window into the racial complexities of the island’s ongoing transition from revolutionary socialism toward free-market capitalism. Centering on the music and lives of black-identified raperos (rappers), Perry examines the ways...

Long-Awaited first book by the popular poet and playwright. Chinaka Hodge has toured the U.S. both as a touring poet and as a hip-hop artist with her group the Getback. Her poems, editorials, interviews and prose have been featured in Newsweek, San Francisco Magazine, Believer Magazine, PBS, NPR,...

It's all about the scratch in Groove Music, award-winning music historian Mark Katz's groundbreaking book about the figure that defined hip-hop: the DJ. 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...

Justin Bieber is a Canadian entertainer who went from being discovered on YouTube to being the first singer to have seven songs from a debut album appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His music video, “Baby” currently ranks as the most viewed YouTube video and Bieber’s concert film Justin...

Hip Hop's Truth took over in the 1990s! The 1990s brilliance of sound and dance presented a voice and unique mind through the rough streets of America's largest conurbations. Sprung from the spirits of poverty, this inner city culture quickly uncovered an amazing bunch of young fresh black...