Rap and Hip-Hop Research Resources

In this landmark book, Questlove traces the creative and cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting both the forgotten but influential gems and the undeniable chart-topping hits-and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows.

A historical guide to the evolution of rap and hip hop music from its beginnings to the evolution of its many forms and frequent controversies including violence and misogyny. Cultural associations covering dance and fashion are also discussed in this collection.

Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop's forebears, Can't Stop Won't Stop chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation's rise.

The History of Gangster Rap is a deep dive into one of the most fascinating subgenres of any music category to date. Sixteen detailed chapters, organized chronologically, examine the evolution of gangster rap, its main players, and the culture that created this revolutionary music.

Illustrated with almost 200 photos, and accompanied by comprehensive discographies, this book is a vivid review of the hip hop world through the eyes and ears of more than 50 of the finest music writers and cultural critics at work today.

An inside look at the work of hip-hop photographers told through their most intimate diaries--their contact sheets. Featuring rare outtakes from over 100 photo shoots alongside interviews and essays from industry legends, this gorgeous book takes readers on a chronological journey from old-school to alternative hip-hop, and from analog to digital photography.

The book includes the improvisational artwork of previously unpublished street flyers of the era, Polaroids buried for decades in basements across the Bronx, and testimonials from influential figures.

Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography is the first major pictorial history of hip hop culture based around the work of one photographer. Culled from a vast archive, the approximately 150 images in Who Shot Ya? represent the visual diary of a generation, essentially following this socio-political art form from the streets of New York City to the billion-dollar global industry it has become. While some of these iconic renderings have graced the pages of magazines and fanzines through the years, most are published here for the first time.

Early hip hop film musicals have either been expunged from cinema history or excoriated in brief passages by critics and other writers. This forgotten, ignored, and maligned cinema is not only an important aspect of hip hop history, but is also central to the histories of teen film, the postclassical musical, and even institutional dance. Kimberley Monteyne places these films within the wider context of their cultural antecedents and reconsiders the genre's influence.

Accompanying a groundbreaking exhibition originating at the Baltimore Museum of Art, this book captures the extraordinary influence of hip hop, which has driven innovations in music, visual and performing arts, fashion, and technology and grown into a global phenomenon since its emergence in the 1970s.

Based on ten years of research among hip-hop producers, Making Beats was the first work of scholarship to explore the goals, methods, and values of a surprisingly insular community.

Rhymin and Stealin is the first book-length study of musical borrowing in hip-hop music, which not only includes digital sampling but also demonstrates a wider web of references and quotations within the hip-hop world. Examples from Nas, Jay-Z, A Tribe Called Quest, Eminem, and many others show that the transformation of preexisting material is the fundamental element of hip-hop aesthetics.

The format is simple: One chapter, one artist, one album, blow-by-blow and track-by-track, delivered straight from the artists who produced these classics.
See also: Check the Technique Volume 1

Examining the dynamics of hip-hop from every region and in every form--mainstream and underground, current and classic--this compelling how-to discusses everything from content and flow to rhythm and delivery in relation to the art and craft of rap.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Hip Hop Pedagogy is the first reference work to cover the theory, history, research methodologies, and practice of Hip Hop pedagogy. Including 20 chapters from activist-oriented and community engaged scholars, the handbook provides perspectives and studies from across the world, including Brazil, the Caribbean, Scandinavia, and the USA.