Books

[Hiphopdane]

Does anyone know any good books about hip hop and its history?

I recently bought "Can't stop won't stop" by author Jeff Chang but it seems to be more about political events that influenced hip hop as a culture rather than just the genre's history (which I thought it would be about).

Ronin Ro released a biography about Dr. Dre a few years ago which I really enjoyed reading. Not only does it tell about Dr. Dre as a human being and hip hop producer but also about the West Coast's rise in the 80's.

Anthony Bozza's "Whatever you say I am" is another good book. It's not really that much about Eminem but mostly about the roots of hip hop and all the political issues that sourrounded Eminem's rise to fame in the late 90's (those things help you understand hip hop as political movement too).

If you're interested in the whole art of rapping, I doubt there's a better book than "How to rap". It's based on interview from various great rappers including R.A. the Rugged man, Masta Ace, Big daddy kane and AZ, and focuses on every single aspect of rapping; rhymes, flows, vocal technique, writing process, live performances, rythm and many more.

Jay-Z' Decoded, which came out this year, is another beautiful book. Not only is it about his own life but also east coast rap, different rappers influence on hip hop, political issues, how non-hip hop people fail or simply refuse to understand hip hop, his own songs etc.. Definitely worth the money.

[Hiphopdane]

Anyone?

[yoshi]

I got that one by Jeff Chang, but didn't get a chance to start it.. I'm pretty pissed about it, but I hope it's gonna be good. Other that that.. Yeah, 'Whatever You Say I Am' by Bozza is good too, I loved how he'd describe the background behind Eminem's carreer.

I got 'Hip Hop Encyclopedia - Beats, Rhymes, Life', but I doubt it's been released anywhere else than in Poland. It's pretty dope, there's like an introduction to the entire history and then like a regular encyclopedia with short bios of tons of rappers.

Also I got 'Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists' by Sacha Jenkinks, Elliot Wilson and couple of others, it's pretty much a book containing various lists with short notes, like "Chuck D's 5 reasons for the quality of radio being worse than before" or something.. Nothing extra-special, but you can find couple of interesting things in there..

Who wrote 'How To Rap?' I might cop that if you say it's good.

[Hiphopdane]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Rap-Art-Sci ... 978&sr=8-1 . It helped me appreciate the art of rapping more than anything else. There were so many little things that I had forgotten or simply didn't know about until I read it.

I guess it's a polish guy that has written the Encyclopedia you told about? Sounded like a brilliant book.

[GladHeAteHerr]

Kool Moe Dee wrote a book on the 100 greatest mcs of all time, I've heard it's solid.

[N.W.A.]

There was a book Tupac: Resurrection that went along with the movie. Has a lot of hand written stuff by Pac and personal pictures, it's actually more about the pictures but still very interesting.

[stillmatic]

I've read quite a few.

One of my favorites is that Kool G Rap one. The vast amount of great artists that contribute to it is awesome. I've heard that the new Ice T movie is pretty much a remake of that book, as much as it can be of course.

One of the earliest ones that I read was given to me by my mom and it was written by an editor of The Source when it was the gospel of hip hop (Bakari Kitwana) called "The hip hop generation". It's mostly do with the impact of hip hop on the black community, and has a lot to do with race, politics and deals with a lot of the problems in the black community. I disagreed with a lot of what was written, but nonetheless it's really thought provoking and interesting. Tricia Rose's 'Black Noise' is a similar one.

One of the better new ones is M.K. Asante's 'It's bigger than hip hop', it focuses more on hip hop's impact on the mainstream American audience and the "hip hop generation" (prime era hip hop).

In terms of artists who have written books, there's quite a few good ones.

G-Unit books was one of the greatest ideas 50 ever came up with, almost every book they came out with was great and painted vivid images. Mind you this was mostly during 2006-2008, around the time when he released 'Curtis' and his music was shit and was all about the mainstream. It's almost as if 50 tried to balance the extreme mainstream exposure of his music that lacked knowledge or intellectual sophistication with his books which were full of them. The best one is the The 50th Law with Robert Greene, it's easily one of my all time favourite books. Pieces to Weight is also great.

I've read about 20 books relating to Tupac. There's some good ones, and some great ones. The best one has not much to do with his life, but is rather a collection of his poetry between the late 80's and early 90's before he was ever famous. It's called 'The Rose that Grew from Concrete' and they even made it into an album with other artists recording the vocals for the poetry. This is the book that finally made my mom admit to Tupac's talent and greatness. The best autobiographical book about him is easily Karolyn Ali's 'Tupac: Resurrection'.

[yoshi]

^ I ordered 'Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur ', have you read this one? I found a couple of reviews saying it's one of the best, so I thought I'll check it out.

[MikeNUFC]

Jay-Z's Decoded is the best I've ever read. It's absolutely fascinating and has some amazing quotes especially when talking about the misinterpretation of hip-hop. It makes you appreciate him as a lyricist more as well.

'Born To Use Mics: Reading Nas' Illmatic' is an interesting one. I found it a hard read (not really a page turner) but it has some interesting moments. Different writers/journalists each take a song from Illmatic and study in depth - it's less focus on Nas' lyricism but more about the content's place in history - hip-hop, black history and mainly politics. I think there's a huge amount of reaches. For example, when talking about the second line of 'The World Is Yours': "The margins also serve as a metaphor for urban youth relegated to the margins by being forced to work within clearly defined legal, economic, social, and political parameters"

That Anthony Bozza one is good too. How To Rap was enjoyable, and got better as it went on (started of really patronizing haha). It's great to read one that focuses soley on technique rather than history and politics.