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Highlight denotes Black author or source | Highly recommended ︎




HIP-HOP


East Coast, West Coast and Southern rap, trap, drill, and more.
Origins: Early 1970s.

BOOKS 


  • The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop by David Toop, 1984.

  • Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture by Havelock Nelson and Michael A. Gonzales, 1991.

  • It’s Not About A Salary: Rap, Race and Resistance in Los Angeles by Brian Cross, 1993. 

  • Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by Tricia Rose, 1994. 

  • Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism by Russell A. Potter

  • Hip Hop America by Nelson George, 1998.

  • Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists by Sacha Jenkins, Elliott Wilson, Jeff Mao, Gabe Alvarez, Brent Rollins, 1999.

  • The Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur, 1999.

  • Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur by Michael Eric Dyson, 2001. ︎

  • Rap Music and Street Consciousness by Cheryl L. Keyes, 2002.  ︎

  • Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop by Imani Perry, 2004. ︎

  • That’s The Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, ed. Mark Anthony Neal and Murray Foreman, 2004.  ︎

  • And It Don't Stop: The Best American Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years ed. by Raquel Cepeda, 2004.

  • Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang, 2005. ︎

  • Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies by Brian Coleman, 2007. ︎

  • Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop ed. by Jeff Chang, with Greg Tate, Rennie Harris, Mark Anthony Neal, Brian Cross, Vijay Prashad, Joan Morgan and more. ︎

  • Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap by Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, 2007.

  • The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop—and Why It Matters by Tricia Rose, 2008.

  • The Tao of Wu by RZA, 2009.

  • Hip Hop's Inheritance: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Hip Hop Feminist Movement by Reiland Rabaka, 2011.

  • My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep's Prodigy by Albert Johnson, Laura Checkoway, 2011.

  • Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ by Mark Katz, 2012.

  • The Hip Hop Movement: From R&B and the Civil Rights Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Generation by Reiland Rabaka, 2013.

  • Houston Rap Tapes: An Oral History of Bayou City Hip-Hop by Lance Scott Walker, 2013.

  • Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by Ahmir Questlove Thompson, 2013. 

  • J Dilla's Donuts (33⅓ #93) by Jordan Ferguson, 2014. ︎

  • The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, ed. Quraysh Ali Lansana, Nate Marshall, Kevin Coval, 2015.

  • Hip Hop Family Tree (Graphic novel series) by Ed Piskor, August 2015 - July 2016.

  • Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap by Ben Westhoff, 2016.

  • Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer, 2016.

  • Parental Discretion Is Advised: The Rise of N.W.A and the Dawn of Gangsta Rap by Gerrick Kennedy, December 2017.

  • She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Joan Morgan, 2018.

  • Best Damn Hip Hop Writing: The Book of Dart by Dart Adams, ed. Amir Ali Said, 2019.

  • God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop by Kathy Iandoli, 2019.

  • Goin’ Off: The Story of the Juice Crew & Cold Chillin’ Records by Ben Merlis, 2019.

  • Women Rapping Revolution Hip Hop and Community Building in Detroit by Kellie D. Hay and Rebekah Farrugia, 2020.

  • The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America by Marcus J. Moore, 2020.

  • Emerald Street: A History of Hip Hop in Seattle by Daudi Abe, 2020. 








  • Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar, by Miles Marshall Lewis, 2021.

  • Who Got the Camera?: A History of Rap and Reality by Eric Harvey, 2021.

FILMS & SERIES


  • Wild Style, dir. Charlie Ahearn, 1982. 1h 22m.

  • Style Wars, dir. Tony Silver, 1983. 1h 55m. ︎

  • Breakin’ n Enterin’, dir. Topper Carew, 1983. 1h 24m.



  • Wreckin Shop: Live From Brooklyn, PBS, dir. Diane Martel, 1992.

  • Rhyme & Reason, dir. Peter Spirer, 1997. 1h 34m. ︎

  • Freestyle: Art of Rhyme, dir. Kevin Fitzgerald, 2000. 1h 30m.

  • Scratch, dir. Doug Pray, 2001. 1h 32m.

  • Biggie & Tupac, dir. Nick Bloomfield, 2002. 1h 48m.

  • And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip-Hop, dir. Richard Lowe and Dana Heinz Perry, 2004. Five-part VH1 series.

  • Wot Do U Call It, dir. Adam Smith, 2003. 10m.

  • Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, dir. Michel Gondry, 2005. 1h 51m. ︎

  • Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, dir. Bryon Hurt, 2006. 1h 1m. ︎

  • The Carter, dir. Adam Bhala Lough, 2009, 1h 15m.

  • My Mic Sounds Nice: A Truth About Women and Hip-Hop, dir. Ava DuVernay, 2010. 1h. ︎

  • The Weird World of Blowfly, dir. Jonathan Furmanski, 2010. 1h 29m.

  • Rubble Kings, dir. Shan Nicholson, 2010. 1h 11m.

  • Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, dir. Michael Rapaport, 2011. 1h 35m.

  • Uprising: Hip-Hop & The L.A. Riots, dir. Mark Ford, 2012. 1h 6m.

  • Time is Illmatic, dir. One9, 2014. 1h 14m.  ︎

  • ATL: The Untold Story of Atlanta’s Rise in the Rap Game, dir. Brad Bernstein and Rick Ciwoski, 2014. 1h 30m.

  • The Police vs. Grime: A Noisey Film, 2014. 20m.

  • Skepta: Top Boy: A Noisey Film, 2015. 31m.

  • Fresh Dressed, dir. Sacha Jenkins, 2015. 1h 30m. 

  • Stretch & Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives, dir. Bobbito Garcia, 2015. 1h 38m.

  • 808 - The Heart of the Beat That Changed Music, dir. Alexander Dunn, 2015. 1h 47m.

  • The Get Down, dir. Baz Luhrmann, 2016. 1 season.

  • All Eyez on Me, dir. Benny Boom, 2017. 2h 20m.

  • Death Row Chronicles, 2018. BET 6 episode series.

  • Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, dir. Sacha Jenkins, 2019. 1 season.

  • Wu-Tang: An American Saga by RZA and Alex Tse, Hulu. 2019 - Present.


PODCASTS & RADIO



  • "Rappers Delight" (on the Sugarhill Gang & Sylvia Robinson), NPR 100, December 2000. 8 minutes.






  • No Skips” With Brandon ‘Jinx’ Jenkins and Shea Serrano, The Ringer, May 2021 - Present.



ARTICLES


  • Buckaroos of the Bugaloo” by Barry Michael Cooper, Village Voice, January 1981. ︎
    • First rap journalism in Voice history!







  • On Eminem: “White Freedom” by Greg Tate, Village Voice, November 2004.


  • “The People Inside My Head, Too: Madness, Black Womanhood, and the Radical Performance of Lauryn Hill,” by La Marr Jurelle Bruce, African American Review Vol. 45, No. 3, Fall 2012.






















  • "Notes on Trap" by Jesse McCarthy, n+1, Issue 32: Bad Faith, Fall 2018. ︎
























































  • “How Chucky Thompson helped create the sound of '90s hip-hop” by Julian Kimble, The LA Times, August 2021.