Arts / Music / Rap & Hip Hop

H.N.I.C.

by Albert Johnson & Steven Savile

Prodigy, from the legendary hip-hop group Mobb Deep, launches Infamous Books with a story of loyalty, vengeance, and greed.

Ego Trip's

by Sacha Jenkins, Elliott Wilson, Jeff Mao & Gabe Alvarez et al.

Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists is more popular than racism!

Hip hop is huge, and it's time someone wrote it all down. And got it all right. With over 25 aggregate years of interviews, and virtually every hip hop...

The Dirty Version

by Buddha Monk & Mickey Hess

On the tenth anniversary of his death, The Dirty Version is the first biography of hip hop superstar and founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, to be written by someone from his inner circle:...

Black, Blanc, Beur: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the Francophone World

by Alain-Philippe Durand

Black, Blanc, Beur is about the emergence and growing notoriety of rap music and hip-hop culture in the French-speaking world (France, Quebec, and Western Africa). It provides an introduction to many forms of...

Crossing Traditions: American Popular Music in Local and Global Contexts

by Babacar M'Baye & Alexander Charles Oliver Hall

In Crossing Traditions: American Popular Music in Local and Global Contexts, a wide range of scholarly contributions on the local and global significance of American popular music examines the connections between...

3 Kings

by Zack O'Malley Greenburg

Tracing the careers of hip-hop's three most dynamic stars, this deeply reported history brilliantly examines the entrepreneurial genius of the first musician tycoons: Diddy, Dr. Dre, and Jay-Z.

Being successful...

Original Gangstas

by Ben Westhoff

"Raw, authoritative, and unflinching ... An elaborately detailed, darkly surprising, definitive history of the LA gangsta rap era."---Kirkus, starred review

A monumental, revealing narrative history about the...

Book of Rhymes

by Adam Bradley

The definitive account of rap and hip hop as forms of American poetry

"Bradley is a visionary critic, skillful and wise.... Book of Rhymes is a tour de force, brilliantly renovating hip hop criticism as [lit]...

The Jazz of Physics

by Stephon Alexander

A spectacular musical and scientific journey from the Bronx to the cosmic horizon that reveals the astonishing links between jazz, science, Einstein, and Coltrane

More than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew...

Chuck D Presents This Day in Rap and Hip-Hop History

by Chuck D & Shepard Fairey

A one-of-a kind survey of rap and hip hop history from 1973 to today by Chuck D, arguably the most influential rapper in the world.

In the more than 40 years since the days of DJ Kool Herc and "Rapper's Delight,"...

JAY-Z

by Michael Eric Dyson & Pharrell

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY BESTSELLER

"Dyson writes with the affection of a fan but the rigor of an academic. ... Using extensive passages from Jay-Z's lyrics, 'Made in America' examines...

Mixtape Potluck Cookbook

by Questlove & Martha Stewart

What if Questlove threw a dinner party and everyone came? 

Named one of fall's best cookbooks by Los Angeles Times, GrubStreet, and Eater 

“Even with its many flashy co-authors, Mixtape Potluck never...

Stoned Beyond Belief

by Action Bronson & Rachel Wharton

The ultimate love letter to the world's most magical plant: Weed. Best-selling author, rapper, chef, and television star Action Bronson is a marijuana superhero, and Stoned Beyond Belief is his masterpiece. ...

The History of Gangster Rap

by Soren Baker & Xzibit

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,...

F*ck, That's Delicious

by Action Bronson, Rachel Wharton & Gabriele Stabile

This ain’t no cookbook. This ain’t no memoir. This is Action Bronson’s devotional, a book about the overwhelming power of delicious—no, f*cking amazing—food. Bronson is this era’s Homer, and F*ck,...

The Rap Year Book

by Shea Serrano

New York Times Bestseller - Washington Post Bestseller - Pitchfork Book Club selection

The Rap Year Book takes readers on a journey that begins in 1979, widely regarded as the moment rap became recognized as...

The Boombox Project

by Lyle Owerko & Spike Lee

On the heels of the graffiti renaissance comes a vibrant look at an old-school icon that figured prominently in the hip-hop, rock & roll, and punk movements of the 1970s and 80s. The Boombox Project features...

Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World

by Eric Charry

Hip Hop Africa explores a new generation of Africans who are not only consumers of global musical currents, but also active and creative participants. Eric Charry and an international group of contributors look...

Build

by Mark Katz

Since 2001, the U.S. Department of State has been sending hip hop artists abroad to perform and teach as goodwill ambassadors. There are good reasons for this: hip hop is known and loved across the globe, acknowledged...

24 Bars to Kill

by Andrew B. Armstrong

The most clearly identifiable and popular form of Japanese hip-hop, “ghetto” or “gangsta” music has much in common with its corresponding American subgenres, including its portrayal of life on the margins,...