what books on the history of hip-hop would you recommend??

Ego Trip's Book Of Rap Lists (unfuckwithable and far more informative than any dreary book going over the Kool Herc story for the billionth time..old issues of Ego Trip magazine are essential too).

Yes Yes Y'all (probably the best book about the old school, although there isn't enough attention given to Spoonie Gee in there, although i guess that was understandable as he was in prison at time the book was compiled).

Where'd You Get Those? (Bobbito's book about sneaker fiends in New York).

xpost - Hip Hop America was pretty good although I remember there being way more about New Jack Swing than I wanted / needed.

I was just going to mention it.

Am I the only one let down by Rap Attack? :-( Maybe my expectations were too high...

looking for a well-written book about the rise & beefs of the 80s hip hop scene - all the gang stuff, rivalries between artists, like dre etc, biggie/tupac, 50cent/ja rule and whoever's squabbling now. is there anything like this out there at all? (nothing dry or list-based)

pref in a pop/accessbile style written by someone like chris heath who brings out these fascinating thoughts and details

not hugely concerned with the v early origins, maybe a chapter or two covering all that up to around 85

there really isn't one is there :(

I have never read a decent book about hip hop.

Ego Trip's Book of Lists maybe the only one lol

i read a book called third coast about southern hip-hop. it was pretty good but the author's obvious rockist bias was annoying at times. i think i laughed out loud at his description of "ms jackson".

looking for a well-written book about the rise & beefs of the 80s hip hop scene - all the gang stuff, rivalries between artists, like dre etc, biggie/tupac, 50cent/ja rule and whoever's squabbling now. is there anything like this out there at all? (nothing dry or list-based)

― NI, Wednesday, October 23, 2013 2:58 AM (19 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just watch this bruh

http://ughh.com/store/covers_large/IDE9160DVD.jpg

Tricksta by Nik Cohn is really good. white rock critic (nik cohn) in new orleans becomes obsessed with bounce music and helps develop the careers of two rappers from new orleans. well written, compelling and the guy has a good knowledge for the scene. Rap Attack isnt very good, lots of anecdotes from the early days which are interesting but its mainly a list of records and a dry, dispassionate tone throughout.

The parts of Rap Attack that were added in the latter two editions (the first edition only covered old school rap, as it was published in 1984) are not good as the first part, but the way Toop illustrates the roots of rap in black music and oral culture is very knowledgable and well worth a read, unless you're already super familiar with hip-hop's prehistory.

Nelson George's "Hip Hop America" is also a good book if you want to read about hip-hop in a larger cultural context, thought it's already 15 years old. I was expecting Jeff Chang's "Can't Stop Won't Stop" to be kind of an updated version of George's book, and it does have a lot of interesting stuff about old school and late 80s/early 90s rap, but that actually takes the bulk of the book... Even though it was published in 2005, it barely touches the late 90s and early 00s, possibly because Chang wasn't following the scene as closely anymore by then?

Are there any book that would deal with 00s rap with as much depth and width as Toop did on old school rap, and George and Chang on 80s and 90s rap?

And yeah, I second the recommendation on Tricksta, even though Cohn is a middle-aged British rock journalist, the book has few "disco daddy" tendencies, except in parts where Cohn readily acknowledges he's out of his depth.

The Cohn and Chang books are both essential in different ways. Ego Trip's Rap Lists too.

I don't know about a book on beefs in general but Ronin Ro's Have Gun Will Travel covers Death Row and Biggie/Tupac in hair-raising depth and Chang touches on some other examples. The 00s seems like it's barely been explored in book form.

Cheo Hadari Choker's 'notorious' is good

thanks guys. tricksta looks great and i'd already started getting beef! read that ronin ro book many years back when i wasn't as much of a fan, will dig that out too.

does seem like a huge gap there, some kind of semi-fly on the wall account of it all covering the post-biggie/2pac stuff (nerd, missy, timbaland, jayz, eminem, ja rule, 50 cent, etc) would be amazing reading. v surprised something doesn't already exist. DL, pitch it!

ah nik cohn isn't the observer guy (a bit of a wtf when i saw his name) but the guy who wrote "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" the ny magazine article that led to saturday night fever, the film

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/09/nyregion/saturday-night-fever-the-life.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

lol @ Whiney recommending a movie

books are for chumps amirite

Couldn't stand 'Can't Stop Won't Stop" -- Chang is such a relentless idealogue convinced that his area of obsession is the most important artistic development of the 20th century, gets tiresome.

i thought the best part of can't stop won't stop was actually the pre-hip hop era stuff, the black spades and herc and all that transforming into hip hop

Agreed but I don't know if it was better or just more unfamiliar.

Anyone who spends years writing a book about an artform should believe his or her area of obsession is the most important artistic development of the 20th century imo.

speaking of pre-hip hop stuff I am v curious to actually see this 80 Blocks from Tiffany's doc (which is on youtube)

There's a pretty decent oral history book of old school rap, which consists only of interviews of Herc, Flash, etc, no editorial text or anything. It's been a while since I read it though, so I can't remember what it's called... Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Ah, I found it, it's called Yes Yes Y'all - Oral History of Hip-Hop's First Decade.

one of the best books is Vibe's compilation of writing about 2Pac, which is sold as an individual book. There's also this book covering a bunch of classic hip-hop writing: http://www.amazon.com/And-It-Dont-Stop-Journalism/dp/0571211593/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382652586&sr=8-1&keywords=and+it+don%27t+stop

seems to be a few decent mid 90s ones, esp around death row/2pac/biggie but not much about the years after (when hip hop was even bigger as a phenomenon?)

find it bizzare that the era bemoaned for steering hip hop into rampant commercialism doesn't have the obligatory cash-in book, not even a crappy one. not looking for that though obv, want something in that kind of quiet-interloper tom wolfe/chris heath type way. or even a please kill me style well-edited interview type doorstep. 'the dirt' style would be good but entire era (10-15 yrs?) prob too much and involve too many characters.