Valuable Resources

Please note, this page is under construction CONSTANTLY!
ORGANIZATIONS AND ARCHIVES:

• The Cornell Hip Hop Archive
• The Hiphop Archive at Harvard University
• Old School Hip Hop Party Flyer Archive (a great collection of 70s/80s hip hop party flyers)

BOOKS:

• Alexander, Michelle. 2020. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (10th Anniversary Edition). The New Press. Available as a PDF or ePub.
• Basu, Dipannita, and Sidney J. Lemelle. 2006. The vinyl ain’t final : Hip hop and the globalization of black popular culture. London: Pluto Press.
• Chang, Jeff. 2005. Can’t stop won’t stop: A history of the hip-hop generation. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Chang, Jeff. 2006. Total chaos: The art and aesthetics of hip-hop.  New York: Basic Civitas.
• Charnas, Dan. 2010. The big payback: The history of the business of hip hip. New York: New American Library. (Good interview w/ Charnas on NPR here.)
• Condry, Ian. 2006. Hip-hop Japan: Rap and the paths of cultural globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Cooper, Martha, and Henry Chalfant. 1988. Subway Art. New York: Holt Paperbacks.
• Kelley, Norman. 2005. R&B Rhythm and business: The political economy of Black music. New York: Akashic Books.
• Brewster, Bill, and Frank Broughton. 2000. Last night a DJ saved my life: The history of the disc jockey. New York: Grove Press.
• Cobb, William Jelani. 2007. To the break of dawn: A freestyle on the hip hop aesthetic. New York: New York University Press.
• Forman, Murray, and Mark Anthony Neal. 2004. That’s the joint!: The hip-hop studies reader. New York and London: Routledge.
• Fricke, Jim, and Ahearn, Charlie. 2002. Yes yes ya’ll: The Experience Music Project oral history of hip-hop’s first decade. New York: Da Capo.
• George, Nelson. 1998. Hip hop America. New York: Viking Penguin.
• Hebdige, Dick. 1987. Cut ‘n’ mix: Culture, identity, and Caribbean music. London & New York: Routledge.
• Kajikawa, Loren. 2015. Sounding race in rap songs. Oakland, California: University of California Press.
• Kelley, Norman. 2005. R&B Rhythm and business: The political economy of Black music. New York: Akashic Books.
• Keyes, Cheryl L. 2002. Rap music and street consciousness. Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
• Kitwana, Baraki. 2002. The hip hop generation: Young blacks and the crisis in African-American culture. New York: Basic Books.
• Kitwana, Baraki. 2005. Why white kids love hip–hop : wankstas, wiggers, wannabes, and the new reality of race in America. New York : Basic Civitas Books.
• Krims, Adam. 2000. Rap music and the poetics of identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Kugelberg, Johan (ed). 2007. Born in the Bronx: A visual record of the early days of hip hop.  New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
• Kwame Harrison, Anthony. 2009. Hip hop underground : The integrity and ethics of racial identification. Philadelphia : Temple University Press
• Macdonald, Nancy. 2003. The graffiti subculture: Youth, masculinity and identity in London and New York. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Marcyliena, Morgan. 2009. The real hip hop: Battling for knowledge, power, and respect in the LA underground. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Maxwell, Ian. 2003. Phat beats, dope rhymes: Hip hop down under comin’ upper.  Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
• Negus, Keith. 1999. Music genres and corporate cultures. London: Routledge.
• Ogbar, Jeffrey O.G. 2007. Hip-hop revolution: The culture and politics of rap. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
• Ogg, Alex, and David Upshal. 1999. The hip hop years: A history of rap. London: Macmillan.
• Pough, Gwendolyn D., Elaine Richardson, Aisha Dunham, and Rachel Raimist (eds.). 2007. Home girls make some noise: A hip hop feminism reader. Los Angeles: Parker Publishing.
• Potter, Russell A. 1995. Spectacular vernaculars: Hip-hop and the politics of  postmodernism. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
• Rose, Tricia. 1994.  Black noise: Rap music and black culture in contemporary America. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
• Sirois, Andre. 2016. Hip hop DJs and the evolution of technology : cultural exchange, innovation, and democratization. New York : Peter Lang (available for free download as a Creative Commons licensed e-book).
• Toop, David. 2000. Rap attack #3: African rap to global hip hop. London: Serpent’s Tail.
• Wang, Oliver. 2015. Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area.Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Watkins, S. Craig. 2005. Hip hop matters: Politics, pop culture, and the struggle for the soul of a movement. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Watkins, S. Craig. 1999. Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema. University of Chicago Press.
• Williams, Justin A.. 2013. Rhymin’ and stealin’: Musical borrowing in hip hop. Anne Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Wimsatt, William Upski. 2008. Bomb the suburbs: Graffiti, race, freight hopping and the search for hip-hop’s moral center. Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press.

BOOK CHAPTERS:

• Austin, Joe. 1998. Knowing their place: Local knowledge, social prestige, and the writing formation of New York City. In Generations of youth: Youth cultures and history in 20th century America, eds. Joe Austin and Michael N. Willard, 240-252. New York: New York University Press.
• Basu, Dipannita. 2005. A critical examination of the political economy of the hip-hop industry. In African-Americans in the U.S. economy, eds. Cecilia A. Conrad, John Whitehead, Patrick Mason, and James Stewart, 258-270. Oxford: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
• Blair, M. Elizabeth. 2004. Commercialization of the rap music youth subculture. In That’s the joint!: The hip-hop studies reader, eds. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, 497-504. New York and London: Routledge.

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

• Fitts, Mako. 2008. Drop it like it’s hot: Culture industry laborers and their perspectives on rap music video production. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism8, no: 1: 211-235.
• Jennings, John. 2004. Gangsta by design: An exploration into the visual communications in hip-hop.
• McLeod, Kembrew. 1999. Authenticity within hip-hop and other cultures threatened with assimilation. Journal of Communication 49, no. 3: 134-150.
• Roberts, Robin. 1991. Music videos, performance and resistance: Feminist rappers.  Journal of Popular Culture, 25: 141-152.
• Roberts, Robin. 1994. “Ladies First”: Queen Latifah’s Afrocentric feminist music. African American Review 28, no. 2: 245-257.
• Rose, Tricia. 1991. “Fear of a Black Planet”: Rap Music and Black Cultural Politics in the 1990s. The Journal of Negro Education 60, n0. 3: 276-290.

RELEVANT FILMS:

• Bomb It  (2009, international graffiti writing documentary directed by Jon Reiss)
• Style Wars (1983, noted as the first hip hop documentary whose main focus is on graffiti writing; directed by Tony Silver in collaboration with Henry Chalfant). Great piece here “Style Wars Revisited” on the making of the film.
• Bomb the System (2002, dir. Adam Bhala Lough, a fictional film on the graffiti subculture a la Wild Style).
• Infamy (2005, a graff documentary directed by Doug Pray)
• Wild Style (1982, dir. by Charlie Ahearn with mad input from Fab 5 Freddy. Hip hop culture’s first and maybe only feature film. Check out this great Oral History of Wild Style)
• The Education of Sonny Carson (1974, a feature film based on Sonny Carson’s autobiography; focuses on gangs and the socio-economics  of NYC in the 1970s)
• Forth Apache, The Bronx (1981, feature film starring Pam Grier and Paul Newman. HEAVILY protested for the ways in which is portrayed African Americans and Puerto Ricans, but shot in the Bronx)
• Ain’t Gonna Eat My Mind  (1972, a documentary on the Bronx gangs the Savage Skulls and Ghetto Brothers. Pretty hard to find this in full-length. If you can find it, I need it!).
• 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s (1979, A documentary on the Savage Nomads and Savage Skulls gangs in the 1970s South Bronx, Dir. by Gary Weis)
• Flyin’ Cut Sleeves (1993, filmed in the 1970s and 1980s and produced and directed by Rita Fletcher and Henry Chalfant. Depicts Bronx gang members and community efforts made by them)
• Rubble Kings (2015, a documentary about gang culture in the South Bronx and its evolution into hip hop culture and incorporation into popular culture).
• The Warriors (1979, Dir. Walter Hill, a fictional portrayal of NYC gangs in the 1970s. Here is a great look at the production of the film)
• Fatcap Express (2008, a Dutch feature film that looks at the lives of two graffiti writers).
• Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (2011, a documentary about A Tribe Called Quest directed by Michael Rapaport).
• Beat This: A Hip-Hop History (1984 “documentary” by the BBC)
• Afro Samurai (2007, an interesting combination of hip hop and Japanese animation, scored by the Wu-Tang’s RZA).
• Scratch (2001, Dir. Doug Pray, a documentary on hip hop DJing and scratching)
• The Hip Hop Years…Close to the Edge (PT 1); Fight the Power (PT 2); and The New Rock n’ Roll (PT 3). (1999, a documentary directed by David Upshall for Channel 4 (British public television station) that looks at hip hop’s rise from the Bronx to popular culture)
• Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (2005 documentary on the art of rap and freestyle rap directed by Kevin Fitzgerald)
• Breakin’ (1984, Joel Silberg.  A fictional and cheesy breakdance movie)
• Breakin’ n Enterin’ (1983, a documentary on breakin, and the basis for the films in the  Breakin’ series)
• Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogalo (1984, Sam Firstenberg. The sequel to Breakin’)
• Rappin’ (1985, Dir. Sam Firstenberg. Aka Breakin’ 3, this is pretty bad. All three of the Breakin’ Films feature Ice-T).
• Beat Street (1984, Dir. by Stan Lathan and based on Steven Hagar’s screenplay, Looking for the Perfect Beat. Classic narrative film about hip hop culture in NYC and sort of the tip of the “breaksploitation” era of film/culture. Features cameos from hip hop pioneers and classic b-boy battle scenes (more Rock Steady Crew). This is a classic though. Check this oral history on the film and its making).
• Planet B-Boy (2007, Dir. Benson Lee. International B-boy documentary)
• The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy (2002, Dir. Israel. A documentary on the history of B-boyin’)
• Krush Groove (1985, Dir. Michael Schultz, a film based on the story of Def Jam Recordings and the story of Russell Simmons)
• Disorderlies  (1987, Dir. Michael Schultz, a comedy starring the Fat Boys)
• Tougher than Leather (1988, written and directed by Rick Rubin in a response to the commercial concessions made in Krush Groove. Features a grip of Run-DMC performances and they also released an album by the same name. Uses themes from Blaxsploitation and Spaghetti Westerns)
• Yo!: The Story Of Yo! MTV Raps (2012, documentary on the MTV rap program, Yo! MTV Raps)
• N.W.A. The World’s Most Dangerous Group (VH1 Rock Doc on NWA)
• Fear of a Black Hat (1994, Dir. Rusty Cundieff, a mockumentary on 90s gangsta rap and recording industry).
• Gimme the Loot (2012, Dir. Adam Leon, a feature film about two graffiti artists trying to piece an NYC landmark).
• Fly by Night (1992, Dir. Steve Gomer, a feature film about a struggling rap artist. Pretty classic and underrated).
• Straight Outta Compton (2015, Dir. F. Gary Gray (notably the man who directed Friday), a biographical drama on the rise and fall of N.W.A.).
• Revolutions On Air: The Golden Era of New York Radio 1980 – 1988 (2015, a great documentary on NYC radio and radio DJs and the influence they had).
• Streets of New York Documentary | Rise and Fall of Crime in New York City (doc. on street gangs of NYC in the 60s/70s)
• NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell (doc. about the creativity and commerce that came out of the crazy, hot, fiery summer of 1977)
• Founding Fathers (2014, a documentary that challenges the South Bronx narrative of hip hop’s beginnings. Basically, this looks at how other DJs in other boroughs were have public park jams that emulated disco. This has been a controversial film in some ways; however, what these DJs did not do was the break-beat style of DJing that was popularized in the South Bronx).
• Planet Rock: The Story Of Hip Hop And The Crack Generation (2011, A documentary that looks at the rise of crack cocaine in urban America in the 1980s and it’s influence on popular culture, especially in hip-hop music).

CITATION GUIDES:

Chicago

MLA

APA