English professors Bradley and DuBois make history in this rock-solid collection of hundreds of thoughtfully selected lyrics of recorded rap music produced between the late 1970s and now. For fans, this is an obvious treasure. For skeptical listeners and readers, this mega-anthology strips away rap’s performance elements and allows the language itself to pulse, break, spin, and strut in poems of audacity, outrage, insight, sweetness, and nastiness. Here is meter and rhyme, distillation, metaphor, misdirection, leaps of imagination, appropriation, improvisation, and a “vivid vocabulary” that can be explicit, offensive, funny, dumb, and transcendent. In their thorough and energetic introduction, Bradley and DuBois offer a concise history of rap and a keen discussion of its aesthetics, with an emphasis on written lyrics. Proceeding chronologically, from “The Old School,” 1978–84, to “The Golden Age,” 1985–92; “Rap Goes Mainstream,” 1993–99; and “New Millennium Rap,” they analyze each movement and profile each artist or group, from Kurtis Blow to Grandmaster Flash, Sugarhill Gang, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, NWA, Queen Latifah, Common, Lil’ Kim, Outkast, 2Pac, the Wu-Tang Clan, Eve, and legions more. Electrifying. --Donna Seaman
Review
“An essential contribution to our living literary tradition. . . . This groundbreaking anthology masterfully assembles part of a new vanguard of American poetry.”—from the Foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
"What you hold in your hands is more than a book. This is a culture. This is hip-hop. . . . This book offers a view of rap in full, from the root to the fruit."—from the Afterword by Common (Common)
"This landmark work chronicles an earth-shattering movement with deep roots."—The New York Times Book Review (The New York Times Book Review)
"A complete encyclopedia of the history, personalities, beats, rhythm and rhymes of the musical genre from the old school of Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five to hip-hop and Kanye West."—Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles Times)
"The Anthology of Rap is among the best books of its kind ever published."—Dan Chiasson, The New York Review of Books (Dan Chiasson The New York Review of Books)
"What could have been an insufferable rap-snob collectible ended up being one of the first truly encyclopedic, essential anthologies on the form. . . . It's an Ivy League master class in the language of hip-hop. Register today."—Foster Kamer, The Village Voice (Best Books of 2010)
(Foster Kamer The Village Voice)
"An awesome compilation: 920 pages of some of the baddest, phattest, flyist tracks ever dropped."—Mother Jones (Mother Jones)
"Every great literature deserves a great anthology. Rap finally has its own."—from the Afterword by Chuck D (Chuck D)
“From the Sing Song cadence of the slave preachers to the emotional bravery of Tupac Shakur to the clarity of Queen Latifah…for all the hearts and heads and voices who have still to be heard: We Now Have an Encyclopedia. Good for us. Much needed. Much needed.”—Nikki Giovanni (Nikki Giovanni)
"The Anthology of Rap is an instant classic. It brings together the lyric poetry of some of the greatest artists of our time. Hip Hop is here to stay and rap lives forever—on the stage and now on the page!"—Cornel West
(Cornel West)
"These Rappers' lyrics love. Cut. Curse. Fight. Teach. Play. Pray. Testify. They bring us the pace of sound. The swiftness of sound. The discordant way of looking at the world of sound. The Blackness of sound. The new bebopic beat of sound. These are word sorcerers who love language and hablar sin bastón (speak without a crutch)."—Sonia Sanchez (Sonia Sanchez)
"This monumental encyclopedia of rhymes is great for hip-hop newbies or longtime fans, lyric lovers and poetry devotees. It's an invaluable reference on hip-hop history spanning from Afrika Bambaataa to Kanye West."—Touré (Touré)
“Some readers of poetry still wonder where the rhymes went. One answer is they left the ends of the lines and went inside the poem. But rhyme also strongly re-emerges in rap. Whatever the stakes or the messages contained in this monumental volume, the like-sounds that used to be the engine of English poetry drive and power these energetic lyrics.”—Billy Collins
(Billy Collins)
"As ambitious and intelligent as anyone might want, and more enjoyable than anyone might think. . . . If you want to hear how the latter part of the twentieth century sounded, you can't do better than this book."—Kevin Young, Bookforum (Kevin Young Bookforum)
"Listen along on YouTube and it's a self-taught class on the genre's history."—New York Magazine (New York Magazine)
"An English major's hip-hop bible, an impossible fusion of street cred and book learning. . . . Reading [it] was the most fun I've had with a book in many months."—Sam Anderson, New York Magazine
(Sam Anderson New York Magazine)
"The Anthology of Rap reaffirms the enduring force of the written word—or at least the immaculately constructed freestyle."—LA Weekly (LA Weekly)
"The eye-opening essay by [Henry Louis] Gates. . . provides deep historical context for rap; it alone makes the book worth owning."—Slate (Slate)
"A great, necessary addition to the book collection of any contemporary music aficionado."—Creative Loafing (Creative Loafing)
"Reading The Anthology of Rap, which covers everything from Afrika Bambaataa to Young Jeezy, it's hard not to appreciate rap's astounding love of words, of the way they fit together and play off each other, and of how meaning can be layered upon meaning to get at a deeper truth. Which sounds an awful lot like poetry."—Joshua Ostroff, The Globe and Mail (Joshua Ostroff The Globe and Mail)
"[The Anthology of Rap] makes the case for the immediate and enduring relevance of [rap's] poetic tradition."—Barnes and Noble Review (Barnes and Noble Review)
"[The] editors of The Anthology of Rap supply a much needed injection of energy and enthusiasm into our analysis of hip-hop's lyricism."—Quentin B. Huff,PopMatters
(Quentin B. Huff PopMatters)
"[The] anthology offers the good, the bad, and the offensive--and plenty of food for intelligent discussion."—Minneapolis Star Tribune (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
"This thrilling (but controversial) textual monument to a thrilling (but controversial) oral tradition wrestles the genre's greatest lyricists out of the airwaves and into cold print. . . . [It] enables something wonderful: the ability to sit in perfect silence and roll around in, for example, the lust Keatsian soundplay of Jay-Z."—Sam Anderson, New York Magazine, "The Year in Books" (Sam Anderson New York Magazine 2010-12-05)
"The authors have built a poignant collection of rhythm and rhyme. . . . For hard-core hip-hop heads, this book confirms what we have always known: that some of the most innovative writing hails from the imagination of the rapper."—Idris Goodwin, The Boston Globe (Idris Goodwin The Boston Globe)
"An exquisite display of the artistic talent seen with rap music."—Boston Music Spotlight (Boston Music Spotlight)
"Intelligent and authentic. . . written for both the hip-hop head and the uninitiated."—James Johnson, Philadelphia Inquirer (James Johnson Philadelphia Inquirer)
Honorable mention in the Compilations/Anthologies category of the 2010 New England Book Festival, given by the JM Northern Media family of festivals (New England Book Festival Compilation/Anthologies Category New England Book Festival 2011-01-04)
"The editors have been bold and often brilliant. . . . The Anthology of Rap is as ambitious and intelligent as anyone might want, and more enjoyable than anyone might think. . . . If you want to hear how the latter part of the twentieth century sounded, you can't do better than this book."—Kevin Young, Bookforum (Kevin Young Bookforum)
About the Author
Adam Bradley is associate professor of English at the University of Colorado and the author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop and Ralph Ellison in Progress. He is also co-editor of Ralph Ellison’s unfinished second novel, Three Days Before the Shooting. Andrew DuBois is associate professor of English at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the author of Ashbery’s Forms of Attention. He is also co-editor of Close Reading: The Reader.
