The Anthology of Rap

Review ------ "This landmark work chronicles an earth-shattering movement with deep roots."—The New York Times Book Review "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 "A chronology of rap that highlights significant figures in its short history and offers a window into how rappers harmonize the world through a distinct form of self-expression."—Library Journal "An English major's hip-hop bible, an impossible fusion of street cred and book learning . . . Reading The Anthology of Rap was the most fun I've had with a book in many months: It just kept pouring out new waves of creativity, personality, and intelligence."—Sam Anderson, New York Magazine "An awesome compilation: 920 pages of some of the baddest, phattest, flyist tracks ever dropped."—Mother Jones "Listen along on YouTube and it's a self-taught class on the genre's history."—New York Magazine "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, in, sweetness, and nastiness. . . . Electrifying."—Booklist "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 "The Anthology of Rap reaffirms the enduring force of the written word—or at least the immaculately constructed freestyle."—LA Weekly "The eye-opening essay by [Henry Louis] Gates . . . provides deep historical context for rap; it alone makes the book worth owning."—Slate "A great, necessary addition to the book collection of any contemporary music aficionado."—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 "[The Anthology of Rap] makes the case for the immediate and enduring relevance of [rap's] poetic tradition."—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 "[The] anthology offers the good, the bad, and the offensive—and plenty of food for intelligent discussion."—Minneapolis Star Tribune Honorable mention in the Compilations/Anthologies category of the 2010 New England Book Festival, given by the JM Northern Media family of festivals "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 "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 "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 "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 "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 Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) 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 borough and the author of Ashbery’s Forms of Attention. He is also co-editor of Close Reading: The Reader. Read more ( javascript:void(0) )

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