Catalog Search Results
1) Decoded
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"A collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time"--Front cover flap
Author
Publisher
Basic Civitas Books
Pub. Date
c2001
Language
English
Description
Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971–1996) was an American rap artist, actor, and social activist. More than seventy-five million of his albums have sold worldwide, making him one of the bestselling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time. Shakur also gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law and time spent in prison. Most of Tupac's songs are about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos,...
Author
Publisher
One World
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
English
Description
Through vivid vignettes, the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots tells dramatic stories of the four powerful relationships that shaped him, each a complex weave of love, discovery, trauma and loss, illuminating the redemptive power of the upcycle.
6) Will
Author
Language
English
Description
Will Smith's transformation from a West Philadelphia kid to one of the biggest rap stars of his era, and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, is an epic tale-- but it's only half the story. His whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world-- only they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they had not signed up for. Here he shares his journey of self-knowledge, telling how he mastered...
Author
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Gucci Mane began writing his memoir in a maximum-security federal prison. Released in 2016, he emerged radically transformed. He was sober, smiling, focused, and positive -- a far cry from the Gucci Mane of years past. Born in rural Bessemer, Alabama, Radric Delantic Davis became Gucci Mane in East Atlanta, where the rap scene is as vibrant as the dope game. His name was made as a drug dealer first, rapper second. His mixtapes and street anthems helped...
Author
Publisher
Atria Books
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
A cultural portrait of the Pulitzer Prize-winning rap superstar documents his coming-of-age as an artist, his genius as a lyricist, and his profound impact on today's racially fraught America.
Moore provides a definitive account of Lamar's coming-of-age as an artist, his resurrection of jazz, his profound impact on a racially fraught America, and his emergence as the bona fide King of Rap. Through his confessional poetics, his politically charged...
Author
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Description
JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson's decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he's sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he's been for so long. This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z's career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he's always...
Author
Publisher
Picador
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
An unforgettable first-person account of Hawkin's journey - from the streets of Brooklyn to some of the biggest stages around the world - is not only thoroughly affecting, unfiltered, and explosive, but paints, in vivid detail, the making of one of the greatest acts in American music history. It is an explosive, never-before-told story behind the historic rise of the Wu-Tang Clan, as told by one of its founding members, Lamont "U-God" Hawkins.
11) Un-ashamed
Author
Publisher
B&H Publishing Group
Pub. Date
[2016]
Language
English
Description
Two-time Grammy winning rap artist, Lecrae, learned the lesson "if you live for people's acceptance, you'll die from their rejection" through more than his share of adversity--childhood abuse, drugs and alcoholism, a stint in rehab, an abortion, and an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Along the way, Lecrae attained an unwavering faith in Jesus and began looking to God for affirmation. Now as a chart-topping industry anomaly, he has learned to ignore...
Author
Publisher
Roaring Brook Press
Pub. Date
2013.
Language
English
Description
Before there was hip hop, there was DJ Kool Herc. On a hot day at the end of summer in 1973 Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party at a park in the South Bronx. Her brother, Clive Campbell, spun the records. He had a new way of playing the music to make the breaks the musical interludes between verses longer for dancing. He called himself DJ Kool Herc and this is When the Beat Was Born. From his childhood in Jamaica to his youth in the Bronx,...
Author
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
"A self-described orphan with parents, Bobby Hall began life as Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, the only child of an alcoholic, mentally ill mother on welfare and an absent, crack-addicted father. After enduring seventeen years of abuse and neglect, Bobby ran away from home and--with nothing more than a discarded laptop and a ninth-grade education--he found his voice in the world of hip-hop and a new home in a place he never expected: the untamed and uncharted...
Author
Publisher
Gallery Books
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Ice-T rose to fame in the late 1980s, earning acclaim for his music before going on to capture television audiences as Odafin "Fin" Tutuola in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But it could have gone much differently. In this gripping and candid memoir, Ice-T and Spike, his former crime partner--collaborating with New York Times bestselling author Douglas Century--relate the shocking stories of their shared pasts, and how just a handful...
Author
Publisher
Hachette Books
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
"This is the definitive biography of rap supergroup and cultural icons, Wu-Tang Clan (WTC). Heralded as one of the most influential groups in modern music--hip hop or otherwise--WTC created a rap dynasty on the strength of seven gold and platinum albums that launched the careers of such famous rappers as RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, and more. During the '90s, they ushered in a hip-hop renaissance, rescuing rap...
Author
Series
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Formats
Description
How does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Poet...
Author
Publisher
Spiegel & Grau
Pub. Date
[2018]
Language
English
Description
Formed as a New York City hardcore band in 1981, Beastie Boys struck an unlikely path to global hip hop superstardom. Here is their story, told for the first time in the words of the band. Adam "ADROCK" Horovitz and Michael "Mike D" Diamond offer revealing and very funny accounts of their transition from teenage punks to budding rappers; their early collaboration with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin; the debut album that became the first hip hop record...
Author
Publisher
Crown
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
English
Description
"The first and only Estate-authorized biography of the legendary artist, Tupac Shakur, a moving exploration of his life and powerful legacy, fully illustrated with photos, mementos, handwritten poetry, musings, and more. Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996 at the age of just twenty-five, he continues to be one of the most misunderstood, complicated...
20) The defiant ones
Publisher
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2017]
Language
English
Description
"From acclaimed director Allen Hughes, The Defiant Ones chronicles the unlikely partnership between Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. This revealing, compelling and often gritty story takes place in recording studios, humble homes and massive mansions, in criminal courts and in the highest corridors of corporate power. Featuring interviews with those who worked closely with Jimmy and Dr. Dre, including Bono, David Geffen, and more. The docu-series showcases...
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