"Before Talib Kweli became a world-renowned hip hop artist, he was a Brooklyn kid who liked to cut class, spit rhymes, and wander the streets of Greenwich Village with a motley crew of artists, rappers, and DJs who found hip hop more inspiring than their textbooks (much to the chagrin of the educator parents who had given their son an Afrocentric name in hope of securing for him a more traditional sense of pride and purpose). Kweli?s was the first...

"A prince who wants to live out of the spotlight falls for a daring American rapper who turns his life, and the palace, upside down"--

"Featuring rare outtakes from over 100 photoshoots alongside interviews and essays from industry legends, Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop takes readers on a chronological journey from old-school to alternative hip-hop and from analog to digital photography. The ultimate companion for music and photography enthusiasts, Contact High is the definitive history of hip-hop's early days, celebrating the artists that shaped the iconic album covers,...

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.

"The Wu-Tang Clan are considered hip-hop royalty. Remarkably, none of the founding members have told their story?until now. Here, for the first time, the quiet one speaks. Lamont “U-God” Hawkins was born in Brownsville, New York, in 1970. Raised by a single mother and forced to reckon with the hostile conditions of project life, U-God learned from an early age how to survive. And surviving in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s was no easy task?especially...

"Rick Ross is an indomitable presence in the music industry, but few people know his full story. Now, for the first time, Ross offers a vivid, dramatic and unexpectedly candid account of his early childhood, his tumultuous adolescence and his dramatic ascendancy in the world of hip-hop."--Dust jacket.

The two-time Grammy-award winning hip-hop artist discusses how he overcame his battles against sexual abuse, physical trauma, addiction, and depression to find healing and a new-found freedom in his relationship with God.

This first biography of the Pittsburgh cult favorite-turned-rap superstar, who tragically passed away at the age of twenty-six, reveals a man who was plagued by struggles with substance abuse and depression, both of which fueled his raw and genre-defyingmusic yet ultimately led to his demise.

A product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, and a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind, in this memoir, one of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life.

This definitive history of the rap supergroup examines their genesis and evolution from their start in the housing projects of Staten Island to the hip-hop renaissance they helped usher in during the 1990s.