
Hip-Hop Is History
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Narrated by:
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Questlove
About this listen
Long-listed, Carnegie Medal, 2024
Long-listed, CPL: Chicago Public Library Best of the Best, 2024
Long-listed, Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2024
Long-listed, Minneapolis Star Tribune Holiday Book Recommendations, 2024
Recorded at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the audiobook features narration and storytelling by Questlove, who expertly weaves together a rich sonic tapestry of hip-hop tales large and small, well-known and obscure. From hearing “Rapper’s Delight” for the first time in 1979 to directing and producing the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop for the 2023 GRAMMYs, Questlove guides listeners through a musical journey brought to life by Questlove himself.
This program is read by the author.
"From the nature of sampling, lyrics, and how music made the jump from vinyl grooves and mixtapes to streaming, Questlove’s curiosity, intelligence, and natural ability to compel listeners are on full display."—AudioFile (Earphones Award Winner)
"Throughout, Questlove's resonant and impassioned voice serves as our noble guide."—Booklist
"The opening introduction, in which Questlove describes the stress of putting together a special hip-hop performance for the Grammys had me on the edge of my seat with tension and delight."—The Guardian
This is a book only Questlove could have written: a perceptive and personal reflection on the first half-century of hip-hop.
When hip-hop first emerged in the 1970s, it wasn’t expected to become the cultural force it is today. But for a young Black kid growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, it was everything. He stayed up late to hear the newest songs on the radio. He saved his money to buy vinyl as soon as it landed. He even started to try to make his own songs. That kid was Questlove, and decades later, he is a six-time Grammy Award–winning musician, an Academy Award–winning filmmaker, a New York Times bestselling author, a producer, an entrepreneur, a cofounder of one of hip-hop’s defining acts (the Roots), and the genre’s unofficial in-house historian.
In this landmark book, Hip-Hop Is History, Questlove skillfully traces the creative and cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting both the forgotten but influential gems and the undeniable chart-topping hits—and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows. It is at once an intimate, sharply observed story of a cultural revolution and a sweeping, grand theory of the evolution of the great artistic movement of our time. And Questlove, of course, approaches it with not only the encyclopedic fluency and passion of an obsessive fan but also the expertise and originality of an innovative participant.
Hip-hop is history, and also his history.
A Macmillan Audio production from AUWA Books.
©2024 Questlove (P)2024 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A memorable, masterful history of the first 50 years of an indelible American art form. . . Questlove’s instincts as a superfan and artist take this history beyond the hype to something very special."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A kaleidoscopic chronicle of hip-hop’s 50-year history. . . Throughout, Questlove interweaves sharp and lyrical analyses of hip-hop’s evolution with fascinating, up-close recollections of the genre’s turning points. . . an exuberant account of a dynamic musical genre and the cultural climate in which it evolved."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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- Unabridged
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Today Tariq Trotter—better known as Black Thought—is the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots and one of the most exhilaratingly skillful and profound rappers our culture has ever produced. But his story begins with a tragedy: as a child, Trotter burned down his family’s home. The years that follow are the story of a life snatched from the flames, forged in fire.
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PHENOMENAL !!!!!
- By juliajovone on 12-02-23
By: Tariq Trotter
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Can't Stop Won't Stop
- A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
- By: Jeff Chang
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop became the Esperanto of youth rebellion and a generation-defining movement. In a post-civil rights era defined by deindustrialization and globalization, hip-hop crystallized a multiracial, polycultural generation's worldview and transformed American politics and culture. But that epic story has never been told with this kind of breadth, insight, and style.
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Not About Hip Hop Music
- By A. Yerkes on 09-06-19
By: Jeff Chang
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Creative Quest
- By: Questlove
- Narrated by: Questlove, Fred Armisen, Tariq Trotter, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
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In Creative Quest, Questlove synthesizes all the creative philosophies, lessons, and stories he's heard from the many creators and collaborators in his life, and reflects on his own experience, to advise listeners and fans on how to consider creativity and where to find it. He addresses many topics - what it means to be creative, how to find a mentor and serve as an apprentice, the wisdom of maintaining a creative network, coping with critics and the foibles of success, and the specific pitfalls of contemporary culture.
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Questlove once again is my fairy godmother
- By Richard on 04-26-18
By: Questlove
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The Come Up
- An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop
- By: Jonathan Abrams
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, Diontae Black, Torian Brackett, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The music that would come to be known as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. Now, fifty years later, it’s the most popular music genre in America. Just as jazz did in the first half of the twentieth century, hip-hop and its groundbreaking DJs and artists—nearly all of them people of color from some of America’s most overlooked communities—pushed the boundaries of music to new frontiers, while transfixing the country’s youth and reshaping fashion, art, and even language.
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Excellent detailed history
- By Damian Andrews on 12-02-24
By: Jonathan Abrams
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Sweat the Technique
- Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius
- By: Rakim
- Narrated by: Rakim
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
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The musician and hip-hop legend - hailed as “the greatest MC of all time” and compared to Thelonious Monk - reimagines the writing handbook in this memoir and guide that incorporates the soulful genius, confidence, and creativity of a master artist.
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Solid
- By Troy on 09-27-19
By: Rakim
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Rise of a Killah
- By: Ghostface Killah
- Narrated by: Landon Woodson
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Dennis Coles—aka Ghostface Killah—is a co-founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, a legendary hip hop group who established themselves by breaking all the rules, taking their music to the streets during hip hop’s golden era on a decade-long wave of releasing anthem after classic anthem, and serving as the foundation of modern hip hop. An all-star cast who formed like Voltron to establish the pillars that serve as the foundation of modern hip hop and released seminal albums that have stood the test of time.
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The rawness
- By Amazon Customer on 12-10-24
By: Ghostface Killah
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The History of Jazz, Second Edition
- By: Ted Gioia
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins
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Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved. Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history.
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An Exciting Opportunity Missed
- By Kindle Customer on 02-02-15
By: Ted Gioia
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3 Shades of Blue
- Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool
- By: James Kaplan
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
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In 1959, America’s great indigenous art form, jazz, reached the height of its power and popularity. James Kaplan’s magnificent 3 Shades of Blue captures how that golden era came to be, and its pinnacle with the recording of Kind of Blue. It’s a book about music, and business, and race, and heroin, and the cities that gave jazz its home, and the Black geniuses behind its rise. It’s an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange environments where it can flourish most.
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Great deep dive into a pinnacle of jazz, marred by author bias against later jazz years
- By Michael J. Anderson on 04-08-24
By: James Kaplan
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From Staircase to Stage
- The Story of Raekwon and the Wu-Tang Clan
- By: Raekwon, Anthony Bozza
- Narrated by: Landon Woodson, Raekwon
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
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There are rappers who everyone loves and there are rappers who every rapper loves, and Corey Woods, a.k.a. Raekwon the Chef, is one of the few who is both. His versatile flow, natural storytelling, and evocative imagery have inspired legions of fans and a new generation of rappers. Raekwon is one of the founding members of Wu-Tang Clan, and his voice and cadence are synonymous with the sound that has made the group iconic since 1991.
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A must listen
- By sam on 12-10-21
By: Raekwon, and others
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Herbie Hancock: Possibilities
- By: Herbie Hancock, Lisa Dickey
- Narrated by: Herbie Hancock
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
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Hancock discusses his musical influences, colorful behind-the-scenes stories, his long and happy marriage, and how Buddhism inspires him creatively and personally. Honest, enlightening, and as electrifyingly vital as the man who wrote it, Herbie Hancock promises to be an invaluable contribution to jazz literature and a must-read for fans and music lovers.
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High Marks All Round
- By Joyce on 06-21-15
By: Herbie Hancock, and others
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High and Rising
- A Book About De La Soul
- By: Marcus J. Moore
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
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Formed in Long Island in 1988 by Kelvin “Posdnuos” Mercer, Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur, and Vincent “Maseo” Mason, De La Soul rebuked classification and appealed to the Black alternative. Their music was positive and psychedelic, their imagery full of flowers and peace signs. It was rap with a broad sonic palette which set the blueprint for an entire generation of artists who followed. But as quickly as De La ascended, they were faced with the pressures of a changing industry and bitter legal battles.
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Beautiful combination of biography and memoir
- By WEKetchum on 06-29-25
By: Marcus J. Moore
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Blues People
- Negro Music in White America
- By: LeRoi Jones
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
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"The path the slave took to 'citizenship' is what I want to look at. And I make my analogy through the slave citizen's music - through the music that is most closely associated with him: blues and a later, but parallel, development, jazz...[If] the Negro represents, or is symbolic of, something in and about the nature of American culture, this certainly should be revealed by his characteristic music." So says Amiri Baraka in the introduction to Blues People, his classic work on the place of jazz and blues in American social, musical, economic, and cultural history.
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Very good
- By Cara Foss Arellano on 05-06-21
By: LeRoi Jones
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A Little Devil in America
- Notes in Praise of Black Performance
- By: Hanif Abdurraqib
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
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“I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too.” Inspired by these few words, spoken by Josephine Baker at the 1963 March on Washington, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow and best-selling author Hanif Abdurraqib has written a profound and lasting reflection on how Black performance is inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture. Filled with sharp insight, humor, and heart, A Little Devil in America exalts the Black performance that unfolds in specific moments in time and space
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Magical
- By Mary A. Ardoin on 05-11-21
By: Hanif Abdurraqib
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From the Streets of Shaolin
- The Wu-Tang Saga
- By: S. H. Fernando Jr.
- Narrated by: Clarke Peters, S. H. Fernando Jr.
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
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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 from the corporate suites and bringing it back to the gritty streets where it started.
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Interesting but painful
- By Ron Woods on 11-17-21
Insightful reflection on communal romance
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History on the good foot
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Well thought out and enlightening
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Well done
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Ahmir has done it again
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Amazing history lesson from one of the best to ever do it
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