Hip-Hop Is History [Paperback]

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 wasnt 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 Awardwinning musician, an Academy Awardwinning filmmaker, aNew York Timesbestselling author, a producer, an entrepreneur, a cofounder of one of hip-hops defining acts (the Roots), and the genres 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 hitsand 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 alsohishistory.

Questloveis a six-time Grammy Awardwinning musician, Academy Awardwinning filmmaker, drummer, DJ, producer, director, culinary entrepreneur,New York Timesbestselling author, cofounder of the Roots, and the musical director forThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where the Roots serves as the house band. He is the author of theNew York TimesbestsellersMo Meta Blues,Creative Quest,Music Is History, and his first childrens book series,Tl³/