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Title details for Hip-Hop is History by Questlove - Available

Hip-Hop is History

by Questlove
Ben Greenman
Audiobook
1 of 3 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 3 copies available

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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 11, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250350299
      • File size: 326619 KB
      • Duration: 11:20:26

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 11, 2024
      Roots drummer Questlove (Music Is History) lays down a kaleidoscopic chronicle of hip-hop’s 50-year history of “diversity and vision... flummery and flaws,” beginning with the 1973 Bronx party during which DJ Kool Herc began isolating and repeating songs’ beats on turntables. From there, Questlove recounts how the Sugarhill Gang differentiated their sound from disco music by telling “comic stories over the groove, at great length and with great enthusiasm”; documents how the rise of such star producers as Dr. Dre shifted hip hop’s center of gravity from the East Coast to the West in the 1990s; and claims that the popularity of drug-related songs in the 2010s marked a cultural moment of “willful numbing” by hip-hop artists disillusioned with the lost promise of a “better future led by a Black president.” Throughout, Questlove interweaves sharp and lyrical analyses of hip-hop’s evolution with fascinating, up-close recollections of the genre’s turning points, noting, for example, that Eminem’s 1999 album The Slim Shady LP released on the same day as the Roots’ Things Fall Apart, and provoked questions about what it meant for a “white rapper in a mostly Black genre” to “bea sales records left and right.” It’s an exuberant account of a dynamic musical genre and the cultural climate in which it evolved.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Questlove is an established musician, musicologist, DJ, and narrator of his latest audiobook. Here, he recounts the fifty-year history of hip-hop with exuberant joy. The result is a fascinating journey from the coastal cities in the early 1970s, where historians believe hip-hop started, to the current state of the art. 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. He weaves personal stories of record collecting and the pleasure of discovering new artists while delivering deeper discussions on the meaning of music. The production is punctuated with brief samples, highlighting key points and enhancing the journey. This is a thorough education. S.P.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      December 20, 2024

      On August 11, 1973, rhetoric and rhyme were reborn in the form of rap through isolated sounds or breakbeats, performed at the time by none other than DJ Kool Herc. As a connoisseur of music, drummer, and record producer, Questlove, also known as Ahmir Thompson, nostalgically narrates the history of the movement through a timeline that depicts related gritty, soulful, iconic facts from a long-standing arc influenced by U.S. culture. In full swag (a bold, self-assured, sense of confidence), he imparts knowledge of the powerful genre, intermixed with its ripple effects in culture, music, art, and even fashion. This work examines the impact of hip-hop from the west, east, and southern coasts on life in the United States, through conspiracy theories, truths, collaborations, and group changes, and rifts, with snippets of beats to set the tone. Beginning with 1973, the work takes listeners through decades of entertainment filled with the sounds of innovation, achievement, and true music artistry, allowing them to experience lyrics filled with the energy of the streets, political warfare, taboo words, and a language of their own. Don't miss the epilogue, which introduces Questlove's vision of future hip-hop through 2073. VERDICT Rolling through Questlove's narration of the collaboration of music and poetry, dances, storytelling, breakbeats, and skills of turntablists will fascinate listeners and, according to Questlove, allow them to find the United States' heartbeat pumping to the rhythm of the boogie beat for the next 50-plus years.--Mitzi Mack

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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