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Hip Hop Family Tree Volume 1: 1970s-1981 (2013)

by Ed Piskor(Favorite Author)

4.31 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1606996908 (ISBN13: 9781606996904)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Fantagraphics Books

series

Hip Hop Family Tree

review 1: I love the subject, but I was a bit confused by the lack of a clear timeline. What years were covereed exactly? I grew up listening to some of this music. This book is best read with a laptop up so you can look up the music, the pictures of the people involved, and able to search more on topics mentioned. Since, it's a history of several people and events, there no strong narrative thread, which sometimes made it easier for me to forget about the book. I did love the asides and reference to events outside of New York City and foreshadowing of people who would be important later in hip hop like Andre Young and Carlton Ridenhour.The texture of the page was authentically textured and yellowed like comic books of that time period and the artwork was done in a accessible indie ... morestyle. I didn't like the visual short hand of most people being drawn visually the same (all kids have dot eyes, so many afros of roughly the same length, etc.). It made it hard to keep track of who was doing what. Only a few characters had a distinct look, like Russell Simmons.I also loved the inclusion of other hip hop artists by other artists. I want a poster print of the Salt-N-Pepa one. My sister and I loved them.
review 2: This is an obsessively detailed, beautifully done, and painstakingly researched description of the vibrant and dynamic scene that created hip hop as we know it today. However, don't go into this thinking you know how this whole game started. As someone who loves underground hip hop, I knew 80s-90s artists like Salt-n-Pepa, Bahamadia, The Roots, Wu-Tang, etc., but this book really details the cats who started this whole awesome mess. I'm talking Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa (+Zulu Nation), Kurtis Blow - and with a tip of the hat to those who paved the way for these artists, such as James Brown and Cab Calloway, to name a few.This is a must for anyone who calls themselves a hip hop fan, and a great introduction to those who are just learning about the incredibly rich history music scene deeply rooted in the black culture of the east coast. There is also a list of the tracks and records talked about in the back of the book. (I have some serious homework now - tons of tracks I haven't even heard of!) less

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