Books
Books
GO AHEAD IN THE RAIN: NOTES TO A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
How does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theoryand Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves...
$16.95
INSIDE A THUG'S HEART
Even after his death, Tupac Shakur maintains star status as his books and music are hotter than ever. Finally, fans can read this collection of letters which offers insight into the psyche of the rap icon.- Tupac Shakur continues to...
$14.00
JAY-Z: MADE IN AMERICA
The author wrestles with the biggest themes of Jay-Z's career, including hustling, and recognizes the way that he's always woven politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth, and social injustice.
$25.99
AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE: BLACK MUSIC AND THE FREE JAZZ REVOLUTION
In this classic account of the new black music of the 1960s and 70s, celebrated photographer and jazz historian Val Wilmer tells the story of how a generation of revolutionary musicians established black music as the true vanguard of American...
$18.95
RAP ON TRIAL: RACE, LYRICS, AND GUILT IN AMERICA
Should Johnny Cash have been charged with murder after he sang, "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die"? Few would seriously subscribe to this notion of justice. Yet in 2001, a rapper named Mac whose music...
$24.99
THE MEANING OF MARIAH CAREY
The global icon, award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, mother, daughter, sister, storyteller, and artist finally tells the unfiltered story of her life in The Meaning of Mariah Carey It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to...
$29.99
BLUES PEOPLE
"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...
$13.99
BLUES LEGACIES AND BLACK FEMINISM: GERTRUDE "MA" RAINEY, BESSIE SMITH, AND BILLIE HOLIDAY
From one of this country's most important intellectuals comes a brilliant analysis of the blues tradition that examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens. Angela Davis provides the historical, social, and political contexts...
$17.00
DECODED
Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our...
$28.00
BAAD BITCHES AND SASSY SUPERMAMAS: BLACK POWER ACTION FILMS
This lively study unpacks the intersecting racial, sexual, and gender politics underlying the representations of racialized bodies, masculinities, and femininities in early 1970s black action films, with particular focus on the representation of black femininity. Stephane Dunn explores the typical,...
$20.00
JAZZ IMAGES BY WILLIAM CLAXTON
William Claxton. He was the product of a musical household -his mother was a semi-professional singer and his father avidly collected big band records, William Claxton rapidly became an habitué of local jazz venues. 1952, while shooting Gerry Mulligan and...
$49.99
BRUCE W. TALAMON. SOUL. R&B. FUNK. PHOTOGRAPHS 1972-1982
"For ten glorious years, I had the best seat in the house." -Bruce W. Talamon Talamon saw it all during the golden age of soul, R&B, and funk. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, this young African American photographer from...
$70.00
KNOW WHAT I MEAN?: REFLECTIONS ON HIP HOP
Dubbed "the Hip-Hop Intellectual" by critics and fans for his pioneering explorations of rap music in the academy and beyond, Dyson probes the most compelling and controversial dimensions of hip-hop culture.Whether along race, class or generational lines, hip-hop music has...
$13.95
BEATS, RHYMES, AND CLASSROOM LIFE: HIP-HOP PEDAGOGY AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY
Hill shares his experience teaching a hip-hop centered English literature course in a Philadelphia high school where rap music, breakdancing, graffiti culture, and other aspects of hip-hop were incorporated into the curriculum. Annotation: Hill shares his experience teaching a hip-hop...
$21.95
LET LOVE RULE
"I see my story as a suite of songs that have a magical connection. I never understood that connection until I sat down to write. It was then that the magic started to flow."Let Love Rule is a work of deep...
$29.99
MILES
UNIVERSALLY ACCLAIMED AS A MUSICAL GENIUS, MILES DAVIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL MUSICIANS IN THE WORLD. HERE, MILES SPEAKS OUT ABOUT HIS EXTRAORDINARY LIFE. "Miles: The Autobiography, "like Miles himself, holds nothing back. He speaks frankly...
$18.00
THELONIOUS MONK: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL
The first full biography of American jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, written by a brilliant historian who enjoyed full access to the family's archives and provides the author with dozens of interviews."The piano ain't got no wrong notes!" So...
$20.00
A MAN FROM ANOTHER LAND: HOW FINDING MY ROOTS CHANGED MY LIFE
Publisher Comments: In this inspirational memoir, Grey's Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington explains how filling in the gaps of his past led him to discover a new passion: helping those less fortunate. DNA testing revealed that Washington was descended from the...
$24.99
DIARY OF A MADMAN: THE GETO BOYS, LIFE, DEATH, AND THE ROOTS OF SOUTHERN RAP
From Geto Boys legend and renowned storyteller Scarface comes a passionate memoir about how hip-hop changed the life of a kid from the south side of Houston, and how he rose to the top and ushered in a new generation...
$25.99
PRINCE: INSIDE THE MUSIC AND THE MASKS
"A fascinating, authoritative biography of one of the most commercial, controversial, and influential musicians of all time" "In his three decades-long of recording, Prince has had nearly thirty albums hit the Billboard Top 100. He is the only artist since...
$34.99
3 KINGS: DIDDY, DR. DRE, JAY-Z, AND HIP-HOP'S MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR RISE
Being successful musicians was simply never enough for the three kings of hip-hop. Diddy, Dr. Dre, and Jay-Z lifted themselves from childhood adversity into tycoon territory, amassing levels of fame and wealth that not only outshone all other contemporary hip-hop...
$28.00
SOMEBODY SCREAM!: RAP MUSIC'S RISE TO PROMINENCE IN THE AFTERSHOCK OF BLACK POWER
"A strong and timely book for the new day in hip-hop. Don't miss it!"--Cornel West For many African Americans of a certain demographic the sixties and seventies were the golden age of political movements. The Civil Rights movement segued into...
$16.00
TRUE TO YOU: A JOURNEY TO FINDING AND LOVING YOURSELF
About the Authors Janet Jackson is a five-time Grammy Award-winning international superstar. One of the bestselling pop artist in history, she is known ofer her innovative music, choreography, and social conscious lyrics. The youngest member of the famous Jackson family,...
$25.99
KANSAS CITY LIGHTNING: THE RISE AND TIMES OF CHARLIE PARKER
Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker is the first installment in the long-awaited portrait of one of the most talented and influential musicians of the twentieth century, from Stanley Crouch, one of the foremost authorities on...
$27.99
THE BEAT: GO-GO MUSIC FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.
A history of the distinctive, U.S. Capital sound that fuses hip-hop, funk, and soul
$25.00
BEYONCE KNOWLES: A BIOGRAPHY
Although Beyonce Knowles is not yet 30, the sensual superstar has already succeeded on many levels: as a dancer, singer, composer, model, music producer, video director and actress. This biography tells the story of a young, talented woman's meteoric rise...
$35.00
KANYE WEST: A BIOGRAPHY
Kanye West is an articulate, astoundingly insightful, pop culture prophet who can go from charging a president with racism one minute to criticizing blacks for not capitalizing on opportunities they have had in the next. Yet, West puts his considerable...
$42.00
MICHAEL JACKSON: THE ONE AND ONLY: A TRIBUTE TO AN AMERICAN ICON
From his youth as a prodigious talent in a gifted musical family driven by a visionary father, it was apparent that Michael Jackson was destined for fame and stardom. But his emergence from the Jackson Five in the 1970s and...
$14.95
IN THE STUDIO WITH MICHAEL JACKSON
No one was closer to Michael Jackson at the height of his creative powers than Bruce Swedien, the five-time Grammy winner who, with Jackson and producer Quincy Jones, formed the trio responsible for the sound of Jackson's records - records...
$24.99
LOVE BROUGHT ME BACK
Publisher Comments: IN THIS LUMINOUS MEMOIR, LEGENDARY SINGER AND ACTRESS NATALIE COLE TELLS A REMARKABLE STORY OF LIFE-THREATENING ILLNESS AND RECOVERY, AND THE STORY OF A DEATH THAT BROUGHT NEW LIFE. In 2009 Natalie Cole was on dialysis, her kidneys...
$23.00