(Part 2) Best books about rap music according to redditors

In Prodigy's book (My Infamous Life) he talks about an entire hip hop focused police/fbi unit, other people have talked about it too and apparently they have files on every big name rapper they can

Edit - another user pointed out a book written by one of these cops about it titled: Notorious C.O.P.

this wasn't just "a guy", it was Jensen Karp, the author of Kanye West Owes Me $300

You should read Jay-Z's book, Decoded. Also check out this book.

There's a pretty good book written by one of these cops. Notorious C.O.P.

check out 'the tao of wu' it has tons of RZA wisdom.

/rant

Also, all of you are aware that requesting a celebrity on AMA is completely pointless right? Obviously we would love to talk to our favorite celebrities and pick their brains, but in the vast majority of cases that's not going to happen. Yet with astonishing regularity these celebrity AMA requests rise like balloons filled with false hope and collective delusion to the top of AMA. This I do not understand. I'm almost positive that RZA and Ghost have WAY cooler shit to do than answer your questions on Reddit.

/rant

Check out this book, No Sleep.

Well, I just looked up the audiobook credits and holy shit:

Audiobook cast Includes:

Steve Buscemi

Ada Calhoun

Bobby Cannavale

Exene Cervenka

Roy Choi

Jarvis Cocker

Elvis Costello

Chuck D

Nadia Dajani

Michael Diamond

Snoop Dogg

Will Ferrell

Crosby Fitzgerald

Randy Gardner

Kim Gordon

Josh Hamilton

Adam Horovitz

LL Cool J

Spike Jonze

Pat Kiernan

Talib Kweli

Dave Macklovitch

Rachel Maddow

Tim Meadows

Bette Midler

Mix Master Mike

Nas

Yoshimi O

Rosie Perez

Amy Poehler

Kelly Reichardt

John C. Reilly

Ian Rogers

Maya Rudolph

Rev Run

Luc Sante

Kate Schellenbach

MC Serch

Chloe Sevigny

Jon Stewart

Ben Stiller

Wanda Sykes

Jeff Tweedy

Philippe Zdar


Fucking fuck, I'm glad we got the audiobook version.

https://www.amazon.com/Beastie-Boys-Book/dp/B07D4NQNT8

Ninja, I suggest you read this book, Juggalo by Steve Miller. It shows how this ruling by the FBI is so much larger than most people think it is. He traces the FBI's gan designation back all the way to the 70 when the FBI was trying to declare greaser's and other unsavory types as gangs in order to crack down on them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BZ7XJ9K/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

This one buddy
https://www.amazon.com/Not-Afraid-Evolution-Anthony-Bozza/dp/0306922975

Comes out in the 5th of November.

https://www.amazon.com/Not-Afraid-Evolution-Anthony-Bozza/dp/0306922975

This one?

Anyone read RZA's books? Some interesting shit in there if you want to know more about them and how it all started etc.

The Wu Tang Manual
http://www.amazon.com/Wu-Tang-Manual-RZA/dp/1594480184

The Tao of Wu
http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Wu-RZA/dp/1594488851

To help with my rhyming, I purchased a few Rhyming Dictionaries. This helps overcome writer's block when writing or finishing up lyrics. It opens up a whole world of words that can be used. On Amazon, I have bought these two: The New Comprehensive American Rhyming Dictionary & Hip-Hop Rhyming Dictionary. The best thing, is that the more you use it, the more lyrical rhymes you think of.

I thought you were trolling at first. But I've actually seen this book in stores and never took it seriously. I always thought it was going to be on the same level as another Hip Hop Rhyming Dictionary. But after reading the reviews on Amazon, I may just have to take a look.

Two of my favorites of similar themes -

So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star by Jacob Slichter (Semisonic's dummer)

Kanye West Owes Me $300 by Jensen Karp

Not quite totally in the pop genre but two memoirs I really enjoyed as someone who plays music. The Semisonic one is about a one hit wonder (on the pop charts at least) and Kanye West Owes Me $300 is about a never was but they were really good memoirs on the music business from a personal perspective. And they both show the ups and the downs but it's not all dark at all, I thought both books were pretty hilarious (especially Karp's) and they were both quick reads. So they're both not totally pop but if you're interested in what it's like to be a professional musician I would definitely recommend.

A copy of No Sleep: NYC Nightlife Flyers 1988-1999

It's a good read but kinda short. It's a very small book as well and not too much content.


Another good gift would be The Yeezus Book. In depth analysis on the album, the production/lyrics, the tour, pretty much everything! It looks really cool too!

https://www.amazon.com/Yeezus-Book-Martin-Connor/dp/1732124019

Product Description from Amazon:

AN EXPLODED VIEW OF ONE OF THE MOST HOTLY-DEBATED RAP RECORDS OF ALL TIME
From designer lamps and masks, to cult filmmakers, to avant garde DJs and rap pioneers, to . . . Adam Sandler?
Chris Lambert and Travis Bean (Watching The Throne podcast), Donald Martin (YouTube's The Most Unruly), and Martin Connor (Editor-in-Chief of RapAnalysis.com) take us on an in-depth look through the influences, story, and musical architecture of the album, as well as its unorthodox production across multiple cities, and an ambitious, sprawling tour concept . . . This is The Yeezus Book, an illustrated narrative guide to Kanye West's enigmatic sixth solo effort that's like nothing that came before it.
Designed by Matthew Revert and Michael Kazepis, and featuring art by Fabian Louis.

If you have the budget, I would get both lol

Get him this. I'd kiss my friend if they got me this...

How come this book is so expensive? Even on Kindle it's $76.

http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Impact-Kanye-West/dp/1137395818/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404856539&sr=1-1&keywords=the+cultural+impact+of+kanye+west

How to Rap volumes 1 and 2 (especially 2) are the best books I've found on how to rap.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EBNXMSE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

The guy that ghostwrote it is called Jensen Karp. He's an LA comedian/scriptwriter/gallery/podcaster and was also responsible for the "Leo Got Fucked By a Bear" song that The Rock and Kevin Hart performed at MTV.

In the late 90's he was signed to Interscope under the moniker Hot Karl. One of the reasons they noticed him was his prowess as a battle rapper on an LA radio show. Worked with Will.I.Am, Fabalous and Kanye West. He got dropped because Interscope found a better white rapper to push.

He has a great podcast called Get Up On This that features new rappers a lot, which has a [comedy beef season] (https://soundcloud.com/matthew-robinson-6/sets/beef-season-2) on right now. That podcast got me up on a battle between Canibus and some dude I hadn't heard of about three years ago...

This book is really good for the early days of dance music:

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Night-DJ-Saved-Life/dp/0802146104

In terms of hip hop, this is a good one: https://www.amazon.com/Groove-Music-Art-Culture-Hip-Hop/dp/0195331125

Lots of movies to check out - Scratch is one of my favourites for a primer on hip hop djing and its roots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp-5BBxeMWw

This is an excellent documentary about house music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogspER2e7h0

That should get you started.

Preorder: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944713247

Murder Dog released a book of their covers recently, prices vary from $10-$45 depending on format:

• Hardcover/Kindle
  
• Paperback
  
• eBook/iTunes
  
  YouTube Ad

Here you go fam

>Because your reddit wafflings are important enough to attract the interest of corporations who've paid someone to argue with you on the internet. Ri-ight.

Can you really be this stupids? It's profits, you moron. You think the industry has no stakes in deterring privacy through these forums?

>
>Morality is not a subjective, personal, exercise.

Every religion agrees with you - and yet they can't get to agree with each other.

>I'm a lawyer,

Ah hah. Now all the pieces fall into place. Only a lawyer would conflate morality with legality. Edit: Not only that, you're an IP lawyer. You're the enemy here. No wonder our viewpoints are so different. Your ENTIRE CAREER depends on you believing all that intellectual property bullshit. Here, have a red pill.

>The Tiger Woods and JK Rowlings things were not appeals to emotion at all.

Then why mention them by name? Forget about this, obviously you're well prepared in rhetoric to impress some incultured idiots in court.

I have nothing else to say to you.

This is all you need

https://www.amazon.com/Yeezus-Book-Martin-Connor/dp/1732124019

Seriously

I used this book for a paper in English I. It has some history on how Piracy started.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pirates-Dilemma-Reinventing-Capitalism/dp/141653220X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1408307850&sr=8-1-spell

What about that one about rap? And then you'll have The Pale King to read in a couple of months.

TL;DR - Wallace had really wide tastes, enjoying lowbrow fiction, highbrow fiction, technical philosophy, critical theory, poetry, Cosmopolitan, and rap music. So I don't think the list was a joke. It might not necessarily have been the 10 books he would save from a fire, but plausibly '10 books anyone, no matter their background, can and should read'.

I don't have my copy of 'Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself' to hand, but there are passages in there where he talks about it. I'll try to remember to edit them in when I get home.

I'll be skimming 'Every Love Story...' today and adding quotes as I find them / if I remember to.

p143 - "Wallace also began to write book review for newspapers and magazines. Though he took them for money, these two helped him organise his thinking. Since his teenage years he'd had a taste for thrillers - they answered the need in his brain for instantly recognisable structures and cartoonish characters."

Here are some links to get you started.

Here's a page from the Harry Ramson archive.

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2010/dfw/teaching/

Here's a 2005 syllabus that includes Silence of the Lambs

http://alasophia.blogspot.com/2008/09/david-foster-wallaces-syllabus.html

Bonus Round: He also read self-help fiction in depth, as well as everything else.

http://www.theawl.com/2011/04/inside-david-foster-wallaces-private-self-help-library

And of course, rap.

http://www.amazon.com/Signifying-Rappers-Race-Urban-Present/dp/0880015357

I had to read some sections out of Hip Hop & Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason for a class. A lot of the essays try to merge merge the thinking in selected artists/songs to traditional philosophers.

Even though it's a bunch of academics writing the essays, they really take hold of the hip hop aspect in their writings so they don't read like academic papers. Great jumping-off point.

http://www.amazon.com/Hip-Hop-Philosophy-Reason-Popular-Culture/dp/0812695895
I thought this was a good read.

Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ by Mark Katz. You should be able to find it in your local library...

Strongly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Losing-My-Cool-Literature-Escape/dp/0143119621

Yeah, you got me. I'm obviously stupid.

Meanwhile, here's some of their "creative fiction" I've had the displeasure of listening to,

"When you niggas gon' unite and kill the police, motherfuckas? We killin' 'em for freedom cause they tortured us for boredom. And even if some good ones die, fuck it, the Lord'll sort 'em... We out of order, your honor, you're out of order. This whole court is unimportant, you fuckers are walkin' corpses"

Spare me your weak attempt to justify this with some misunderstanding of the concept of irony, and try some nonfiction to help you weed through this mess instead.

>https://www.amazon.com/Losing-My-Cool-Literature-Escape/dp/0143119621