Music : Rap

Race and authenticity in America, explored through the Bay Area’s multiracial underground hip hop scene more...

Price: $26.95

She's the spiciest ingredient in the legendary rap group Salt-N-Pepa, and the outspoken star of VH1's smash-hit reality show. She's Sandy "Pepa" Denton -- and she's never at a loss for words. Now, in her first tell-all book, Pepa talks about sex, music, life, love, fame, and so much more.... "Most of you know me as Pep, or Pepa, the fun-loving half of Salt-N-Pepa. I am the party girl, the one who is down for whatever. But behind the laughs and the smiles is a whole lot of pain.". Funny, fearless, and full of life, Sandy "Pepa" Denton is a pop culture icon whose remarkable story is every bit as captivating and provocative as her Grammy Award-winning music. This is the real Pepa -- upfront, uncensored, unstoppable -- and these are the memoirs of a true pioneer, fighter, survivor, and inspiration to women everywhere. more...

Price: $23.95

Over ten years since his death, Biggie Smalls, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time, a credit continually given by numerous hip-hop artists. Author Holly Lang explores how the music and legacy of Biggie live on in this balanced and in-depth biography. more...

Price: $38.50

A portrait of the hip-hop group Run D.M.C. cites their contribution to American pop culture, covering such topics as their feud with L.L. Cool J, their mentoring of the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy, and the murder of Jam Master Jay. more...

Price: $11.99

A unique book of wisdom and experience that reaches from the most violent slums of New York City to the highest planes of spiritual thought by the RZA, hip-hop’s most exalted wise man. The RZA, the Abbot of the Wu-Tang Clan and hip-hop culture’s most dynamic genius, imparts the lessons he’s learned on the journey that’s taken him from the Staten Island projects to international superstar, all along the way a devout student of knowledge in every form he’s found it—on the streets, in religion, in martial arts, in chess, in popular culture. Part chronicle of an extraordinary life and part spiritual and philosophical discourse, The Tao of Wu is a nonfiction Siddhartha for the hip-hop generation —an engaging, seeking book that will enlighten, entertain, and inspire. The legions of Wu-Tang fans are accustomed to this heady mix—their obsession with the band’s puzzlelike lyrics and elaborate mythology has propelled the group through fifteen years of dazzling, multiplatform success. In his 2005 bestseller The Wu-Tang Manual , the RZA provided the barest glimpse of how that mythology worked. In The Tao of Wu , he takes us deep inside the complex sense of wisdom and spirituality that has been at the core of his commercial and creative success. The book is built around major moments in the RZA’s life when he was faced with a dramatic turning point, either bad (a potential prison sentence) or good (a record deal that could pull his family out of poverty), and the lessons he took from each experience. His points of view are always surprising and provocative, and reveal a profound, genuine, and abiding wisdom—consistently tempered with humor and peppered with unique, colloquial phraseology. It is a spiritual memoir as the world has never seen before, and will never see again. more...

Price: $24.95