
"There has never been a better book about hip-hop...a record-biz portrait that jumps off the page."--A.V. Club The perfect read for music lovers and business aficionados alike, The Big Payback reveals the secret histories of the early long-shot...

The Big Payback takes us from the first $15 made by a "rapping DJ" in 1970s New York to the recent multi-million-dollar sales of the Phat Farm and Roc-a-Wear clothing companies in 2004 and 2007. On this four-decade-long journey from the studios where the first rap records were...