The Rough Guide to Hip-Hop 2

by Peter Shapiro

Book Overview

Completely updated and radically expanded, the new Rough guide to Hip-Hop is the definitive guide to every aspect of the music, tracing its story from its origins in the 1970s as New York's urban folk... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1843532638
• ISBN13: 9781843532637
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.7" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Good Overview - Needs Index

This guide to hip hop by Peter Shapiro is an excellent source for those new to hip hop or looking to expand their hip hop horizons. Shapiro's writing style is concise, approachable, steeped in aspects of hip hop history and occasionally opinionated. Some of his reviews should be taken with a grain of salt, as he explicitly states he's continuing the hip hop tradition of sparking debates and causing beefs (did he just forget to include Puff Daddy? probably not, sorry P. Diddy). One thing pointed out in some other reviews that really needs some attention - the lack of an index combined with often confusing placement of artists. Take Quasimoto... would that be placed under Quasimoto? Madlib? Stones Throw Records? Actually, none of the above... it's under L for Lootpack/Madlib. Some of this treasure hunting leads to fun exploration, often it's just plain annoying. So four stars for the lack of index, but overall still a recommended guide.

Very useful guide

Since I've started using my iTunes and iPod, I've been building up my rap/hip-pod collection. So this is a very useful book that provides information about artists and other topics in alphabetical order for easy referencing. When I get a new rap CD, I like to know some background about the artist(s) I'm listening to, and this book is very useful in that regards. Also like how well illustrated that book is with CD art covers and portrait shots of artists.

Almost perfect

A great guide. Includes everything (everything I've looked for so far at least). The histories are well-written and pretty comprehensive. There's underground hip-hop too. Also, VERY up to date (I'm writing this in August of 2005). The only thing missing is an index, which would have been very helpful, especially for those of us who are still in the process of discovering hip-hop. If you want to look up an artist, you often have to know what group they started with because that's where the info will be.

a damn good attempt to cover all sides of Hip Hop

This book is a good "Who's Who" of rap artist and tries to be fair in their description of them. though the book has old school/back packer lean it nonetheless tries not to put down to many non-lyrical rappers and instead gives them praise for what they deserve (style, originality,etc). It also gives back ground information about artist that doesnt rely on media hype (meaning if the artist was raised middle class they will tell you instead of just going with the flow and making the claim that all artist are from the hood). It also gives pretty good reviews of the major record labels in Hip Hop and why they either failed or succeded. Along with this they give little blurb articles of such topics as "Hip Hop Style" or "French Hip Hop" as a way of trying to fill in all the gaps that simple biographies can not fill when it comes to Hip Hop culture. when it is all put together this book can help someone who wants to add onto their knowledge of Hip Hop, if they have a real want to go deeper than what Hip Hop has been in the last few years. But if you dont know the difference between Eric B & Rakim and Onyx and how their music sounds then look somewhere else cause this book will only confuse you unless you know why they describe certain artist the way they do. Also on a side note the copy I have is as recent as ODB's death (R.I.P)

Good but flawed overview

Small but thick guide to the major figures in rap/hip-hop with an overview of the recordings and/or contributions of each. Entries average 2 or 3 pages with b/w pictures accompanying most, and are up-to-date through the end of 2000. Each entry for a recording artist concludes with a recommended album. The book lacks an index, though, and there are some obvious omissions (Puff Daddy for one), but this is still recommended as an interesting, if not terribly provocative, overview.