Hip-Hop Is History
'Questlove radiates passion, knowledge, wit and profundity as he reflects on this ever-evolving art form' GUARDIAN
For a young Black kid growing up in a musical family in 1970s Philadelphia, hip-hop was everything. He stayed up late to hear the newest songs on the radio. He saved his money to buy vinyl as soon as it landed. He even started to make his own songs. That kid was Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson.
Now, in this landmark book, Questlove traces the creative, cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting the forgotten influential gems and the chart-topping hits - and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows. It is at once an intimate, sharply observed story and a sweeping theory of the evolution of the greatest artistic movement of our time. Questlove approaches it with both the encyclopaedic fluency of an obsessive fan and the unique expertise of an innovative participant.
Hip-hop is history, and also his history.
Questlove is a six-time Grammy Award-winning musician, Academy Award-winning filmmaker, drummer, DJ, producer, director, culinary entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, cofounder of the Roots, and the musical director for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where the Roots serves as the house band. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Mo' Meta Blues, Creative Quest, Music Is History, and his first children's book series, The Rhythm of Time, as well as the James Beard Award-nominated somethingtofoodabout, Mixtape Potluck, and the Grammy-nominated audiobook Creative Quest. Questlove made his directorial debut with the Academy Award-, Grammy Award-, and BAFTA Award-winning documentary film Summer of Soul, which broke the record for the highest-selling documentary to come out of the Sundance Film Festival. Questlove is a cofounder of Two One Five Entertainment. He is the publisher of AUWA Books, an imprint of MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Ben Greenman is a New York Times bestselling author and New Yorker contributor. He has been Questlove's collaborator on a series of books, and he has written memoirs with Sly Stone, George Clinton, and Brian Wilson.