Description
Book 2 covers the early years of 1981-1983, when Hip Hop has made a big transition from the parks and rec rooms to downtown clubs and vinyl records. The performers make moves to separate themselves from the paying customers by dressing more and more flamboyantly until a young group called RUN-DMC comes on the scene to take things back to the streets. This volume covers hits like Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock,” Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message,” and the movie Wild Style, and introduces superstars like NWA, The Beastie Boys, Doug E Fresh, KRS One, ICE T, and early Public Enemy. Cameos by Dolemite, LL Cool J, Notorious BIG, and New Kids on the Block(?!)! Featuring an introduction by Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn.
“A young Pittsburgh bard travels back to the New York birth of rap with DJ Kool Herc and rattles off encyclopedic knowledge through dynamic, interwoven narratives of the ’70s and early ’80s. The feat is backed by era-appropriate art on pages yellowed with nostalgia. Dope, yo.” – Washington Post
“An avid lover of hip-hop music and superhero comic books from a young age, Ed Piskor has combined his two passions to create a remarkable reading experience…Hip Hop Family Tree imagines real-world events through the filter of 1980s Marvel Comics, bringing hip-hop visionaries to the page in a style that exaggerates their energy and style to capture the intensity of the music without having the beats.” – AV Club
“The amount of research and history Piskor packs into this book is mind boggling.” – Huffington Post
“Piskor is obviously a huge rap fan…He presents the facts in a nostalgic, faded-ink and rubbery realism of ’70s Marvel Comics style, turning rap’s early innovators into larger-than-life heroes of history.” – Spin “Captures the personalities, imagery and milestones with a hilarity and efficiency that no other medium could.” – Billboard Magazine
112 page full-color 9″ x 13″ flexibound softcover
Fantagraphics, 2014
