Book

The Come Up by Jonathan Abrams

This is a special year for any hip-hop fan because 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of the genre. Jonathan Abrams charts how a grassroots culture became an international phenomenon. He conducted more than 300 interviews with key players from hip-hop’s five-decade reign for this oral history. The huge contribution of women is often erased. In Abrams’s book, it is inspiring to read about early trailblazers such as label owner and producer Sylvia Robinson, who took a risk on work that others dismissed.