Review by Booklist Review
Questlove (Music Is History, 2019) is a multifaceted artist, filmmaker, author, producer, entrepreneur, cofounder of the Roots (one of hip-hop's most influential acts), and recipient of multiple Grammy Awards and an Academy Award. His deep understanding and passion for hip-hop culture and perspective as a historian and a participant in hip-hop's journey lend credibility and firsthand knowledge to his comprehensive exploration of hip-hop's evolution. Drawing on remarkably detailed information and a keen critical sensibility and working seamlessly with his coauthor, Greenman, Questlove traces the genre from its roots in the Bronx during the 1970s to its flourishing across the country in its many variations to its global impact in the present, highlighting landmark achievements and acknowledging the challenges artists and producers faced. Questlove closely examines the social, political, and artistic factors contributing to hip-hop's growth, many facets and styles, stars, controversies, innovations, and far-ranging influence. This is a must-read for music lovers, cultural history buffs, and hip-hop fans, a work that provides valuable insights into pivotal artistic and community movements that will continue to shape our world. Questlove's illuminating and insightful survey is as personal as it is expert.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Questlove's prominence in many creative arenas and the immense popularity of hip-hop ensure avid interest.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Roots drummer Questlove (Music Is History) lays down a kaleidoscopic chronicle of hip-hop's 50-year history of "diversity and vision... flummery and flaws," beginning with the 1973 Bronx party during which DJ Kool Herc began isolating and repeating songs' beats on turntables. From there, Questlove recounts how the Sugarhill Gang differentiated their sound from disco music by telling "comic stories over the groove, at great length and with great enthusiasm"; documents how the rise of such star producers as Dr. Dre shifted hip hop's center of gravity from the East Coast to the West in the 1990s; and claims that the popularity of drug-related songs in the 2010s marked a cultural moment of "willful numbing" by hip-hop artists disillusioned with the lost promise of a "better future led by a Black president." Throughout, Questlove interweaves sharp and lyrical analyses of hip-hop's evolution with fascinating, up-close recollections of the genre's turning points, noting, for example, that Eminem's 1999 album The Slim Shady LP released on the same day as the Roots' Things Fall Apart, and provoked questions about what it meant for a "white rapper in a mostly Black genre" to "bea sales records left and right." It's an exuberant account of a dynamic musical genre and the cultural climate in which it evolved. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Academy Award-winning filmmaker/drummer/DJ/music historian and cofounder of the Roots, Questlove (coauthor, The Rhythm of Time)--with the help of Ben Greenman (coauthor, I Am Brian Wilson)--delivers an impressionistic history of hip-hop from 1979 to the present. Linking different hip-hop eras to contemporary events and Questlove's connection to it, the book begins with hip-hop pioneers, such as the Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. The title chronicles mainstream success with Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys, who introduced hard-rock guitars into the mix. The emergence of Afro-centric hip-hop with N.W.A., A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, the Jungle Brothers, and the Bomb Squad-produced Public Enemy are noted, along with the blockbusters by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, the gangsta rap of Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, 50 Cent, and Jay-Z, and Ye's work. For the Obama presidency years, the book focuses on Drake and DJ Khaled, highlights Kendrick Lamar during the post-Obama period, and drifts until the book ends. The dominant drugs of each era are also discussed. VERDICT Well-positioned to detail the genre's evolution, this book offers hip-hop fans an engaging journey through its history, with much of its focus on the first 30 years.--Dr. Dave Szatmary
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A memorable, masterful history of the first 50 years of an indelible American art form. While historians often cast themselves as omniscient in their works, delivering facts and stories as important without acknowledging the impact of their own experiences on the narrative process, Questlove--drummer, DJ, music historian, and author of Mo' Meta Blues, Creative Quest, and Music Is History--is forthcoming about the fact that he experienced music differently as he grew older. "I wasn't sitting down for five hours listening to them over and over and over again, trying to unpack every nuance from every corner," he writes, recalling his feelings decades into his relationship with the genre. "But I was--I am--a DJ, which meant that I had a professional interest in excavating the songs that worked." The author's observations spanning the entirety of hip-hop's history are consistently illuminating--e.g., connecting its shift in five-year increments to the dominant drug of the period, from crack to sizzurp to opioids. However, it's his personal connection to certain eras that make his latest book stand out. Questlove considers the late 1980s and early '90s as the "golden age of hip-hop, when innovative MCs and innovative DJs seemed to spring up every few months, and classic albums regularly sprouted on the vine." That era--filled with masterpieces from Public Enemy, De La Soul, and N.W.A.--is universally revered, but Questlove also recognizes that it coincides with the years between high school and when he officially became an artist--a time when he was immersed in finding inspiration and understanding the construction of hip-hop. While the author's knowledge of hip-hop is as deep as any musicologist, it's his passion for certain artists and songs that sets him apart. Questlove's instincts as a superfan and artist take this history beyond the hype to something very special. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
