The Last Listening Party The Notorious B I G

"This is a fantastic book to show multiple sides of the Great Late Biggie Smalls. I never saw pics like these before. Especially for a person that loves HipHop and is a collector of classic pics like myself. I will definitely add this book to my collection. The pics are professionally mastered and give a different side of Christopher Wallace. I like the commentary that accompanies the pictures as well. There are a lot of people in the pics I didn't know before this book. Thanks for keeping his memory alive. Long Live B I G."-bookertkitab

"This is a fantastic book to show multiple sides of the Great Late Biggie Smalls. I never saw pics like these before. This especially for a person that loves HipHop and is a collector of classic pics like me. I will definitely add this to my collection. The pics are professionally mastered and give a different side of Christopher Wallace. I like the commentary that accompanies the pictures as well. There are a lot of people in the pics I didn't know before this book. Now I can add this one to my collection. Thanks for keeping his memory alive. Long Live B.I.G." -bookertkitab

Written with humorous abandon by popular satirist, former stand-up comic, and media commentator Sabrina Lamb, A Kettle of Vultures is a fictional romp which exposes the acerbic thoughts of image consultant Iris Chapman, her dysfunctional family, socially maladjusted clients, magical friends, and her adventurous journey toward self-acceptance. Unbeknownst to Iris Chapman, the Atlanta-based image consultant, a kettle of low-flying vultures convenes overhead as she boards the flight home to Opa Locka on the day of her brother’s controversial wedding. Following their customary bear hugs, Iris’ eccentric family launches into the inquisition, the visual and vocal assessment of Iris’ physical appearance. Iris is already attacked daily by her own inquisition, questioning her very existence. Self-acceptance is a long journey and it’s unclear whether or not she’ll get there as she attempts to seduce an uninterested man, moves cities, loses clients, and meets a man she’s not sure she can trust. Will Iris survive the onslaught by the vulturous characters in her life? Will her octogenarian grandmother, her superstitious mother who denunciates anything nappy, her hermit-like father, and irritating clients, push Iris over the edge of her own sanity? Will she learn to accept herself?

"This is a fantastic book to show multiple sides of the Great Late Biggie Smalls. I never saw pics like these before. This especially for a person that loves HipHop and is a collector of classic pics like me. I will definitely add this book to my collection. The pics are professionally mastered and give a different side of Christopher Wallace. I like the commentary that accompanies the pictures as well. There are a lot of people in the pics I didn't know before this book. Now I can add this one to my collection . Thanks for keeping his memory alive. Long Live B.I.G." -bookertkitab

Over ten years since his death, Biggie Smalls, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time, a credit continually given by numerous hip-hop artists. Raised in Brooklyn during the crack-cocaine boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Smalls (born Christopher Wallace) worked as a drug dealer before ultimately deciding to become a rapper. With Sean Puffy Combs and Bad Boy Entertainment, Biggie rocketed to fame as one of hip hop's most popular artists. But with the success came controversy: the friendship-turned-feud between Biggie and Tupac fueled the rivalry between East Coast and West Coast hip hop, a gangsta-rap battle that many believe led to the murder of both rappers. While still unsolved, the murder of Biggie in 1997 sparked numerous investigations, litigation, and the dismantling of a Los Angeles Police Department task force in what is considered the largest scandal in LAPD history. Ten years later, Biggie is celebrated as the King of East Coast hip hop. In this biography author Holly Lang recounts the life, music, and legacy of Biggie and investigates the events surrounding his murder.

“There has never been a better book about hip-hop…a record-biz portrait that jumps off the page.”—A.V. Club THE INSPIRATION FOR THE VH1 SERIES THE BREAKS The Big Payback takes readers from the first $15 made by a “rapping DJ” in 1970s New York to the multi-million-dollar sales of the Phat Farm and Roc-a-Wear clothing companies in 2004 and 2007. On this four-decade-long journey from the studios where the first rap records were made to the boardrooms where the big deals were inked, The Big Payback tallies the list of who lost and who won. Read the secret histories of the early long-shot successes of Sugar Hill Records and Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC's crossover breakthrough on MTV, the marketing of gangsta rap, and the rise of artist/ entrepreneurs like Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs. 300 industry giants like Def Jam founders Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons gave their stories to renowned hip-hop journalist Dan Charnas, who provides a compelling, never-before-seen, myth-debunking view into the victories, defeats, corporate clashes, and street battles along the 40-year road to hip-hop's dominance. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

Over the past four decades, rap and hip hop culture have taken a central place in popular music both in the United States and around the world. Listening to Rap: An Introduction enables students to understand the historical context, cultural impact, and unique musical characteristics of this essential genre. Each chapter explores a key topic in the study of rap music from the 1970s to today, covering themes such as race, gender, commercialization, politics, and authenticity. Synthesizing the approaches of scholars from a variety of disciplines—including music, cultural studies, African-American studies, gender studies, literary criticism, and philosophy—Listening to Rap tracks the evolution of rap and hip hop while illustrating its vast cultural significance. The text features more than 60 detailed listening guides that analyze the musical elements of songs by a wide array of artists, from Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash to Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and more. A companion website showcases playlists of the music discussed in each chapter. Rooted in the understanding that cultural context, music, and lyrics combine to shape rap’s meaning, the text assumes no prior knowledge. For students of all backgrounds, Listening to Rap offers a clear and accessible introduction to this vital and influential music.

An “impassioned tribute” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) to the most influential music culture today, Atlanta rap—a masterful, street-level story of art, money, race, class, and salvation from acclaimed New York Times reporter Joe Coscarelli. From mansions to trap houses, office buildings to strip clubs, Atlanta is defined by its rap music. But this flashy and fast-paced world is rarely seen below surface level as a collection not of superheroes and villains, cartoons and caricatures, but of flawed and inspired individuals all trying to get a piece of what everyone else seems to have. In artistic, commercial, and human terms, Atlanta rap represents the most consequential musical ecosystem of this century. Rap Capital tells the dramatic stories of the people who make it tick and the city that made them that way. The lives of the artists driving the culture, from megastars like Lil Baby and Migos to lesser-known local strivers like Lil Reek and Marlo, represent the modern American dream but also an American nightmare, as young Black men and women wrestle generational curses, crippled school systems, incarceration, and racism on the way to an improbably destination atop art and commerce. Across Atlanta, rap dreams power countless overlapping economies, but they’re also a gamble, one that could make a poor man rich or a poor man poorer, land someone in jail or keep them out of it. Drawing on years of reporting, more than a hundred interviews, dozens of hours in recording studios and on immersive ride-alongs, acclaimed New York Times reporter Joe Coscarelli weaves a cinematic tapestry of this singular American culture as it took over in the last decade, from the big names to the lesser-seen prospects, managers, grunt-workers, mothers, DJs, lawyers, and dealers that are equally important to the industry. The result is a deeply human, era-defining book that is “required reading for anyone who has ever wondered how, exactly, Atlanta hip-hop took over the world” (Kelefa Sanneh, author of Major Labels). Entertaining and profound, Rap Capital is an epic of art, money, race, class, and sometimes, salvation.