The Anthology of Rap

Rap, taken seriously as poetry. The Anthology of Rap is the landmark collection of lyrics spanning the genre's first thirty years — a showcase of poetic depth and diversity from one of the most influential cultural forces of our time.

Editors Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois trace rap's journey from the schoolyards of the South Bronx to the top of the Billboard charts, presenting the genre as a vital literary tradition born of beats and rhymes. Called by the New York Times Book Review a "landmark work chronicling an earth-shattering movement with deep roots," the book makes the case — definitively — that the lineage of American poetry runs straight through hip-hop.

Where rhythm meets the canon.