Music & Movies

Dubbed "the Hip-Hop Intellectual" by critics and fans for his pioneering explorations of rap music in the academy and beyond, Dyson probes the most compelling and controversial dimensions of hip-hop culture. Whether along race, class or generational...

A history of the distinctive, U.S. Capital sound that fuses hip-hop, funk, and soul

This lively study unpacks the intersecting racial, sexual, and gender politics underlying the representations of racialized bodies, masculinities, and femininities in early 1970s black action films, with particular focus on the representation of black...

Discover the powerful story of Bob Marley, the legendary reggae musician and cultural icon, in this 22-page comic book biography from TidalWave Comics. Follow Marley's journey from his childhood in Jamaica to his rise as a global music phenomenon. With...

The remarkable life story of Ella Jenkins, "The First Lady of Children's Music." Ella Jenkins was one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. Her songs "You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song" and "Who Fed the Chickens?" are...

Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author with a "lively, engaging, and often wise" (The New York Times Book Review) voice, offers a lyrical, introspective, and unforgettable account of her past and her search for the first family of...

From Donald Bogle, the award-winning author of Hollywood Black and leading authority on Black cinema history, this is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive and lavish biography of Hollywood's first African American movie goddess. Lena Horne's life and...

Since its inception in the mid-twentieth century, American music theory has been framed and taught almost exclusively by white men. As a result, whiteness and maleness are woven into the fabric of the field, and BIPOC music theorists face enormous...

The drama of In Cold Blood meets the stylings of a Coen brothers film in this long-lost manuscript from musicologist Robert "Mack" McCormick, whose research on blues icon Robert Johnson's mysterious life and death became as much of a myth as the musician...

The stories behind the iconic celebrities, brands, and images that defined hip-hop style.   On a hot summer night in August of 1973 DJ Kool Herc and his sister, Cindy, put on a "back to school jam" in the recreation room of their apartment block...

Considered the foremost exponent of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra mastered a wide array of styles that spanned jazz, R&B, exotica, Afro-hybrids, electronic, big band, solo piano, orchestral, experimental, and chamber works. In his 45-year recording career, he...

DC Represent!There's a party over here, there's a party over there! In go-go the party never stops, and neither does the beat. The bands, the stars, the clubs, the spots, the sweat, the late nights and the passion are the sound of the city--all...