INTRODUCING OUR INAUGURAL NOVEL
The Graphic History of Hip Hop takes you on a journey of the music revolution that changed the world over the last half-century. From its roots in The Bronx to today’s game-changing artists, this beautiful one-of-a-kind, 90 page graphic novel intertwines hip hop’s storied history, massive global appeal, and its extensive influence on culture, politics and economics into a new and innovative scholastic experience.
As the first in a series of graphic novels, The Graphic History of Hip Hop brings together a powerful blend of music, art and history with over sixty years of research from hundreds of professional historians and other scholars from the humanities and social sciences. The curriculum is uniquely designed to engage students as they will see, hear and experience how the world of Hip Hop evolved in response to the rapidly changing political and environments from the 1970s through the 2000s. This work is an essential resource to enhance modern urban and world history curriculums and create a unique and engaging classroom settings for students.​​​
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ENHANCING CLASSROOM LEARNING
The Graphic History of Hip Hop brings advanced research across the curriculum and into scholastic classrooms. These inspirational stories convey intellectual and emotional power through the lens of Afrofuturist art. This work is an essential resource in every classroom.
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The curriculum is uniquely designed to engage students as they will see, hear and experience how the world of Hip Hop evolved in response to the rapidly changing political and environments from the 1970s through the 2000s. This work is an essential resource to enhance modern urban and world history curriculums and create a unique and engaging classroom settings for students.
THE EVOLUTION
Hip Hop isn’t just beats and rhymes… it’s a movement that fought to redefine the times.
The transition nearly tore the United States apart. With the elections of President Richard M. Nixon in 1968 and 1972, Cold War anti-communist politicians shaped a conservative agenda to deindustrialize the nation and to use the military-industrial complex to dominate world affairs. The massive failure in the Vietnam War combined with the explosive Watergate scandal to shatter the nation’s confidence in elected leadership. By the end of the decade, disco was dying and the Iran Hostage Crisis doomed the diplomatic presidency of President Jimmy Carter.
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Hip Hop was born in this crucible of militarism, greed, patriarchy, and white supremacy.
The ascendance of the conservative movement shaped social and economic policy dedicated to privatization. Nearly every form of public goods from airports to libraries to hospitals lost access to public resources. Instead, President Ronald Reagan exploded military and law enforcement budgets to destroy the civil rights and labor coalition that had shaped the Democratic Party for fifty years. American cities fell into rapid disrepair, and new markets for global investment became the heart of an American empire, dedicated to consumer debt and digital extraction disguised as human freedom.
Hip Hop moved through its adolescence in this era, determined to condemn the betrayals that condemned billions of people to lives of consumerism.
EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE CLASSROOM
FOR EDUCATORS
Beautifully written and illustrated, The Graphic History of Hip Hop is brought to you by two of the most respected voices in Afrofuturism. As part of choosing The Graphic History of Hip Hop as your next generation teaching tool, our team provides an orientation, lesson planning, and ongoing content and resources on how to continually use and evolve your curriculum.
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All of this and more is waiting for you and students to explore in The Graphic History of Hip Hop.
SEE IT IN ACTION
NYC PUBLIC SCHOOLS INTEGRATE GRAPHIC NOVELS IN THE CLASSROOM
SPECIAL PACKAGES FOR EDUCATORS & INSTITUTIONAL BULK BUYERS
We offer special educational/institutional packages for schools, school districts and individual educators. With this special offer, you can select either soft or hard cover copies for your students, along with a detailed lesson plan and corresponding music soundtrack. We offer bulk discounts for districts of all sizes. Contact our team to get pricing.
A HIP HOP FAN?
No matter your vibe, there’s something for everyone in The Graphic History of Hip Hop ! This hard-cover comic is a one-of-a-kind collector’s piece throwing you back to Hip Hop’s beginnings in the Bronx and taking you all the way to today’s most game-changing artists. From Run DMC to Missy, Eminem, Snoop and many others, you’ll see all your fave Hip Hop artists represented in beautiful color-rich graphics and how each has laid the groundwork onto which Hip Hop’s phenomenal rise was built.