Hip Hop At 50: What I Learned From Writing A Book About The World’s Most Powerful Genre Of Music

When I was approached in 2019 to write a book called 50 Rappers Who Changed The World, I had been a journalist for over a decade who dedicated themselves to analyzing all genres of music. I also worked as a preschool teacher and wrote in my spare time. Despite the inherent intersectionality of race and gender, I did my best to keep my unique perspective as a Black woman away from my writing because I feared that it would somehow taint the work.

Luckily, by 2019 my approach had changed and I felt comfortable letting my identity bleed into my words. I also expanded the types of articles I wrote. I penned pieces about everything from racism to police brutality to misogynoir to colorism. Perhaps most aptly, I began exploring the outspoken political and social origins of rap music.

One of the branches of my publisher, Hardie Grant, is based in the UK and reached out to me specifically about the book project because they kept a close eye on my career. To know that my work affected international audiences was an incredible feeling, which magnified the need to showcase not just rap’s cultural currency with this book but its historical value as well.

The manuscript for 50 Rappers was written in the first four months of 2020. The pandemic brought me back to my mother’s house in upstate New York during that time and that’s where most of it was written. On top of watching Trump botch how Covid was being handled, I grappled with my mother and younger brother still having to work on the frontlines while America remained consumed by fear (I was tasked with writing the manuscript while teaching online).

I put all of that anger and despondency into 5o Rappers Who Changed The World, as it gave me the space to really focus on the importance and revolutionary nature of Black art. I combed through physical and digital archives for hundreds of hours learning about awards garnered by various emcees, records that they’ve broken and their imprint of American culture as we know it.

The book isn’t steeped in opinion as much as concrete proof of the artists’ impact, which allows the discographies to speak for themselves. From Kurtis Blow to Kendrick Lamar, MC Lyte to Megan Thee Stallion, it felt good to recognize our culture on such a visible scale. And as hip hop continues to be celebrated this year, it was gratifying to have 50 Rappers be reaffirmed again and again.

The Root partnered with Audible to deliver a powerful online package commemorating rap’s birthday, with 50 Rappers Who Changed The World being one if its’ cornerstones. Leslie Jones recently said that even though she doesn’t buy books she bought mine. Nearly three years after 50 Rappers was released, it still remains in demand. All of that can be attributed to the need of having Black storytellers tell Black stories.

Yes, hip hop has gone through commercialization and capitalism—those pitfalls are almost inevitable when you amass such a large following. However, the genre—which has been around for half a century—is as powerful as it ever was. Rap is always changing, experimenting and evolving and quite frankly—there is nothing more exciting than that.