NEED HELP: influence of Hip-Hop on literature

[CRAFTY]

As I've told before, I'm doing my thesis about "The Evolution of Hip-Hop Culture" and my teacher asked me if I knew if Hip-Hop influenced literature. If yes, he told me he'd appreciate it if I could write something about that.

Does anyone know? I know that there are some "Hip-Hop slang dictionaries" but I haven't got the slightest idea if Hip-Hop influenced certain forms of literature.

Any help would be appreciated!

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I would say it has done only really in the music, film, entertainment press in general, mainly through use of slang which first became popular through its use in hiphop.

[Eihtball]

I dunno...it ain't like we've seen rappers expanding into literature the way they've expanded into straight-to-DVD gangsta movies, shoes and clothing lines, etc.  The only thing that might count is that some rappers have put out autobiographies at this point glorifying their rags-to-riches stories.  On the other hand, 50 has said he plans to introduce a series of crime novels based on his life, so maybe other rappers will do the same.

BTW, this is off-topic, but I'm glad to see someone else is bumping Flipsyde's record.

[CRAFTY]

^^^^Yup, Flipsyde's record is my favorite one from the past few years...I bump it a lot.

Thanks for the tips guys!

[Eihtball]

^^^^ Yeah, same, I got this record last month and I been playing the hell out of it.

[QuietTruth]

Ebonics?

Could you say hip hop influenced that?

[Diabolical]

How about the books of Tupac's poetry?

Maybe some other rappers have written poetry too.

Theres got to have been some people who've written stories about aspiring rappers or something similar.

[KURUPTION-81]

How about fictional books that have been written about hip hop.

I read a "hip hop story" by Heru Ptah

The back of it says " The first novel to truly capture the fast and furious world of hip hop."

[CRAFTY]

How about fictional books that have been written about hip hop.

I read a "hip hop story" by Heru Ptah

The back of it says " The first novel to truly capture the fast and furious world of hip hop."

Yup, that's the kind of thing I'm looking for. Thanks...I'll look into it!
@ Cop Killa: yeah, thanks for the tip. Tupac's poetry is also being taught in various colleges across the U.S., I think Michael Eric Dyson teaches it too...

Thanks!

Any other tips?

[Jip]

songs are poems, they are just sang over music

rappers are poets, some people seem to forget the basics :/

[CRAFTY]

rappers are poets

No shit Sherlock. But not every rapper's poetry is being taught at universities...and that's what I (partly) want to show in my thesis: that Hip-Hop started as an underground phemonenon but that it eventually became something very big.

And all rappers are poets? My ass...I refuse to call Young Jeezy, Slim Thug, Daz Dillinger, Paul Wall & them 'poets'. Any kid can make words rhyme.
Poetry is an art, and those cats just aren't artistic. They may move units, but that's it.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

On the poetry side, Russell Simmons did that Def Poetry Jam series with Mos Def as presenter, had a lot of hiphop cats on there alongside the other poets.

[S.La*]

Didn't RZA/Wu-Tang also release a book?

And I don't know if you'd consider the Gorillaz as hip-hop, but they have a whole story behind them... as fictional characters.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

The fact that people have released books like the RZA one, or tie in like the 50 Cent isn't really an influence on literature as a whole, its just rappers doing books about their life in the same way other musicians, sportsman, etc do. I think what you would want to focus on would be the use of hiphop slang (ebonics) in modern day writing, and this is the only real way in which it has influenced literature as a whole.

[Diabolical]

They don't have to use ebonics though, theres plenty of other things about hip hop culture that would be more beneficial/interesting top write about