This year, the Library is exploring and celebrating Black History Month through the lens of hip-hop, a musical and cultural movement that is deeply embedded in Canada, and has spanned over 40 years.
Beyond the Brutalist walls of Morisset Library, did you know we carry a whole host of hip-hop-themed books? And that through Omni, you could search for and access a host of e-resources from documentaries to poetry and yes, even a comic book on hip-hop culture, identity, and community.
In celebration of Black History Month, and the 50th anniversary of hip hop (2023), we’ve curated a special list of titles for you to explore. Come check out our selection of items on display on the first floor of the Morisset Library, which will be available for the whole month of February.
Books
- The rhizome of Blackness: a critical ethnography of Hip-Hop culture, language, identity and the politics of becoming
- Dated emcees
- Global linguistic flows: hip hop cultures, youth identities, and the politics of language
- The organic globalizer: hip hop, political development, and movement culture
- Philosophie du hip-hop : des origines à Lauryn Hill (French)
- Making hip-hop theatre: beatbox and elements (French)
- What's good: notes on rap and language
- 83 'Til Infinity: There Will be A Future
- Demain c’est loin : l’avenir nous attend (French)
- Can’t stop, won’t stop: une histoire de la génération hip hop (French)
- La culture hip-hop (French)
eBooks
- We still here : hip hop north of the 49th parallel
- Bedroom Rapper : Cadence Weapon on Hip-Hop, Resistance and Surviving the Music Industry
- Rap, identité et université : construction identitaire des rappeurs à l'université en Haïti (French)
- Hip Hop Heresies: Queer Aesthetics in New York
- Freedom Moves : Hip Hop Knowledges, Pedagogies
- Dark Matter in Breaking Cyphers: The Life of Africanist Aesthetics in Global Hip Hop
- Global Hiphopography
Films/documentaries
- Brown Sugar
- Dope
- History & Concept of Hip hop Dance
- Scratch
- Poetic Justice
- Do the Right thing
- Rafiki
Podcasts
- Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud - Hip-hop at 50 : rap music’s history in Quebec [Spotify]
- Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud – Is Drake still hip-hop, Ava Duvernay’s Origin, and what’s J Lo doing making a movie? [Spotify]
- Women in the music industry – “Ebonnie Rowe” [Spotify]
CHUO 89.1 FM shows to follow
- Loudher
- Les Intrepides (French)
- Freestyle
- Le Bloc (French)
Spotify playlist
And to top it all off, what would a list of resources be without a playlist of some of our favorite Canadian hip-hop songs? Hip hop, hooray!