Ode to Hip-Hop

Kiana Fitzgerald's debut book, Ode to Hip-Hop: 50 Albums That Define 50 Years of Trailblazing Music, is out now via Running Press. You can order it here or by clicking the images.

Rolling Stone Interview — Building a Hip-Hop Canon: Author Kiana Fitzgerald on Her New Book

Description: Celebrate the music that has shaped the culture and given us some of the greatest hits of all time with this vibrantly illustrated anthology (courtesy of artist Yay Abe), featuring 50 of the most lauded, controversial, and iconic hip-hop albums!

From underground roots to mainstream popularity, hip-hop's influence on music and entertainment around the world has been nothing short of extraordinary. Ode to Hip-Hop chronicles the journey with profiles of fifty albums that have defined, expanded, and ultimately transformed the genre into what it is today. From 2 Live Crew's groundbreaking As Nasty As They Wanna Be in 1989 to Cardi B's similarly provocative Invasion of Privacy almost thirty years later, and more, Ode to Hip-Hop covers hip-hop from coast to coast. Organized by decade and with sidebars on fashion, mixtapes, and key players throughout, the result is a comprehensive homage to hip-hop, published just in time for the fiftieth anniversary. Enjoyed in the club, at a party, through speakers or headphones–the albums in this book deserve to be listened to again and again, for the next fifty years and beyond.