Music & Movies

"To the Break of Dawn dissects the evolution of hip hop lyricism from its most primitive beginnings to its current manifestation as a global phenomenon. Author Jelani Cobb examines issues of race, geography, genre and bravado in this overview of hip...

Between 1871 and 1878, the Jubilee Singers presented concerts featuring the Negro spiritual that won the applause and admiration of the Western world. The rise and renown of the original Fisk Jubilee Singer form one of the most celebrated stories of...

Although Beyonce Knowles is not yet 30, the sensual superstar has already succeeded on many levels: as a dancer, singer, composer, model, music producer, video director and actress. This biography tells the story of a young, talented woman's meteoric...

Kanye West is an articulate, astoundingly insightful, pop culture prophet who can go from charging a president with racism one minute to criticizing blacks for not capitalizing on opportunities they have had in the next. Yet, West puts his considerable...

From his youth as a prodigious talent in a gifted musical family driven by a visionary father, it was apparent that Michael Jackson was destined for fame and stardom. But his emergence from the Jackson Five in the 1970s and his explosion as a solo act in...

No one was closer to Michael Jackson at the height of his creative powers than Bruce Swedien, the five-time Grammy winner who, with Jackson and producer Quincy Jones, formed the trio responsible for the sound of Jackson's records - records that topped...

Arguably one of the most mainstream music styles today, rap was in fact born centuries ago in West Africa with historians or 'griots' who used to tell stories of the past over the beat of a drum. But it wasn't until the 1970s in New York that rapping as...