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Despite being an object of derision within academia for many years, the study of hip-hop culture and rap music has now largely gained respectability in the academy, and is considerably less marginalized than it was only a decade ago. Scholars working in a number of disciplines are increasingly recognizing hip-hop culture and rap music as subjects worthy of attention. Consequently, a great deal of scholarly study and writing on hip-hop and rap is being carried out, drawing from fields including African American studies, history, linguistics, literature, musicology, sociology, and women's studies. Hip-hop and rap topics are now commonly presented at academic conferences, and are explored in dozens of books published by university presses, and numerous undergraduate courses and graduate seminars devoted to hip-hop and rap are taught in universities throughout the United States. This acceptance has also resulted in the collection of archival hip-hop and rap materials at research institutions such as Harvard University, Indiana University, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution. As the subjects of hip-hop culture and rap music continue to gain further acceptance among scholars, become areas of study in more university courses, and continue to be the subjects of published literature, many music librarians should anticipate that they will require knowledge of hip-hop and rap resources, and need expertise in collecting these materials for their libraries.
This bibliographical essay provides descriptions of a wide array of resources relating to hip-hop culture and rap music, and its final section is devoted to the collecting of hip-hop and rap materials by libraries. While the essay is primarily intended to serve as a guide for music librarians who provide reference service and library instruction, and to those with collection development responsibilities, it may also prove useful to educators, students, and those beginning to conduct research on hip-hop or rap. The essay is not intended as a comprehensive bibliography on hiphop culture and rap music, but rather, it provides information about materials that may be used as reference sources and as starting points for research in these subject areas. Since music is the primary focus of this essay, many worthwhile resources devoted specifically to non-music elements of hip-hop, such as break dancing and graffiti, are not covered here. Unless...