Dr. Mickey Hess

Since age eight, Dr. Mickey Hess, assistant professor of English at Rider University, has been an avid fan of hip hop music. Over the years, he has been captivated by its impact on pop culture.

In fact, he has written volumes about it. His new book, “Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture,” a two-volume edited collection published by Greenwood Press last month, explores how the music has broken new ground musically and politically. From Run DMC, the legendary group credited with bringing rap to the mainstream, to Roxanne Shante, one of the first women to stake her claim in the male dominated world of hip hop, to Kanye West’s career as a producer and rapper, the encyclopedia includes artists both inside and outside the hip hop mainstream.

Many of the contributors to the book are hip hop artists themselves such as Jeru the Damaja (who wrote the Forewood), Masta Ace (who wrote the Afterwood) and exclusive interviews with Roxanne Shante, DJ Premier, and DJ Scratch. Other contributors include scholars from universities such as Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, L’Université Michel de Montaigne (France), McMaster University, and Florida State University.

“I wanted to examine hip hop’s problems and contradictions, as well as its successes, and put this examination in context of the stories of the artists who invented and reinvented the music, and made it what it is today,” said Hess, who teaches several courses at Rider, including Creative Writing, 20th Century American Literature, First-Year Composition, and Hip Hop and American Culture. “‘Icons’ is a good introduction for readers who aren’t familiar with hip hop.

“I also probed beyond the biographies of the artists to dig into the social issues, stylistic innovations and complex contradictions surrounding their careers,” said Hess. “I have included sidebars devoted to hip hop homophobia, the father figure in hip hop, rap slang, white rappers, hip hop and the Italian Mafia, hip hop’s culture of death, hip hop and horror films, and vegetarian rappers. Asking hip hop stars to contribute was a good way to keep the book close to the culture.”

Selecting the artists to feature was a difficult decision for Hess, given that the structure of the book limited him to 24 artists total. He decided to highlight only some of the major headliners so he could give kudos to artists who have been overlooked by the mainstream.

Hess’s next book, “Is Hip Hop Dead?: The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Most Wanted Music,” will be released in September by Praeger Publishers. It will provide an in-depth look at the business side of hip hop, and the ways that it is addressed in lyrics.

Hess recently signed a contract to edit a two-volume collection titled, “Represent Where I’m From: The Greenwood Guide to American Regional Hip Hop,” which will include essays devoted to specific cities and geographic regions in the United States, and the unique styles of hip hop they created.

Hess will speak about his books this fall at the University of Louisville, his alma mater. He spoke about gender and hip hop culture as the keynote speaker this past April at Rider’s Annual Gender Studies Colloquium.

“With Princeton’s Hip Hop Symposium and a hip hop scholar offered tenure at Harvard this year, Hip Hop Studies is really starting to establish itself,” said Hess. “I’m glad to be a part of it.”

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