Questlove, the accomplished musician, filmmaker and author, most recently of “Hip-Hop Is History,” is no doubt aware that his title cuts more than one way. It indicates both that hip-hop is a significant musical genre and that some of its significance is located in the past. I read Questlove’s 2013 memoir, “Mo’ Meta Blues, ” as I was starting the doctoral program that I would finish by submitting a hip-hop album as my dissertation .
Part of the history he writes about in his latest book carved out space for my current career. I’ve written that “ hip-hop is dope ” as a way of saying the United States is addicted to, abusive of and deeply invested in the exploitation and sanctioning of Blackness and Black cultural products, including but not limited to hip-hop and rap. So I appreciate the way Questlove anchors each section of “Hip-Hop Is History” to specific drugs, beginning in “the bright light of disco’s cocaine years”; proceeding through “the forty-ounce era (1982-1987),” “crack (1987-1992),” “weed (1992-1997),” “ ecstasy (1997-2002),” “ sizzurp (2002-2007),” “molly (2007-2012),” “pain pills (2012-2017)” and “opioids (2017-2022)”; and ending with what he calls “the tragic fentanyl present.
” He could have accurately subtitled the book: “What I’ve watched the world get high on for the past 50 years.” It’s a trip worth taking. Questlove’s embedded narration of the infamous 1995 Source Awards , which infla.
