Nearly thirty years ago, Ernie Paniccioli, considered by many to be the James Van Der Zee of the hiphop generation, began photographing graffiti art throughout New York City as well as the young people creating it. Armed with a 35-millimeter camera, Paniccioli literally recorded the beginning salvos of hiphop, today the most dominant youth culture on the planet. Be it Grandmaster Flash at the Roxy, a summer block party in the Bronx, the fresh faces of Jay-Z and Will Smith, the cocksure personas of Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., and Eminem, or the regal grace of Lauryn Hill, Ernie Paniccioli has been there to showcase hiphop’s emerging talent.
With more than 200 photographs that have been culled from a vast archive, Who Shot Ya? is the first major pictorial history of hiphop culture.

Who Shot Ya?: Three Decades of HipHop Photography

Arts & Photography

Powell, Kevin

Paniccioli, Ernie

History & Criticism

Harper Paperbacks

Nearly thirty years ago, Ernie Paniccioli began photographing the graffiti art throughout New York City as well as the young people creating it. Armed with a 35-millimeter camera, Paniccioli literally recorded the beginning salvos of hip hop, today the most dominant youth culture on the planet. Be it Grandmaster Flash at the Roxy, a summer block party in the Bronx, the fresh faces of Queen Latifah and Will Smith, the cocksure personas of Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., and Emimem, or the regal grace of Lauryn Hill, Ernie Paniccioli has been there to showcase hip hop's evolution much in the same way Gordon Parks recorded the Civil Rights Movement, or akin to the manner in which James Van Der Zee, the great photographer of Harlem in the 1920s, met the energy and spirit of his times.
Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hip Hop Photography is the first major pictorial history of hip hop culture based around the work of one photographer. Culled from a vast archive, the approximately 150 images in Who Shot Ya? represent the visual diary of a generation, essentially following this socio-political art form from the streets of New York City to the billion-dollar global industry it has become. While some of these iconic renderings have graced the pages of magazines and fanzines through the years, most are published here for the first time.

Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hiphop Photography

Amistad

"Throughout the ghettoes of America we of the hiphop generation say 'keep it real' as a way of insisting that the truth is the only way to go. In short, there is no time for sidestepping reality." --From the Introduction In Keepin' It Real, writer, poet, and cultural critic Kevin Powell puts both himself and society under a microscope and creates a searingly honest collection that is both powerful and disturbing. Powell's letters and reflections take us on the dizzying tight-rope walk between two worlds. From the poverty and misery of his New Jersey childhood to the excesses and successes of his mercurial rise to prominence, it is a life lived on the cutting-edge. Within this rich weave of musings, confession, and sometimes painful introspection, Powell confronts such issues as racism, black self-hatred, gender violence in the 90s, and his own anguished revelations about sex, love, and misogyny. He also explores the meaning and myths of the Million Man March and the influential and threatening presence of rap music. Like that musical movement created by his contemporaries, Kevin Powell samples the sights and sounds and scenarios of American life, then reshapes them into a provocative soundtrack for our times.

Keepin' It Real

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

One World/Ballantine

In Keepin' It Real, writer, poet, and cultural critic Kevin Powell puts both himself and society under a microscope and creates a searingly honest collection that is at once powerful and disturbing. Within this rich weave of musings, confession, and sometimes painful introspection, he confronts such issues as racism, black self-hatred, gender violence in the '90s, and his own anguished revelations about sex, love, and misogyny. He also explores the meaning and myths of the Million Man March and the influential and threatening presence of rap music. Like that musical movement, Kevin Powell samples the sights and sounds and scenarios of American life, then reshapes them into a provocative soundtrack for our times.

Keepin' It Real: Post-MTV Reflections on Race, Sex, and Politics

“A mighty wind of fresh air. His pitiless self-examination—and his equally honest exploration of the racial, sexual, cultural, and class fault lines that thread our psychic and social landscape—is not only brave but necessary if our nation is to survive.” —Michael Eric Dyson “Kevin Powell is pushing to bring, as he has so brilliantly done before, the voices of his generation: the concerns, the cares, the fears, and the fearlessness.” —Nikki Giovanni In three mind-jolting essays by one of the most passionate and eloquent voices of his generation, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight? by Kevin Powell leads us to the heart of the searing issues facing us today, from manhood, violence, and gender oppression to celebrity culture and hip-hop. Using compelling personal stories as the connecting thread, he examines what this nation has become since the monumental upheavals of the 1960s and where it might be headed if we’re not careful. Written one hundred years after W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk and forty years after James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight? is an impassioned witness to the burning problems that have accompanied us on our journey through the twenty-first century.

Who's Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race, and Power in America

Three Rivers Press

In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers

Literature & Fiction

Short Stories & Anthologies

Writers & Readers

Poetry

Presents a collection of poetry influenced by hip-hop, popular culture, current events, and the author's own experiences.

Recognize: Poems

HairStories explores the history, style, and meaning of black hair as seen through the eyes of three generations of African American artists. Showcasing more than 60 works by 27 artists, it spans nearly a century of visual art, pop culture, music, and literature, considering hair as a reflection of history, identity, and race relations in America, from the days of segregation to today. Historical works by artist Jacob Lawrence andphotographer James VanDerZee provide a chronological introduction, followed by key works by internationally recognized contemporary artists such as David Hammons, Alison Saar, and Lorna Simpson, and recent works by pivotal emerging artists including Mark Bradford and Kori Newkirk. Essays consider the syndrome of "good hair" versus "bad hair;" the importance of the barbershop and beauty salon as a center of the African American community; the social and political symbolism of hairstyles; and hair as an expression of individuality.

Hairstories

Krane, Susan

Sneed, Pamela

Lester, Neal A.

Curry-Evans, Kim

Nelson, Charles H.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Scottsdale Museum of

Written between 1989 and 2008, the poems in Kevin Powell’s powerful new collection encompass everything from his early role as a renowned slam poet (and original cast member of MTV’s Real World) to his current incarnation as a poet operating away from the scene. Within this rich tapestry of musings, confession, and introspection, Powell weaves issues like racism, black self-hatred, and gender violence with his own anguished revelations about sex, love, and misogyny. Sampling from the personal and the political, Powell reshapes them into a provocative soundtrack for the times.

No Sleep Till Brooklyn: New and Selected Poems

Dramas & Plays

Soft Skull

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Books by Powell, Kevin