The Come Up

“A masterpiece in book form. After conducting over 300 interviews over the course of three years, [Jonathan] Abrams has accomplished the incredible feat of detailing the rise of hip-hop straight from the creators of the genre themselves.”—Spin

“Abrams’s beautifully edited book concentrates on hip-hop’s rise, perfectly capturing the excitement of its gathering momentum and regional spread, taking the time to dig deeper than the big names.”—The Guardian

“It’s an extraordinary tale, the story of how a grassroots culture created itself from the streets and became an international force. To his credit, Abrams doesn’t just talk to the architects. He also gets input from the stonemasons, the contractors and the other heavy lifters. It’s the oral history hip-hop deserves as its beat goes on.”—Los Angeles Times

“The Come Up . . . is a riveting account of how rap carried hip-hop culture from obscurity to ubiquity, from disrespected to winning the Pulitzer Prize—and how it should have been getting that respect all along.”—Andscape
 
“An ambitious collection of firsthand accounts of hip-hop’s birth and ultimate rise as the gravitational center of pop culture.”—Okayplayer
 
“Monumental and comprehensive . . . Sourced from years of in-depth interviews, The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop chronicles the culture from its origins on the playgrounds of the Bronx to its ongoing reign as the most powerful force in popular culture.”—Rock the Bells

“Jonathan Abrams, for the entirety of his career and regardless of the subject matter, has shown a profound ability to take the words and recollections of others and stitch them together into something big and special. The Come Up is Abrams at his sharpest, at his most observant, at his most insightful.”—Shea Serrano, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hip-Hop (And Other Things)

“Hip-hop is a story machine, and Jonathan Abrams is unsurpassed in capturing the best of them. What Please Kill Me did for punk rock, The Come Up has done for hip-hop. These are the tales that made a movement.”—Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

“Abrams set out to accomplish a task that sounds absurd: assemble an oral history of hip-hop from the five boroughs to the Bay and from Memphis to Miami, and the ascendance of everyone from G-Funk to G-Unit. Brilliantly curated and meticulously reported, this book will last for decades.”—Jeff Weiss, founder of Passion of the Weiss

“To say this book is incredible simply doesn’t do it justice. It’s essential—a primary source. Eat this book. Steal this book.”—Cheo Hodari Coker, creator of Marvel’s Luke Cage and author of Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of The Notorious B.I.G.

“It’s one thing to say you want to write an oral history on hip-hop. It’s another thing to actually do it. The result is special—even for one of this country’s truly legendary storytellers.”—Justin Tinsley, author of It Was All a Dream