THE COME UP

An uneven oral history of the early development of a vital musical genre.

Readers may expect more from a writer with the resume of Abrams, a well-known New York Times reporter and author of Boys Among Men, a compelling book about top-flight basketball players going from high school straight to the NBA, and All the Pieces Matter, an insightful oral history of The Wire. His latest has an intriguing premise: the germination and proliferation of hip-hop and how rappers became globally recognized superstars. While Abrams obviously couldn’t talk to his hero, the late Tupac Shakur, so many of the artists that he cites as essential—from DJ Kool Herc, who is credited as the pioneer of the musical style, to Rakim and Public Enemy’s Chuck D, all mentioned throughout the book—are still around and offering interviews. Not having any input from them—not to mention Jay-Z, Queen Latifah, Nas, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and numerous other significant figures and groups—is problematic. (Much of the information about DLS and ATCQ comes from the author’s interviews with the Jungle Brothers, who influenced both collectives, and Muhammad Islam, the security manager for ATCQ.) What makes the omissions more glaring is that when Abrams does have interviews with the artists involved, the narrative is an entertaining treat for fans—e.g., Ice-T talking about one of his earliest singles or Ice Cube talking about how he decided to move forward with N.W.A.’s most controversial songs. As Abrams writes about the incendiary “Fuck Tha Police,” though it “provoked consternation among police supporters, the song was a cathartic expression of protest for many people whose lives had been touched by negative encounters with law enforcement.” Unfortunately, these kinds of insightful segments are few and far between in this sprawling text, which skids abruptly to a stop with a few random thoughts about the meaning of hip-hop.

A great concept receives a middling treatment.