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You can never take what you love too seriously ...

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Welcome to The Periodic Table of Hip Hop. Instead of hydrogen to helium, here you´ll find James Brown to Kanye West - 94 artists that have defined Hip Hop arranged following the logic of The Periodic Table of Elements.

MCs, DJs, rappers and producers are the elements here, and this expert guide orders them to reveal their contrasts and connections, along with key movements and moments in the history of this music genre.

Includes: James Brown, P-Funk, Kool Herc, Melle Mel, Sugarhill Records, Fab Five Freddy, Whodini, Run DMC, Rick Rubin, LL Cool J, Kanye West and Jay Z and many, many more...

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Neil Kulkarni started writing professionally in 1993 after writing a letter to Melody Maker telling them they were crap and detailing the reasons why. Asked on the letters page ´whether he could do any better?´ he responded by saying he could and has been writing about music, film and politics ever since.

After spending the nineties writing regularly for Melody Maker, Uncut and Vox & Loaded, and underground magazines Lime Lizard and Knowledge he went fully freelance in 2000, writing about all kinds of music for Spin, Metal Hammer, Plan B, The Source, The Guardian, Bizarre and DJ´ing in clubs and across broadcast media. He currently writes for The Quietus and creates the hip-hop section in DJ Magazine as well as maintaining his at-times contentious F.U.N.K blog and teaching media and music full-time in his hometown of Coventry. He is also the author of Hip Hop: Bring The Noise and Eastern Spring: A 2nd Gen Memoir. His kids are constantly telling him to turn his music down.

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