Alumnus publishes groundbreaking rap anthology

Adam Bradley B.A. ’96 asserts the vital poetic tradition of hip-hop music in his groundbreaking publication The Anthology of Rap, released in November by Yale University Press.

Bradley is the co-editor of the anthology, which collects hundreds of hip-hop lyrics spanning the entire 30-year history of the genre and demonstrates that rap is a vital poetic tradition.

A professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Bradley is a scholar of African-American literature and a writer on black popular culture. He published Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop, an exploration of America’s least understood poets, in 2009. Also in 2009, Bradley helped bring Ralph Ellison’s long-awaited second novel to life; working with John Callahan, Morgan S. Odell Professor of Humanities, Bradley co-edited Three Days Before the Shooting: The Unfinished Second Novel by Ralph Ellison.

The Anthology of Rap has received media attention from outlets across the country, with Bradley and his co-editor Andrew DuBois receiving praise for compiling the “English major’s hip-hop bible.”

Mother Jones Magazine: Anthology of Rap: The Unofficial Index (11/29/10)

National Public Radio: ‘The Anthology of Rap’: Lyrics as Poetry (11/7/10) 

The Wall Street Journal: Hip-Hop Goes to Harvard (11/5/10)

Slate: Fact-Check the Rhyme (11/4/10)

Colorado Public Radio: The Anthology of Rap (11/2/10)

New York Magazine: Straight Outta Comp 101 (10/31/10)