Hip Hop Family Tree: 1975-1981 (book cover may vary)

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Some of these stories have been told before and clearly belong in a book like yours, I’m thinking of Melle Mel and the recording of “The Message,” or the story of the Sugarhill Gang. Others are less obvious, like when Basquiat met Rammellzee. How did you filter these anecdotes? And what are your main sources for your research? Feitas essas considerações e ponderações, me sinto pronto pra rasgar todo meu estoque de seda: o valor jornalístico e histórico desse trabalho do Ed Piskor é zika! É o tipo de leitura que precisa ser ativa porque cada quadrinho acaba sendo verdadeira janela para o passado! Galman, Sally Campbell. 2007. Shane, the Lone Ethnographer: A Beginner’s Guide to Ethnography. Lanham: AltaMira Press. [ Google Scholar] Piskor, Ed (2014). Hip Hop Family Tree Book 2 (1981-1983). Seattle: Fantagraphics. ISBN 9781606997567.

Piskor, Ed. 2014. Hip Hop Family Tree: 1975–1983. [Gift Box Set]. Seattle: Fantagraphics. [ Google Scholar] That’s an impossible thing for me to answer because as I keep writing and putting stuff together, I keep finding things that are visually interesting and need to be put in the book. So the better way I can answer that question whenever it comes up is I can tell people I’m signed up for six books, and I’ve finished two so far, and I’m well over halfway done with book three. So just by gauging the way things are moving and how much information is being put into this stuff, the end of the sixth book probably will not get beyond ‘87. Don't expect a narrative arc here or cohesion or even much context for understanding if you don't really know the territory already...I'm sure you can find other books in your local library about the early days of hip hop which will ease you into the subject matter a little more smoothly. And if that's what you're looking for, then great. But none of those books will have the style and grace and humor of Ed Piskor's comic book tribute to these early pioneers of hip hop, each panel a mini-masters class in the subject and funny as hell to boot. However, it was really cool to see how this byproduct of DJ'ing (you need an emcee to hype the crowd up) evolved into a major genre of music that superseded the thing it was supposed to support. Particularly the fact that when hip hop groups (generally some rappers and a DJ) went to record, they would rap over live music and the DJ would do nothing, despite the fact that, at live shows, they were nominally there to support the DJ.I relate a lot to the early hip hop scene in terms of the economic part of it. When I was born, the main economic source of the area that I’m from, the steel industry, was done. And both my parents worked in those steel mills and had no jobs. So, the people in the Bronx figured that, “OK, we don’t have musical instruments so we’re gonna loop these drum breaks and rhyme on top of it.” I, however, had access to pens and pencils rather than any expensive toys or sports that demanded health insurance. So trying to occupy my own time, I could relate to the early scene. That’s a hook that intrigues me. And to watch the story continuously build, and to watch these people create a new thing that would lead to something bigger and bigger, it’s almost like a definition of virus or bacteria, something that exponentially multiplies. It’s really fun to examine something that came from such a humble place to become this great thing.

Nonfiction comics seem to have undergone a flourishing, of sorts. Do you have any opinions about that? I feel it would take me a month or something to corral all my sources, because I didn’t start documenting them from the beginning. I’m just trying to do my thing and have fun, and that doesn’t feel fun to me. I don’t take liberties, man, and if I do, I call it out immediately. There’s that one image in the first book where the Furious Five gets their first advance, and they go out and buy dirt bikes. I just drew a couple of the characters doing weird jumps and stuff, and I call it out: “Artistic license.” ‘Cuz, you know, I have no evidence that they knew how to do dirt-bike jumps or whatever.

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Por fim, acho que esse trabalho merece um olhar carinhoso especialmente de quem se interessa pelo Hip Hop e seus elementos. Piskor, Ed (2013). Hip Hop Family Tree Book 1 (1970s-1981). Seattle: Fantagraphics. ISBN 978-1606996904. Lanz, Michelle. "'Hip Hop Family Tree': Comic book artist Ed Piskor inks a comprehensive history of rap music," The Frame (March 4, 2015).

Piskor, Ed (2016). Hip Hop Family Tree Book 4 (1984-1985). Seattle: Fantagraphics. ISBN 978-1606999400. Did you play any active role in the hip hop scene that surrounded you? It would be an easy guess to assume you were into graffiti.From the very beginning, emphasis is placed on details that characterize people and places but not the data to demonstrate where we are chronologically. Even though the presentation is (presumably) linear, clearly certain events occur contemporaneously. (What worked marvelously in Pulp Fiction - does not function here) It's not until the very end of the issue (nigh '82) that we find out that most everything has occurred in a mere few years. Simple letter heads denoting the years when certain pivotal moments would have helped tremendously. Pekar, Harvey. 1996. Getting Serious About the Funnies. Chicago Tribune. January 21. Available online: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-01-21-9601210089-story.html (accessed on 8 December 2018). Carpenter, B. Stephen, II, and Kevin M. Tavin. 2010. Drawing (Past, Present, and Future) Together: A (Graphic) Look at the Reconceptualization of Art Education. Studies in Art Education 51: 327–52. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef]