To mark the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, the New York City Public Schools system asked Walter Greason, Ph.D., the leading historian of Afrofuturism and the Black Speculative Arts, if he would produce a comic book on the evolution of hip hop for its students. Greason teamed up with illustrator Tim Fielder to create The Graphic History of Hip Hop, a 24-page comic book distributed for free to kids across NYC.
The reaction was so positive that they expanded it into a 92- page graphic novel, which is now available for purchase. It spans 45 years, from 1964 when the Civil Rights Act became law, to 2006 when Nas released his Grammy-nominated Hip Hop is Dead.
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“The civil rights laws and the assassinations that happened in 1968 lays the foundation for the desire for something new, something that let people vocalize the feelings they were having in deep complexity,” says Greason. “It transitions from there into the street parties, the way the ‘original school,’ as I call it, took shape.”
Fielder created around 250 bold, highly-detailed, brightly-colored illustrations for the book, of the architects of hip hop. “I’m very proud of it,” says Fielder. “I think that what we are providing is a very essential service for American culture and world culture.”
Greason and Fielder have partnered with the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to spread the word about hip hop’s rich history. Volume Two comes out June 25, with Volume Three soon after.
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