Hip Hop Family Tree: 3 by Ed Piskor review – Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and Def Jam

Hip-hop did not always bestride the pop world. Ed Piskor’s warm and vivid Hip Hop Family Tree series charts the genre’s febrile early years, when rap, graffiti and breakdance inched their way from the city streets to the mainstream. Volume 3 covers 1983 and 1984, as Beastie Boys leave punk for rap, Whodini, the Fat Boys and Slick Rick emerge and a young man called “Chucky D” meets Flavor Flav. Behind the scenes, DJ Rick Rubin and promoter Russell Simmons join forces to create Def Jam. It’s a very enjoyable look at a scene that mixed the swagger of funk and disco, the then-novel sounds of scratched vinyl and electronica and the bravado and nimble wordplay of young men and women. Piskor’s art is larger than life but has a fine eye for details, from clothes and stage mannerisms to the relative chaos of 1980s New York. It helps give his subjects – many of whom won’t be familiar to non-devotees – the life and energy they deserve, and provides a counterweight to the trainspottery asides. Authoritative, affectionate and full of quirks, this fanboy’s project is utterly infectious.