Ed Piskor’s ‘Hip Hop Family Tree’ Gets The Omnibus Treatment To Mark Hip Hop’s 50th

Ed Piskor’s seminal Hip Hop Family Tree is to be rereleased next Wednesday 17th October by Fantagraphics as a hardcover omnibus edition.

As well as reprinting the three volumes in one tome, there is also 140+ pages of new material included as well as a foreward by Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn, and an afterword by esteemed hip hop journalist Bill Adler. 

“The award-winning comic provides an entertaining and encyclopedic history of hip hop culture, told in comic book form with verve, swagger and style. Piskor’s cartooning crackles like Jack Kirby’s illustrations and takes readers from the parks and rec rooms of the South Bronx to the night clubs, recording studios, and radio stations where the scene started to boom, capturing the flavor of late 1970s New York City in panels bursting with obsessively authentic detail. The technical innovations, the triumphs and failures are all thoroughly researched and lovingly depicted, with a vigorous and engaging Ken Burns-meets-Stan Lee approach. Like the acclaimed hip hop documentaries Style Wars and Scratch, HIP HOP FAMILY TREE is an essential cultural chronicle and a must for hip hop fans, pop-culture addicts, and anyone who wants to know how it went down back in the day.”

I grew up with Hip Hop, so when this originally came out it was a must-read title for me, and many of my friends. This year I celebrated Hip Hop’s 50th in the best way I could by scheduling my annual High Vis graffiti and street art festival on the actual date of it’s anniversary, August 11th with a plethora of street artist creating all-new pieces for the day as well as our very own block party. Why not check out photos from that here, here and here, as well as take a look at a preview for Piskor’s magnum opus below: