In ‘Rapper’s Deluxe,’ USC professor Todd Boyd explores 50 years of rap and hip-hop

Todd Boyd started writing his new book, “Rapper’s Deluxe: How Hip Hop Made the World,” about three years ago, though in many ways, it’s been underway for decades. “I’ve been telling that in many ways, I’ve been writing this book since I was 9 years old,” the University of Southern California professor says. “Before I knew I was writing it, I was writing it.” Boyd turned 9 in 1973, the year generally accepted as the birth of rap, and that’s where “Rapper’s Deluxe” begins, at an apartment party in the Bronx, where a DJ named Kool Herc showed a new way of spinning records. The book ends, neatly, if not entirely by intent, 50 years later, when hip-hop culture had reached a peak far from its underground origins, a handful of its biggest stars playing the halftime show at the Super Bowl, a sign of the music’s dominance of the culture. “Rapper’s Deluxe: How Hip Hop Made The World” is the new cultural history of rap and hip hop culture from Todd Boyd. Seen here are interior pages at the start of a chapter. (Photo courtesy of Phaidon) Todd Boyd, author of the new book, “Rapper’s Deluxe: How Hip Hop...