"This is the first anthology of poems by and for the hip-hop generation ... It includes more than four decades of poets and covers the birth to the now of hip-hop culture and music and style"--Page xv.

An (i)witness say he still had the mike in his hand /Randall Horton -- (1961) -- Turning the tables ; -- Wednesday poem / Joel Dias-Porter aka DJ Renegade -- (1962) -- An excerpt from Crank shaped notes / Thomas Sayers Ellis -- (1963) -- Mascot ; -- Crack house ; -- Seventy-first & King Drive / Quraysh Ali Lansana -- (1964) -- Duck, duck, redux ; -- Post-white / Evie Shockley -- (1965) -- Everything you wanted to know about hip hop but were afraid to be hipped for fear of being hopped ; -- Keepin' it real awards / Tony Medina -- (1966) -- Shit to write about ; -- Word to everything I love ; -- Writing about what you know / Willie Perdomo -- (1967) -- Agate / Mario -- (1967) -- Honorific or black boy to black boy ; -- Fast -- how I knew ; -- In defense of the code-switch or why you talk like that or why you gotta always be cussing / Roger Bonair-Agard -- (1968) -- Shine (for Joe Bataan) ; -- All night / Lynne Procope -- (1969) -- B-boy infinitives ; -- Kundiman ending on a theme from t la rock ; -- A note to Thomas Alva ; -- Ode to the cee-lo players / Patrick Rosal -- (1969) -- Untitled / Tracie Morris -- America's pastime / Jason Carney -- (1970) -- Who you callin' a jynx? (after mista popo) ; -- Damn right it's betta than yours ; -- Gamin' gabby -- / LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs -- (1970) -- Hood / Mitchell L.H. Douglas (1970) -- Manifesto, or ars poetica #2 ; -- Preface to a twenty volume homicide note / Krista Franklin (1970) -- Beat boxing ; -- Robot music / Adrian Matejka -- (1971) -- mic check, 1-2 / Jessica Care Moore -- (1971) -- Ode to the crossfader ; -- 1989 ; -- Renegades of funk / John Murillo -- (1971) -- Stitches ; -- Pull down the earth ; -- This is a test / Francine J. Harris -- (1972) -- How to get over (senior to freshman) ; -- how to get over (for my niggas) ; -- how to get over (for Kanye) / T'ai Freedom Ford -- (1973) -- Break (rebirth) ; -- Break (sister) ; -- Break (embargo) / Suheir Hammad -- (1973) -- World tells how the world ends ; -- Object / Marty McConnell -- (1973) -- Bronx bombers ; -- What I saw was not your funeral ; -- At my best / John Rodriguez -- (1973-2013) -- Paper bag poems ; -- Global warming blues ; -- Sunday ; -- Possible (for Amiri Baraka) / Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie -- (1973) -- Hip hop analogies ; -- Switch / Tara Betts -- (1974) -- From all convulsions / Paolo Javier -- (1974) -- Quantum spit ; -- No homo ; -- Drop it like it's hottentot venus / Douglas Kearney -- (1974) -- A prayer fo mama Brenda Matthews (warrior brew) ; -- After an artis(t) talk / Avery R. Young -- (1974) -- Future / Lemon Andersen -- (1975) -- Message ; -- Astronomy (8th light) / Michael Cirelli -- (1975) -- Crossover ; -- Jewtown ; -- Molemen beat tapes ; -- White on the block / Kevin Coval -- (1975) -- Motherland / Jericho Brown -- (1976) -- When 12 play was on repeat ; -- Upon viewing the death of Basquiat ; -- nameless / Mahogany L Browne -- (1976) -- Elegy in gold ; -- Break / Aracelis Girmay -- (1977) -- Say my name ; -- Old ladies and dope boys ; -- These are the breaks / Idris Goodwin -- (1977) -- Corners / Enzo Silon Surin -- (1977) -- It's just begun / Mayda Del Valle -- (1978) -- Ciphers pt. 1 ; -- Vigil pt. 1 / Denizen Kane -- (1978) -- I have a drone / Paul Martinez Pompa -- Crews ; -- Slang ; -- O.P.P. / Kyle Dargan -- (1980) -- 100 bells ; -- Nocturne in need of a bitch ; -- Blossoms in the dark ; -- Self-portrait as slinky / Tarfia Faizullah -- (1980) -- Elegy for a trojan ; -- Ode to a star fig ; -- Ode to gentrification ; -- Ode to a killer whale / Samantha Thornhill -- (1980) -- Harbor / Aleshea Harris -- (1981) -- Evolution of my block ; -- Evolution of my profile ; -- GTA : San Andreas (or, 'Grove Street bitch!') / Jacob Saenz -- (1982) -- Bint ibrahim / Nadia Sulayman -- (1982) -- Ha ha hum ; -- Adventures / Sarah Blake -- (1984) -- If you don't know / Adam Falkner (1984) -- Small poems for big / Chinaka Hodge (1984) -- Stakes is high ; -- When I'm alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall, and in the back of my mind I hear my conscience call ; -- Ars poetica in the mode of j-live -- Bonita applebum / Marcus Wicker -- (1984) -- Self portrait with gunshot vernacular ; -- Self portrait from the other side ; -- Thaumaturgy / Michael Mlekoday -- (1985) -- To the notebook kid / Eva Ewing -- A remix for remembrance, Stockholm syndrome / Kristiana Coloʹn (1986) -- In search of black birds / Ciara Miller -- (1987) -- Let me handle my business, damn / Morgan Parker -- (1987) -- When asked about my hometown : an admission ; -- When asked about my hometown : an anecdote ; -- Love letter to Zack, the black power ranger / Joshua Bennett -- (1988) -- When I put my hands in the air it's praise / Alysia Nicole Harris -- (1988) -- Winthrop Ave. ; -- We house : after Krista Franklin's definition of funk / Britteney Black Rose Kapri -- (1988) -- Legend ; -- Ghazal for my sister ; -- Conspiracy : A suite ; -- Gravity / Angel Nafis -- (1988) -- Ode to the first white girl I ever loved ; -- Home court / Jose Olivarez -- (1988) -- No country for black boys / Joy Priest -- (1988) -- Always & forever ; -- Self-portrait as exit wounds ; -- Prayer for the newly damned ; -- Daily bread / Ocean Vuong -- (1988) -- When tip drill comes on at the frat party or, when refusing to twerk is a radical form of self-love ; -- Unemployment ; -- Pluto shits on the universe / Fatimah Asghar -- (1989) -- Pussy monster ; -- Impulse buy / Franny Choi -- (1989) -- On caskets ; -- Prelude ; -- Picking flowers; -- juke / Nate Marshall -- (1989) -- Broken ghazal in the voice of my brother jacob / Aaron Samuels -- (1989) -- Cue the gangsta rap when my knees bend ; -- Twerk (v.) ; -- Dinosaurs in the hood ; -- Dear white America / Danez Smith -- (1989) werk (v.) -- Defense ; -- Blk girl art ; -- Deep in the homeroom of doom ; -- Daddy dozens / Jamila Woods -- (1989) -- What the eyes saw / Benjamin Alfaro -- (1990) -- A suite for ol' dirty / Safia Elhillo -- (1990) -- Juicy (an erasure) / Aziza Barnes -- (1992) -- Badu interviews Lamar (an erasure) ; -- Police / Camonghne Felix -- (1992) -- Beat writers / Steven Willis -- (1992) -- Four elements of ghostdance / Reed Bobroff -- (1993) -- Grand slam / Malcolm London -- (1993) -- This, here / Kush Thompson -- (1994) -- My niece's hip-hop / E'mon McGee -- (1996) -- Murder is my name / Angel Pantoja -- (1997) -- Lesson one / Nile Lansana -- (1997) and Onam Lansana -- (1999) -- Art. artifice, & artifact / Quraysh Ali Lansana -- Artist statement / T'ai Freedom Ford -- Artist statement / Michael Mlekoday -- Artist statement / Douglas Kearney -- Artist statement / Angel Nafis -- A locus of control and the erasure / Aziza Barnes -- Life is good : How hip-hop channels duende / Tara Betts -- Journeying to the break : The cost of the pilgrimage / Roger Bonair-Agard -- Art of the mistake: some notes on breaking as making / Patrick Rosal -- Blueprint for breakBeat writing / Nate Marshall.