by Jason D. Rawls
foreword by Pete Rock
University of Michigan Press, 2027
Paper: 978-0-472-04047-6
eISBN: 978-0-472-90756-4 (OA)
Crate Missions takes readers inside the world of Hip Hop producers, where dusty record stores, forgotten albums, and decades-old recordings become the raw materials for new musical creation. Drawing on qualitative research, autoethnography, and oral history, Crate Missions combines the author’s more than twenty-five years of experience as a producer and DJ with interviews conducted with influential Hip Hop practitioners, including Pete Rock, Diamond D, Buckwild, Ski Beatz, K-Def, Mr. Walt and Evil Dee of the Beatminerz, and Breakbeat Lou. The online audio component allows readers to hear three new beats created by Rawls for this project, as well as “producer’s commentaries” in which Rawls walks listeners through his inspiration and process. Together, the text and audio reveal how crate digging is far more than collecting records—it is a form of historical discovery, cultural preservation, and creative expression.
Jason D. Rawls is Assistant Professor of Hip Hop at The Ohio State University.
“Crate Missions is a novel study in which Rawls pulls collecting, sampling, and historiography from their sleeves, chops them up, and produces an insightful and engaging flip on Hip Hop practice. Rawls theorizes both about and through his production process and situates it within broader scholarly discourses surrounding Hip Hop. It’ll have you digging through digital crates as you follow along!”
— Justin Burton, Rider UniversityLicense: CC BY-NC
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