"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