Critical Raves for “The Big Payback”

Dan Charnas’ The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (New American Library, December 7, 2010) is already getting big love from critics: Charnas’ “exhaustive, engrossing history of the genre” is #8 on the “Must List” — Entertainment Weekly “A classic of music business dirt-digging as well as a kind of pulp epic.” […]

VIDEO: Two Controversial Moments From “The Big Payback”

Two new installments in my web video series, where I discuss two controversial moments in The Big Payback: • Cash Money Records stiffed the woman who got them their landmark deal, Wendy Day. • Quincy Jones and Russell Simmons tussle over Vibe magazine. Play it, embed it, circulate it! Peep the videos after the jump…

VIDEO: 5 Hip-Hop Myths, Debunked!

The second installment in my new web video series for The Big Payback, produced by my comrade, the award-winning Antonio Neves, and shot and edited with great skill by the aptly-named Jon Genius. Play it, embed it, circulate it! Peep the video after the jump…

The Big Update: Upcoming Events and Media (as of Friday, December 3)

RELEASE DATE December 7, 2010 WHERE TO BUY Everywhere books are sold (see below for links) WEBSITES www.dancharnas.com OR www.bigpaybackbook.com FACEBOOK/TWITTER www.facebook.com/bigpaybackbook www.twitter.com/dancharnas UPCOMING EVENTS Borders — Columbus Circle — Manhattan December 9, 2010 | 7:00 PM BORDERS PANEL: “How ‘Yo! MTV Raps’ Changed America” featuring Ed Lover, Pete Dougherty, Cory Robbins, Sway, Fab 5 […]

VIDEO: Why I Wrote “The Big Payback”

Here’s the first installment in my new web video series for The Big Payback, produced by my comrade, the award-winning Antonio Neves, and shot and edited with great skill by the aptly-named Jon Genius.

We’ll be rolling these nine videos out over the course of the next two months.

Play it, embed it, circulate it!

Peep the video after the jump…