Electro-Rap: Afrofuturism and Science Fiction in Early Hip-Hop

The culture of hip hop shifted dramatically soon after the first wave of studio-recorded vinyl releases at the turn of the 1980s. Drawing upon science fiction, ideas of fantasy, futurism, and sociocultural dynamics, this book presents a study of the impact and influence of electro rap on the formative years of recorded hip hop and beyond.

de Paor-Evans reveals a parallel and occasionally dialectical evolution of hip hop music spawned from transatlantic, transdisciplinary, and transcultural engagements and unearths linkages between innovations in music technology, fantasy, folklore, arcade and video gaming, non-white diasporas, and transglobal politics of the time.

Historically located between 1982 and 1987, the book takes exemplary well-known and equally obscure records as points of departure for analysis. It makes visible the greater significance of formative and future electro rap in hip hop culture, other musics and broader society.

Adam de Paor-Evans is Principal Lecturer in Cultural Theory at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. He runs Hip-Hop Hub UK, is a member of the European Hip-Hop Studies Network, and author of the forthcoming monograph British Hip-Hop from the Provincial Perspective.