Harlem Underworld

An in-depth look at the last generation of Black music before the rise of hip-hop, with special attention to how the dying world influenced the new one
 
Harlem Underworld is a celebration of Blaxploitation film, rapping deejays, looping riffs, larger-than-life artists, grungy record promoters, and the bloody-handed OGs who hung people out of high-rise windows while Suge Knight was still in diapers. They lived the life and made the culture that fueled rap music and forecast hip-hop image, but their stories have been paved over by the very global phenomenon they inspired, until now.

A spiritual sequel to his groundbreaking book The Chitlin’ Circuit, in which acclaimed music historian Preston Lauterbach showed how a loosely associated group of hustlers built the real estate of Black music and developed a network of nightclubs where rock ’n’ roll was born, Harlem Underworld chronicles the untold story of how a new generation of hustlers—disc jockeys, record promoters, independent Black record companies, and more gangsters—evolved to carve out a space in American media for Black music, grab a fair slice of the profits, and push music to the edge of a revolution that would change the world.