Lit hop (also Lit-hop) is a hybrid art form that combines themes from traditional

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and storytelling with the music and poetics of

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

. The term is sometimes used to describe literature that is influenced by hip-hop music and culture, and sometimes used to describe highly literate or lyrically sophisticated hip-hop music. "Lit hop" is also used as a shorthand for any perceived thematic link between literature and hip-hop. The coining of "Lit hop" is credited to the Canadian writer and performer of turntable-based sound poetry

Wayde Compton Wayde Compton (born 1972) is a Canadians, Canadian writer. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia. Compton has published books of poetry, essays, and fiction, and he edited the first comprehensive anthology of bl ...

and independently to the

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

professor and novelist

Adam Mansbach Adam Mansbach (born July 1, 1976) is an American author. He has previously been a visiting professor of literature at Rutgers University-Camden, with their New Voices Visiting Writers program (2009–2011). Biography Mansbach graduated from Col ...

. "Lit-hop" is also the title of a 2006 solo album by the Canadian rap artist

Baba Brinkman Dirk Murray Brinkman (born October 22, 1978) is a Canadian rapper and playwright best known for recordings and performances that combine hip hop music with literature, theatre, and science. Early life and education Born in the remote community ...

. Canada's

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

Magazine calls it a "boring album title" but praises the album as a "versatile, skilled debut". Brinkman has also attempted to define "Lit-hop" as a highly literate subgenre of hip-hop through his live performances and recordings, including rap adaptations of

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

, the

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...

, and Geoffrey Chaucer's

The Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held ...

Post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

Nerdcore Nerdcore is a genre of hip hop music characterized by subject matter considered of interest to nerds and geeks. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot has the earliest known recorded use of the term (to describe this genre) in the 2000 ...

rapper

MC Lars Andrew Robert Nielsen (born October 6, 1982), known professionally as MC Lars, is an American rapper, producer, educator, and founder of Horris Records. A graduate of Stanford University and the University of Oxford, he is credited as a pioneer ...

rapper has used the term numerous times. He uses it in the hook of his song "Flow Like Poe." MC Lars doe
lectures
where he uses modern

rap Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

to teach classic literature. During the Covid-19 pandemic, MC Lars used Facebook's live streaming feature to teach literature in a series he calls "Lit-Hop Lockdown Live."{{Citation, title="Lit-Hop Lockdown Live" - Episode 1, url=https://www.facebook.com/mclars/videos/lit-hop-lockdown-live-episode-1/1249648822092440/, language=en, access-date=2021-03-28

References

English-language literature