Hip Hop Family Tree is an extraordinarily ambitious comic book series made even more impressive by the fact that it’s made entirely by one man, cartoonist Ed Piskor. He writes, draws, colors and formats the whole damn thing. The series is a deep dive into the history of hip hop starting in the 70’s and is currently up to the mid 80’s, presented in a beautifully old school style in a large format book, much bigger than most comics today. It’s fascinating how he’s able to weave through so many different characters and places to really tell the history of how hip hop began in an incredibly engaging, fun way. I found it to be such a refreshing way to learn deeply about a topic while still being entertained by all the smaller stories and details throughout each panel.
The early days of hip hop are littered with stories of creativity, failure, community, hustling, getting ripped off, and creating your own path. Through these journeys we see the origins of the MC’s who one day reign supreme, like Run DMC, Chuck D, Dr. Dre, LL Cool J, and KRS-One, while also giving lots of love to the early founders like Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, and Afrika Bambaataa, just to name a few. My favorite parts so far were the slow beginnings of Def Jam, following the Beastie Boys as a teenage punk band, Rick Rubin as a spoiled college kid obsessively interested in both punk and the emerging hip hop scene, and a lisping, drug-fueled Russell Simmons managing many of the early stars of the day (every panel with him is hilarious).
Ed fuses his love of comic books and hip hop with flair and a precise attention to detail. Young legends are introduced by their real names first so you might not know who they are, or who they go on to become, as they develop into the best MC’s of their generation. It has the same feel as a young Scott Summers (Cyclops) or Jean Grey struggling with their newfound powers in the early days of the X-Men. Which is a great sign considering his next project is yet another massively ambitious, historically sweeping project: X-Men Grand Design.
I first heard about Ed when that project was announced earlier this year and I picked up Hip Hop Family Tree to check out his work, and because of my interest in both comics and hip hop. Needless to say I was pretty floored. He’s doing something very similar with Grand Design, taking decades of X-Men comics and retelling it in his own unique way. I am so fucking stoked for it, and the first one’s dropping at the end of next month. But until then, check out Hip Hop Family Tree if any of this sounded appealing, and click through to peep some dope panels.
