NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, HIP-HOP (AND OTHER THINGS) is about, as it were, rap, but also some other things.

It's a smart, fun, funny, insightful book that spends the entirety of its time celebrating what has become the most dominant form of music over the past two and a half decades. From Tupac to Jay Z, Missy Elliott to Drake, you'll find pretty much all of the big names among these pages - as well as a bunch of the smaller names, too.

There's art from acclaimed illustrator Arturo Torres, there are infographics and footnotes; there's all kinds of stuff in there. Some of the chapters are serious, and some of the chapters are silly, and some of the chapters are a combination of both things. All of them, though, are treated with the care and respect that they deserve.