The St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture presents more than 200 entries that examine the history and contributions of hip hop to American and global culture. It provides academic and public libraries with a much-needed authoritative reference resource defining, exploring, and analyzing this significant aspect of culture and history. Hip hop culture is studied within countless disciplines at the university level, including history, sociology, anthropology, business, marketing, design, and of course music, dance, and art. Hip hop is being incorporated into K-12 curriculum as well, to engage students in learning English language arts, history, and even science. And hip hop is included in programing at large public libraries like Queens Library, honoring its local history and culture with '??8 Days of Nonstop Hip Hop'?? in May 2015. The Schomburg Center (NYPL) hosted '??First Friday '??Hip Hop'?? edition'?? in May 2016, with similar programming at other urban libraries engaging their communities. Entries in the work discuss the music (rap and DJing), dance (breakdancing), and visual arts (graffiti) that are the artistic expressions of hip hop culture, and feature the people, places, events, and works that started the movement and established hip hop as a global phenomenon.

Entries also examine hip hop'??s influence in other artistic arenas such as fashion, film, and poetry; its impact on education, polit.