Lit Hop
Lit hop is a hybrid art form that combines themes from traditional literature and storytelling with the music and poetics of hip-hop. 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 and independently to the Rutgers University professor and novelist Adam Mansbach.
"Lit-hop" is also the title of a 2006 solo album by the Canadian rap artist Baba Brinkman. Canada's Exclaim! 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, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
