The fifty-two artists included--from MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa, Queen Latifah, and Lil' Kim to Beyoncé, Missy Elliott, Cardi B, and Nicki Minaj--are hip-hop's oracles, now immortalized from tape deck to card deck. Veteran music journalist and certified oracle reader Kathy Iandoli matched each queen with an appropriate symbol, based on her decades of experience interviewing (and befriending) iconic artists, past and present. Rendered in the bold, colorful, pop art-style portraiture of artist Monica Ahanonu on sturdy, oversized cards with rounded corners, these DJs, MCs, and singers will guide you the same way they've blazed trails from the underground to the mainstream since day one.
Kathy Iandoli is a critically acclaimed journalist and the author of God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop and Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah. Kathy has coauthored The Queen Bee by Lil' Kim and Commissary Kitchen by Albert "Prodigy" Johnson. She has written for Vibe, The Source, XXL, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, The Guardian, and Vice and held editorial positions at AllHipHop, HipHopDX, and BET online. Iandoli is an alumna-in-residence of music business at New York University and has appeared on television, radio, and panels discussing hip-hop and gender.
Monica Ahanonu is a freelance illustrator working and living in Los Angeles. After graduating from USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Monica started her career at DreamWorks Animation. She has worked with Netflix, Google, Instagram, The New York Times, Samsung, Time, InStyle, Adidas, Sprite, Salvatore Ferragamo, Sephora, Red Table Talk, and Vanity Fair and been featured online in Vogue, BuzzFeed, New York, Women's Wear Daily, Architectural Digest, Bustle, Afropunk, and Design Milk. Her work has also been showcased at the Art Basel festival.
- Publisher: Clarkson Potter; Illustrated edition
- Language: English
- Cards: 52 pages
- ISBN-10: 0593233220
- ISBN-13: 9780593233221
- Item Weight: 1.02 pounds
- Dimensions: 4.9 x 1.97 x 6.35 inches