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What can hip-hop teach us about writing? 

I love writing with music. I love wandering around New York City with my personal soundtrack playing in my head. For me, storytelling and music are wrapped up together. If I'm looking for a little inspiration, I have a stockpile of writing music that I return to every time.

This week, LitKicks features an interview with Brian Coleman, a hip-hop historian who just published the book, Check the Technique--where he tells the stories behind some beloved hip-hop albums.

In the LitKicks interview, Coleman discusses why we can't treat hip-hop artists like poets, and talks about the literary influences of the best rap lyrics. As he reverse engineers some inspiring albums, we can find some poetic lessons to take home with us.

Check it out:

"Hip-hop lyricists still haven't gotten the poetic respect they deserve, in my opinion. But I don't think that a lot of the top lyricists out there – people like Rakim, KRS-One, Q-Tip – really care that they're not accepted as poets in the poetry community. They care that their fans and peers respect them as lyricists."