On August 18, hip-hop and comic book nerds alike convened to celebrate the release of Volume 2 of Ed Piskor’s The Hip-Hop Family Tree, a history of the genre in graphic novel-form. In the Daily Beast, Daniel Genis explains how the competing personae and one-upsmanship among rappers translate so easily to a medium that often depicts superhero fights. But with Ferguson on everyone’s minds, one has to wonder whether a comic’s stylized battles can accurately represent the very real violence behind the music.
