Rap music has given to pop culture some of its most compelling modern lyricists, yet for years the main resource for lyrics has been online. Now a major publisher has anthologized a book of lyrics. Today: rapping about this new textbook. Also: our Smackdown series taps into the competitive nature of hip-hop and pits the rhymes of two MCs -- Kanye West and Pusha T -- against each other. Later: Composer and pianist Anton Batagov finds connections between Eastern and Western cultures. He performs in the studio.Download the podcast here. Check the full feature story out here. See also: Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop
, Decoded
, One of the Last Great Poets Standing: Could Rap Be Poetry?
