The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash (2008)

Before rap was a gazillion-dollar, multinational enterprise, it was a fiercely local, highly personal art. The pioneering DJ who helmed the Furious Five recalls those early days in the Bronx — from sneaking peeks at his abusive dad's funk LPs in the '60s, to rocking ever-bigger block parties using self-taught record-cutting techniques in the '70s, to fame and its inevitable side effects in the '80s in The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash. Flash's prose is simple to a fault, and his Behind the Music-style arc shopworn. But his eyewitness account of hip-hop's birth proves invaluable. B+