Primary Sources

Primary sources are materials that provide firsthand testimony to a subject under investigation. Researchers often use these firsthand accounts of specific events to understand events from the viewpoint of people living during that time period. Primary sources include documents and artifacts from the time period under study, such as letters, diaries, photographs, newspaper articles, pamphlets, government records, songs, poems, and videos. Primary sources also include writings and recordings by witnesses who experienced the events or conditions being documented. For example, interviews, oral histories, autobiographies, and memoirs are primary sources.

Library Databases with Primary Sources

New York Times (Historical): 1851-2020 This link opens in a new window
Search full text and images 1851-2020 including news, illustrations, editorials, and advertisements.
Coverage: 1851-2020
Full Text: Yes
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JSTOR: Independent Voices
Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

NewsBank Access World News Research Collection (WPI access canceled as of 7-1-2023)
Includes current and archived news content from more than 12,000 sources spanning 200+ countries and territories.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni includes full-text access to thousands of news sources (primarily newspapers, magazines and journals) in the U.S. and abroad back to the 1970s.
Coverage: Varies
Full Text: Yes

Examples of Websites with Primary Sources for Hip Hop

To find primary sources via Google, try adding keywords like archives, primary sources, documents, or interviews to your search terms. Primary sources can often be found on library, museum, and government websites.

The Adler Hip Hop Archive
The historical artifacts presented in this digital collection are selected from the Adler Hip Hop Archive. Compiled by Bill Adler, a noted journalist and founding VP of Publicity at Def Jam Recordings, the Adler archive contains thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, recording industry press releases and artist bios, correspondence, photographs, posters, flyers, advertising, and other documents.
Afrika Bambaataa Vinyl Collection
This digital collection contains images of selected 12” vinyl records from Afrika Bambaataa’s music collection--records that he numbered, signed with his name, and often annotated as he acquired them from the late 1960s into the early 1980s. Bambaataa’s early vinyl record collection offers essential information on Hip Hop culture’s many visual and sonic influences.
The Archive of Joe Conzo, Jr.
The Cornell Hip Hop Collection is the home of the archive of photographer Joe Conzo, Jr., featuring more than 10,000 of his negatives and prints. Called “The man who took Hip-Hop’s baby pictures” by the New York Times, Joe Conzo captured images of the South Bronx between 1976 and 1984, including early hip hop jams, street scenes, and Latin music performers and events. The Cornell Hip Hop Collection preserves and has digitized Joe Conzo negatives, more than 6,000 of which are freely available to search and browse.
Ebony
African American-focused magazine that focuses on news, culture, and entertainment.
Issues from 1959-2008 are available on GoogleBooks.
Hip-Hop and Rap Across the Smithsonian
Explore hip-hop and rap-related collections from across the Smithsonian that offer perspective on the African American experience and its impact on American culture.
Hip-Hop Radio Archive
The Hip-Hop Radio Archive aims to digitize, preserve, share, and contextualize recordings of hip-hop radio from the 1980s and 1990s from commercial, college, community, and pirate stations of all sizes, telling the stories of the shows and the people that made them.
Hiphop Archive and Research Institute (HARI)
The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute's mission is to facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture and responsible leadership through Hiphop.
Hip Hop Party and Event Flyers
The Cornell Hip Hop Collection features more than 1,000 party and event flyers ca. 1976 - 1984, the largest known institutional collection of these scarce and important flyers, which have become increasingly valued for the details they provide about early Hip Hop culture.
Jet Magazine (1951-2008)
Weekly magazine focused on African American political and entertainment news.
Issues from 1951-2008 are available on GoogleBooks.
Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive
In 2016, University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston launched the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive with an initial donation by Pacey Foster of recordings from the Lecco’s Lemma radio program, a local rap music show that was founded by Magnus Johnstone and ran from 1985 to 1988 on local college radio stations WMBR (88.1 FM) and WZBC (90.3 FM).
Massachusetts Rock Against Racism
Massachusetts Rock Against Racism (RAR) came together at a time when the City of Boston and its surrounding areas were rocked by racism. This was especially focused on the youth population as court-ordered desegregation and busing intensified problems. RAR’s name came from a movement started in England in the mid-1970s, and the Massachusetts-based group was organized and cofounded in the Boston area in 1979 by a group of volunteers consisting of musicians, radio announcers, and educators. The Massachusetts Rock Against Racism records include more than 80 videos of a range of RAR-produced concerts, performances, panel discussions, and other programs and events.
National Museum of African American History & Culture: Hip Hop Collection
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture.
Russell Simmons: You Adapt to Us
Excerpt from Russell Simmons, Life and Def. New York: Random House, 2001. (You can request this book via Interlibrary Loan.)
"Show 'Em Whatcha Got" Mass. Memories Road Show: The Hip-Hop Edition:
UMass Boston, Healey Library Digital Collections

HU 3900: Inquiry Seminar - Hip Hop - Prof. Holger Droessler: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Library Databases with Primary Sources

Examples of Websites with Primary Sources for Hip Hop