Mickey Hess is professor of English at Rider University and the co-author (with Buddha Monk) of "The Dirty Version: On Stage, in the Studio, and in the Streets with Ol' Dirty Bastard" (HarperCollins, 2014). He is the author of "Big Wheel at the Cracker Factory" and "Is Hip-Hop Dead? The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Most Wanted Music," and the editor of Greenwood Press’s "Icons of Hip-Hop and Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide."

“Writing The Dirty Version: The Uncensored Story of Professors and Rappers,” takes the reader behind the scenes to explores the sometimes uneasy translation of hip-hop onto library shelves and into college classrooms. From the failed attempts of others to tell Dirty’s story, to the fights Buddha and I had about how best to tell it, my article wrestles with the question of who will tell hip-hop’s story and what will get lost in translation.

Presented by Honors Student Council & Commonwealth Center for the Humanities