David Foster Wallace, Mark Costello

First edition, first printing of this early scholarly consideration of rap, and Wallace's book immediately preceding his classic Infinite Jest.

• David Foster Wallace (American).
• Mark Costello (American).
• New York: Ecco, (1990).
• 140 pages plus appendix.
• Bound in original color pictorial wrappers.

Written with his friend (the now-novelist Mark Costello) with whom he was living in Boston at the time, Signifying Rappers appeared between the rather unsuccessful Girl with the Curious Hair and Wallace's epic Infinite Jest. Alternating chapters like MCs passing the mic, the authors proceed in a rather Lester Bangs-ian manner (indeed, the book is dedicated to him) engaging in earnest historicity alongside flights of philosophical fancy. Reissued in 2013 following Wallace's death, it is uncommon in the first edition. And while the rear cover erroneously proclaims the book "the first serious consideration of rap" (both Steven Hager and David Topp beat them to that title), it remains an early (if largely) literary and academic interrogation of hip-hop.