Sourced from years of in-depth interviews, The Come Up: An Oral History of The Rise of Hip-Hop chronicles the culture from its origins on the playgrounds of the Bronx to its ongoing reign as the most powerful force in popular culture. Abrams recently sat down with ROCK THE BELLS and shared his journey in penning one of the most comprehensive accounts of Hip-Hop—from those who created it.

A Los Angeles native, Abrams started his career at The Los Angeles Times and eventually did a stint at the New York Times, Grantland and ESPN. A sportswriter by trade, he always had an interest in writing beyond sports and he was able to scratch that itch by writing books. "My first book Boys Among Men was about the NBA's whole prep-to-pro generation of players, and it was just looking at the whole path of players that went to the NBA straight from high school," he explains.

"Whether they were Kobe Bryant and they made it, or somebody whose name is forgotten in history, all of them had interesting paths and stories; and to be able to go to that stage at 17 or 18 really stood out to me. That was my first book, and to me, it really wasn't even a sports book—it was more of a sociological book looking at how these guys succeeded or didn't, depending on how sports fans determine it; but they were still able to take care of their families or achieve success by other means."

While at Grantland, Abrams became interested in oral histories and he explained how that format represented a shift in his career focus.

"Grantland was a pivotal turn in my career because I got a chance to mess around with the oral history format and it was a format that I found appealing," he recalls. "To me, it was almost like reading a documentary; to see how the voices and histories played off of one another was interesting and something that I wanted to emulate and one of the first ones that I did was the oral history of 'The Malice At The Palace' and it was well received."

Armed with his newfound love for oral histories, his next book was the oral history of HBO's wildly popular and critically acclaimed series The Wire. "I loved that show and after it was off the air for a certain number of years, I felt that fans would be reflective about it and its impact could be appreciated.I talked to just about everybody involved with that show, and it was a real joy putting that together."

Now that he had a few oral histories under his belt, he set out to create his next work, based on what he described as an ally who had been with him for his entire life.

"Hip-Hop has educated and motivated me, it's something that I listen to when I work and when I work out, it's just always there," he explained. "I wanted to learn more and I thought what better way than to do an oral history. I know it sounds crazy to try to do an oral history of an entire musical genre, especially one as important as Hip-Hop, but I felt like its still young enough and it'll soon be 50 years old and the originators and practitioners are mostly still around. I started with that mindset and that's how I started diving into this thing."

When speaking of his starting point Abrams says: "The genesis that everybody goes to with Hip-Hop history is Kool Herc's 1973 party, but some of the ingredients were percolating before that, and I wanted to give them credit. They may not have been considered Hip-Hop deejays, but they had the ingredients brewing. Pete 'DJ' Jones, Maboya, Disco King Mario, Grandmaster Flowers and DJ Plummer weren't necessarily considered Hip-Hop deejays but they deserve recognition for laying some of those foundational stones."

The Come Up doesn't remain in Hip-Hop's birthplace. "For me, I tried to follow where the genre went. The root starts in New York, but then the branches blossomed all over. It goes to California then back to New York and other regions. I wanted the timeline to end when Kendrick Lamar wins his Pulitzer. It's almost like a full circle moment. I mean Public Enemy could have won a Pulitzer if Hip-Hop was viewed from the prism that it is now."

The Come Up features conversations with executives from Def Jam, Tommy Boy, Profile, Jive, Delicious Vinyl and some of rap music's most influential labels in an effort to highlight as many perspectives as possible. DMC explaining the source of Run-D.M.C.'s fashion sense; Ice Cube originally throwing away the lyrics to "Fuck The Police;" and Ice-T being influenced by Philadelphia legend Schoolly D in the creation of Ice's classic "6 In The Morning" are all personal favorites for Abrams.

The Come Up is available for purchase on 10/18.