The Best Library Hip-Hop You'll Hear All Year

OK. Probably the only library hip-hop you'll hear all year, but whatevs.

So I got this disk from one Melvil Dewey -- no, not the librarian from the turn of the (20th) century and the inventor of the library categorization system that bears his name. Rather, it's Scott "Scooter" Hayes, who works as a librarian in Wilmington, North Carolina and for the past couple years or so has spent the rest of his time singing, or, rather, rapping the praises of libraries. (And occasionally spoofing the Masters.)

So now he has a CD out called Library Hip Hop, a disk which is long overdue. (See what I did there? I mean, besides steal the last line from Dewey's PR piece?)

Now, if you're a librarian reading this, you've probably already heard of Dewey. (And if you haven't, then you probably need to check out (see what I did there again?) the whole album. If you're anyone else, you do not need this album. It's like listening to an album about bowling -- just about bowling, no bowling-as-metaphor-for-life songs. Which would be pretty cool for 2 or 3 tracks but might not be that interesting 12 tracks in. But you might just dig the beats and the videos below. (The jacket, I offer no such guarantees for.)

Melvil Dewey - "Library Card" [YouTube]

Melvil Dewey - "The Dewey Decimal Rap" [YouTube] ("597.3.... sharks!")