Q. Where can i find information on contemporary hip hop and hip hop from the 70's for my compare and contarast paper?

Depends on what kind of information you are looking for - you can search for the specific bands/groups/singers or you can search by style or by location (United States, Japan, New York, etc.) with the term hip hop (use AND to connect them) or by the more broad term hip hop.  You may find some in our general databases - check out OneSearch on our library homepage (www.alamo.edu/nvc/library).  We also have some music/dance databases: http://www.alamo.edu/nvc/lrc/databases.htm (check under the music option) - specifically Oxford Music Online, Fine Arts and Music Collection, or Music Online.  We also have a Pop Culture Collection database.  We also have some physical books here on campus that might work including: Yes Yes Y'all and Hip Hop America.  If you are interested in specific biographies, we have Biography in Context. Also check out some of the history databases like Us History in Context.  There are some items in Literature Resources from Gale. 

Some outside sources that you might want to check out:

Cornell University Hip Hop Collection

Birthplace of Hip Hop

Columbia College Rap and Hip Hop Resources

Hip Hop and Education (lots of links towards the bottom of the page)

Rolling Stone Magazine may have some stuff in it as well (You can find 1990 - present in Academic Search Complete).

If you want lyrics, there is The Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive or you can probably find some good lyric sites using Google (I generally have good luck with lyricsFreak or azlyrics).

Hopefully, this will give you a bit of a start.  Please let me know if you need anything else.