by Jeff Chang and Davey D

Jeff Chang's award-winning 2005 history of hip hop has recently been remixed for a young adult audience. Trimmed down in half from its hefty 600 pages, the history has been updated to include the Black Lives Matter movement. While the YA version could have benefited from the inclusion of some documentary photographs from the eras explored, being picture-less does make it a really good choice to listen to as an audio-book. Although the history is detailed and extensive, it flows and easily engages the reader. Chang does a great job of showing how social and political events affect hip hop and vice versa. This is a perfect read for Black History Month.

If a teen in your life might be interested in learning more about hip hop, we'll be reading Can't Stop Won't Stop in this month's Young Adult Nonfiction Book Club, meeting via Zoom on Thursday, February 24th from 5:00 - 5:45 pm. We'll also be exploring making some beats and discussing some of our favorite hip hop tracks. For more information and to register, email teens@joneslibrary.org.

See the Jones Library Antiracism Book List for recommended titles for all ages.