When did it happen to you?  When did you fall face first onto the hot pavement…?

Love struck.

Was it when her beautiful eyes met yours as she floated passed you? Maybe her long dark legs moving to a beat that matched the rhythm of the ventricles inside your chest. Could it have been the purity of her grin as she revealed the essence of your existence upon opening her mouth? Or was it the way you felt every. single. word. she uttered…sweep past your ear, penetrating deep as she slowly stole the virginity of your neurons. Firing them off…

one.

by.

one.

Sending cold vibrations that gripped your spinal chord. You’re entire body was an action potential. Your skin covered in raised hairs and your right foot began to tap…

tap tap tap to the beat. Thinking to yourself:

HOT DAMN.

The fuck was that?

HIP-HOP. She likes it raw, lives loyal, and is unquestionably…one of them life altering bitches.

My affair with her has made me a fiend for books written about her.

The following book has been a part of my library for quite some time and whether you are the conscious, pop, southern, gangster, or hard-core fan… I recommend adding it to yours as well. It is an account of the culture that hip-hop created and how it’s changed over the last few decades. Everything from the gangs of the Bronx to the swag of the Cali movement and the artists in between.

So Phat kids… do it how the nerds do. Walk into your local Barnes and Noble (I should pay rent there) and pick it up. It is slightly but respectably opinionated, YET incredibly informative.  Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: The History of The Hip-Hop Generation gives you the history lesson we all wish we got junior year of high school.

-Dr. Sanchez