And It Don't Stop: the Best American Hip-Hip Journalism of the Last 25 Years

Black Issues Book Review, Sept-Oct, 2004

Edited by Racquel Cepeda Foreword by Nelson George Faber and Faber, Inc., September 2004 $15.00, ISBN 0-571-21159-3

This engaging anthology captures the controversial moments of hip-hop from its birth in 1979 to now. In his Foreword, Nelson George recalls being a very young music journalist who had trouble placing a story on Kurtis Blow in a black publication! Editor Raquel Cepeda, most recently editor of Russell Simmons's OneWorld magazine, chronologically arranges contributions from 30 writers including George, Cheo Hodari Coker, Barry Michael Cooper, Carol Cooper, Joan Morgan, Kevin Powell, Danyel Smith, Greg Tate, Toure and Emil Wilbekin. Her introductions to the three organizing sections of the book, representing each decade so far of hip-hop culture, evoke the precise cultural signposts of each era as well as the flava of the times.

--Reviewed by the BIBR Editorial Staff