As you turn the pages of this lovingly curated look at the birth of hip-hop in the "Boogie Down" Bronx of the 1970s and '80s, you can practically hear the snap of breakbeats, smell the fumes of spray paint, and feel the bodies bumping on neighborhood basketball courts. The book attempts to capture the volatile borough, which was both a vibrant melting pot and racial pressure cooker filled with social activists and destructive gangs, good music, and bad drugs.

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