If you are a person molded by music and the stories behind the lyrics, you will not be able to put this down. I felt every poetic line in They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us because Hanif made it seem like you were at these concerts with him, listening to these albums for the first time with his fingers tapping against your skin on the beat, and it makes you want to take a road trip to Ohio where Hanif picks the playlist and you just sit there and soak it all in. But just focusing on the musical commentary puts this book in a box it doesn't deserve. It doesn't matter if you know or love the artists, these essays are so much more than that. These are essays about living and surviving and they are brilliantly filtered through your favorite artists and pop culture in a way that elevates Abdurraqib into a new space as one of the greatest voices we have today. Everyone should pay attention to him and bow down to his words.