Excellent Collection of Essays by a Contemporary Poet and Social Excavator

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

Hanif Abduraqib by

Mwa410, CC BY-SA 4.0  via Wikimedia Commons

I’ve only read one other book by Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain, which explores his personal connection with A Tribe Called Quest. While Hanif is a few years younger than me and had different experiences growing up, I felt such a connection to him the way he connected with Tribe. I absolutely loved that book because he was able to translate the feelings that great music conveys to listeners. In addition, Hanif explores the historical context of the songs, albums and lives of Tribe’s members, mostly focusing on Q-Tip and Phife, while also including his own personal life events and how the music relates to his life, especially his adolescence, which was when I first encountered ATCQ as well. I was really glad that I finally read this collection of essays because Hanif uses similar methods to explore a broad range of musicians, musical styles, songs, and albums. However, he also analyzes social issues, literature, films, and basketball. While I don’t know a lot about emo music, Hanif describes going to shows that reminded me of going to see basement shows of friends’ bands in college. His ability to vividly describe the scene, as well as the journey there and what happens afterward, made his experiences familiar to my own. Although I felt that his essays on music were some of my favorites, his writings about his family and educational experiences were some of the most moving and powerful in this book. His ability to interweave his own personal experiences with the topics of his essays truly shows his deft skills as a writer. It also makes me want to just sit down and hang out with him. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book where I’ve felt such a connection with the writer. I’m looking forward to reading his latest. 

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