Last Night at the Housing Works Used Books Cafe.....

Last night, I went to the Housing Works Used Book Cafe to hear Jeff Chang and Touré speak.

Jeff is the author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation and his website is a fixture on my sidebar here at BillyBlog. The book, which won an American Book Award last year and went into multiple hardcover printings, just came out in paperback. The event celebrated its paperback release, along with Touré's Never Drank the Kool-Aid, a book of his essays.





I went primarily to see Jeff, who I have known since, gee, 1972, when we were in kindergarten at Iolani together. The success of his book is astounding, as I saw it listed on several top 10 lists for 2005, including Blender's best book of 2005, and New York magazine's best music book of the year, to name just a few.

The subjects of discussion ranged all over, from Matisyahu, the state of hip-hop, Flavor Flav, Lauren Hill, Kanye West, etc etc. I have neither the wherewithal, nor the time to elaborate further, but I strongly recommend checking out either writer's book, and check your local calendars to see if they're in your neck of the woods.

One event I'd recommend is the L.A. Times Book Festival on April 29. That's always a manic monster event and worth the price of admission.