All educators and hip hop enthusiasts should read this book ASAP!

As I draw closer to my 40s, I often reflect on where and when my enrapture with hip hop culture started and why it persists today. Whether it was my first babysitter's posters of Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante, or LL Cool J, watching music videos on The Box, or BET, seeing Lauryn Hill and the Fugees perform at a local recreation center/art gallery in my neighborhood, or watching breakdancing or poplocking "battles" in my community. The thrill of (watching) freestyles in the park or in building lobbies, or the slang we used, I can't remember a time when it wasn't a central part of my life and how I viewed the world. As I grew, it influenced my approach to school and then college. Then, it informed my approach to business, personal development, and (rightfully or otherwise) the relationships I developed with my peers, loved ones, or romantic partners. Much of what I learned came from family. But right there, always, was hip hop culture.

And as I became and educator, having taught at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels for the last 15 years, as well as in correctional facilities, it gave me pedagogical tools to deploy teaching, learning, and listening, and deepen relationships with my students and educational community. Hip hop gave me a cultural sense of self and self-worth. And, as the generations go by in the classroom, it changes forms, but I recognize it has done the same for the students -- giving them a place where they belong and a cultural and intellectual home.

I never had the language, organization, or frameworks to describe this powerful connection until Toby Jenkin's "The Hip Hop Mindset" and the essays therein. The work is steeped in theoretical guidance, stemming from some of the world's best education, cultural, and political philosophers (in Hip Hop and beyond), with such sharpness in the way it has applied hip hop's foundations to effective teaching and instruction in the classroom and in professional settings. This is a love story to the many scholars who have already written about hip hop in the classroom. But taking it a step further, Toby generates new theories and models that can be applied to educational leadership, professional development, purpose-seeking, and political and cultural survival. This book will have incredible impact. Read it for yourself. Read it for your future. And read it for the students and community you love.

In all her Majesty, Dr. Toby Jenkins takes the mic and drops The Hip-Hop Mindset, which outlines and discusses Hip-Hop is health, Hip-Hop is wealth, and Hip-Hop is love. The Hip-Hop Mindset framework can be applied to all spaces, especially in health and medicine where—authenticity, creativity, community, dopeness, and oral storytelling—are in want and can center stories and people that are historically oppressed. We need more paradigm-shifting books like this!

Toby Jenkins' "The Hip-Hop Mindset" is an exhilarating investigation of the significant impact of hip-hop culture on our viewpoints and attitudes. Jenkins digs expertly into the heart of this iconic movement, deconstructing its revolutionary influence on society, art, and self-expression. The book navigates the intricate network of hip-hop's history, its relevance in successive generations, and its power to alter the way we see the world through colorful anecdotes and thought-provoking analysis. "The Hip-Hop Mindset" is a powerful plea to embrace the ethos of hip-hop beyond music, and it is a must-read for anybody looking to comprehend the far-reaching consequences of this cultural phenomenon. Jenkins' words reverberate like the beat of a legendary song, inspiring readers to embrace the philosophy that has altered the globe.