Best Books For Hip-Hop Feminists
The 8 Books Every Hip-Hop Feminist Should Read
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"When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down" by Joan Morgan ($18)
Joan Morgan coined the term "hip-hop feminism" with the publication of this book in 1999. "When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost" explores the complexities of being a Black woman in the modern world, traversing the contradictory messages that can stem from modern feminism and the pressures it puts on women.
The book has since been critiqued, as modern understandings of feminism have grown more sophisticated and terms like misogynoir have emerged — a fact that Morgan celebrates. "I'm excited there are women who have moved past it, who have added to my original theorizing, and people who disagree with it," Morgan told Vibe in 2019. "The book gave a generation of young women who needed it a way to connect to feminism as clearly — or even more clearly — than their connection to hip-hop, which for a lot of us came first. That's the thing I'm most proud of."