Reviews - They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us

2.54k reviews for:

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us

Hanif Abdurraqib

4.61 AVERAGE

jessbyard25's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

moreadsabook's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective

Beautiful, beautiful book. He's such an amazing writer and I'm so so happy I finally read this. I can't wait to go back to the essays over the years.

This didn't get a full five stars from me because I feel like some essays felt out of place. While I loved him talking about sports and other topics (can't wait to read his essay collection on basketball!!) it felt jarring here when they weren't connected to music because he opened with a strong lead into music and about 90% of the essays are focused on songs, albums and artists. I wish that had been the case the whole time.

But I did love every essay here (the white Rapper one I could have done without!!)

amymarietruax's review against another edition

5.0

This is ostensibly a book of essays centered around music, but in reality it is so much more than that. Abdurraqib beautifully explores themes of race, belonging, class, and grief in pieces about Fall Out Boy, Chance the Rapper, Migos, and more, in a way that was so unexpected. This is some of the most moving prose I've read in a long time. I can't recommend it enough.

sarabearian's review against another edition

A beautiful body of work, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us is a collection of essays about music, race, and life in modern America. Hanif Abdurraqib has an incredible voice and weaves personal stories with pop culture and the difficult to discuss realities of America. Even if you are not interested in the pop culture aspect, the essays are about much more than what is on the surface. My personal favorite essay is Fall Out Boy Forever. -Jenny L.

citylifejc's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. I never expected to cry while reading an essay about Fall Out Boy but that happened while reading this book. I picked this up after I heard Hanif on a music podcast and wanted to read more of his musical opinions. This book has that: essays on artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen, Carly Rae Jepsen, Chance the Rapper and more than a few emo bands. But it’s also deeper in that it’s about what it is to love music passionately, what it is to identify with an artist, to find community through music - it’s also broader - there are also essays on sports, culture and society. BUT even deeper these essays are about friendship, death, grieving, race, and living as a man of color in the despairscape that is Trump’s America - sometimes many of these things in the same essay. I’ve actually been taking my time reading it here and there because it is so dense and emotionally rich I wanted to take time to savor and digest it - but being that his new book about A Tribe Called Quest is being released tomorrow, I decided it was time to finally finish this one. A blurb on the back calls him the Ta-Nehisi Coates of popular culture and that doesn’t seem too grandiose a claim. Can’t wait to see what he has to say about Tribe!