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I found in hip-hop the sound of my generation talking to itself, working through the fears and anxieties and inchoate dreams—of wealth or power or revolution or success—we all shared. It broadcast an exaggerated version of our complicated interior lives to the world, made us feel less alone in the madness of the era, less marginal
In Chapter 4, while describing his own struggles as a youngster in the Bronx, Moore provides an explanation of the appeal hip-hop had for him. Though his mother is alarmed that he devotes more attention to learning new lyrics than he applies to his schoolwork, Moore finds a sense of belonging within the world of hip-hop that he doesn’t experience in his precarious social position at home or in school. His attendance at the prestigious Riverdale alienates him from his friends in the Bronx, while his background uncomfortably sets him apart from his classmates. This quote articulates exactly why a sense of community is so important for people. The fact that the sense of community he found in the music is not dependent on a specific place foreshadows how Moore eventually also finds a sense of community through reading.
This was the crew. They would work together, fight together, stay together. An unbreakable bond united the crew—for many members, it was the only support system they had. It was family.
In Chapter 6, Moore describes the close ties Wes has with his drug crew. The notion of the crew as a substitute for family, and the only ones he can rely on, reveals why the group has so much power over Wes and all its members. It also reveals how people can turn to dysfunctional and destructive forms of community given the right circumstances. Because the members lack any other form of support—or community—the drug crew ironically provides them with a sense of stability otherwise missing from their lives. Later in the book, Moore advocates for the importance of building a sense of community in inner-city neighborhoods that have lost their identity as a community, and this quotation illustrates the necessity for these steps. If disadvantaged Black teenagers have no access to the community-building experiences that Moore did, they seek community where they can, including in gangs.
My perception of Hopkins was as a distant force in the neighborhood, a research university responsible for some of the greatest medical gifts the world has ever received, but that had very little to do with the life of the city I knew. Hopkins was also full of kids who did not look or sound like me.
In Chapter 10, as Moore explains his path toward enrolling at Johns Hopkins, he discusses why his attendance there was not a given, despite the university’s close proximity to his neighborhood. The university exists within the community but not as a true part of it. Moore identifies and reflects upon this corrosive dynamic throughout the book, wherein inner-city residents are routinely estranged from nearby resources that could improve their lives. In this passage, Moore explains why this dynamic is so problematic—there is no true sense of community attached to these institutions. They could be wonderful resources for the local people, but to fulfill this role, they must function as part of the community, and they have no willingness to do so. Moore eventually goes on to enroll and graduate from Johns Hopkins, which represents a joining of the two sides of Baltimore that the city and university must encourage to allow residents to thrive.
