This volume is a pause, an attempt to create a cartography of the ever-shifting and ever-changing process of métissagebetween Blackness, Indigeneity and Hip-Hop. In essence, the volume is an ode to Hip-Hop, a gesture of love and an acknowledgement of that beautiful circle in and around which Blackness and Indigeneity meet by the grace of Hip-Hop. In and around that circle, Hip-Hop emerges as a site of identification and investment; that is, how and why Indigenous and Black youth are investing so heavily in Hip-Hop. As forms of worlding, Hip-Hop encodes processes and practices within the spoken words, the arrangement of bodies and beats- to choreograph consent- a practice inherent in the cypher. The volume brings innovative criticality to the intersections of Hip-Hop, Blackness and Indigeneity. These intersections are rarely explored and this volume is a rare attempt to explore how and why Hip-Hop emerges as a site of identification and investment for Black and Indigenous people, especially the young, as they journey in their social, historical and political struggle. WORD!
