LL Cool J

November 1, 2012

Gr 5-8-Dark, almost foreboding-looking covers set the mood for this series. The inside images, which are unfortunately very grainy and unfocused color photographs, continue to emphasize the gritty aspects of hip-hop. Chapters include a look at the artists' childhoods and how they shaped their lives. Subsequent sections cover their career development, lives today, and impacts on the music scene. Each chapter begins with a helpful "Hip-Hop lingo" text box that defines industry terms and vocabulary, but usually only as they relate to music; e.g., "auditioned" is described as "A person who auditioned sang or performed for someone to see if that person liked his work and wanted to give him a job." Defined terms are in bold type throughout the texts. The writing is rather poor with short, choppy sentences, and the editing can be sloppy.

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