This book has received the AESA (American Educational Studies Association) Critics Choice Award 2013.
Through ethnographically informed interviews and observations conducted with six Black middle and high school girls, Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak explores how young women navigate the space of Hip Hop music and culture to form ideas concerning race, body, class, inequality, and privilege. The thriving atmosphere of Atlanta, Georgia serves as the background against which these youth consume Hip Hop, and the book examines how the city’s socially conservative politics, urban gentrification, race relations, Southern-flavored Hip Hop music and culture, and booming adult entertainment industry rest in their periphery. Intertwined within the girls’ exploration of Hip Hop and coming of age in Atlanta, the author shares her love for the culture, struggles of being a queer educator and a Black lesbian living and researching in the South, and reimagining Hip Hop pedagogy for urban learners.

«With the unflinching bravery of a Hip Hop feminist, Bettina L. Love confronts the damaging effects of Hip Hop on young Black girls, while loving Hip Hop and articulating how it reflects the racism, capitalism, sexism, and patriarchy of America.» (Elaine Richardson, The Ohio State University; Author of ‘Hiphop Literacies’)
«Bettina L. Love’s unique stance is bold and a critical conversation starter. We travel with the author from Rochester, New York to Atlanta, Georgia, making stops along the way to deconstruct the media’s role in contemporary Hip Hop, address the consumption of Hip Hop by Black girls, explore the role of the South on Hip Hop, and meet seven amazing young women who take us on this starkly honest journey. This book is a beautiful piece of scholarship.» (Christopher Emdin, Columbia University; Author of ‘Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation’)
«With the unflinching bravery of a Hip Hop feminist, Bettina L. Love confronts the damaging effects of Hip Hop on young Black girls, while loving Hip Hop and articulating how it reflects the racism, capitalism, sexism, and patriarchy of America.» (Elaine Richardson, The Ohio State University; Author of ‘Hiphop Literacies’)
«Bettina L. Love’s unique stance is bold and a critical conversation starter. We travel with the author from Rochester, New York to Atlanta, Georgia, making stops along the way to deconstruct the media’s role in contemporary Hip Hop, address the consumption of Hip Hop by Black girls, explore the role of the South on Hip Hop, and meet seven amazing young women who take us on this starkly honest journey. This book is a beautiful piece of scholarship.» (Christopher Emdin, Columbia University; Author of ‘Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation’)

Bettina L. Love is an assistant professor in the Department of Elementary and Social Studies at the University of Georgia. Her work has appeared in numerous books and journals, including Gender Forum, Educational Studies, and Race, Gender and Class.