Hold Tight: Black Masculinity, Millennials & the Meaning of Grime [NEW EDITION] by Jeffrey Boakye

HOLD TIGHT is the book that kick started the 'Grime Library'. Bursting into bookshops in July 2017 to rave reviews and a sold out event at Rough Trade East, HOLD TIGHT paved the way for Grime-related books such as Wiley's Eskiboy (Penguin 2017), Dan Hancox's Inner City Pressure (4th Estate 2018), and DJ Target's Grime Kids (Trapeze 2018, now being made into a television series).

This new edition of HOLD TIGHT features new chapters for 2018, a brand new introduction from Boakye and a brand new cover. This makes HOLD TIGHT the most up to date book on Grime in 2018.

Celebrating over sixty key songs that make up Grime’s DNA, Jeffrey Boakye explores the meaning of the music and why it has such resonance in the UK. Boakye also examines the representation of masculinity in the music and the media that covers it.

Both a love letter to Grime and an investigation into life as a black man in Britain today, HOLD TIGHT is insightful, very funny and stacked with sentences you’ll want to pull up and read again and again.

HOLD TIGHT playlist featuring all the tracks featured in the book is available on YouTube and Spotify, so now you can listen along while you read!

About the author

Jeffrey Boakye is a writer, teacher and music enthusiast from Brixton, now living and working in East London. He has a particular interest in issues surrounding education, race and popular culture. Jeffrey has taught English in London secondary schools and sixth form colleges since 2007.

Hold Tight is his first book.

Praise for Hold Tight

Boakye writes affectionately and incisively about the music, lyrics, and the social context of each of the 50 or so tracks featured, tracing their nuanced connections. It’s one of the best music books I’ve read and the YouTube playlist only makes it better.
– John McGregor, The Guardian

...witty and perceptive, confident and charming—and its flow and timing are flawless.
– New Statesman

One of the greatest books I’ve ever read.
– Sabrina Mahfouz

One of the most exciting book releases of the summer.
– Noisey

Jeffrey Boakye has written a fabulously textural polemic.
– DJ Magazine

Couldn't put it down... an essential starting point if you're looking to develop a wider knowledge of the genre.
– Jammz

As well as providing insightful historical context, Hold Tight gives sharp analysis of how black masculinity was depicted in the music.
– The Fader

Boakye writes entertainingly and knowledgeably about subjects clearly close to his heart. As much as anything, it's an engaging analysis of grime from a personal perspective and just adds as another reminder of grime's cultural significance.
– Complex UK

Further Reading

Interview with Jeffrey Boakye – Between Borders

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-910312-41-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1910312261

Publication date: July 2017

Formats: Paperback / eBook