How Black Music Took Over the World takes readers inside the vibrant world that underlies Black musical creation, demonstrating the impact that the musical inheritance of Africa has had on music today. Beginning with two rhythmic building blocks he calls the cell and the frame, musician, composer and cultural theorist Melvin Gibbs reveals Black music as an organised system of knowledge. Blending cultural history and musical analysis, he explores how Black music has shaped nearly every music genre on the planet, from carnival music in Brazil to rap ciphers in New York and global pop. How Black Music Took Over the World explores rhythm, vibration and movement to challenge Western musical hierarchies and offer new tools for understanding our musical heritage.

"A revelatory new book." - New York Times

"Melvin's prose grooves just as hard as his bass playing." - W. Kamau Bell, comedian, author, and director

"A compelling and immersive journey, not only into music’s DNA, but also into why and how it does what it does to us. Conclusion: music is life and inextricably woven into the human experience. A deeply researched and well-written work." - Henry Rollins, writer and radio show host

"Insightful, revelatory, and informative." - Meshell Ndegeocello, singer-songwriter and poet