"When Wild Style came out, nobody knew about the New York City underground. This record and the film became how you found out about shit that was going on at that time because nobody was really documenting it. This movie became so big and it spread the message of hip hop in a way that hadn't really been done on that scale previously. When you look at the total global domination hip hop culture has now, you can see its roots in this film, in this soundtrack. It was mad fucking powerful. This film is written so intelligently and the story is so compelling. I like the 'Double Trouble' scene where there is acapella rapping and the scene with 'The Cold Crush Brothers'. The scene in the amphitheatre at night where they're killing it is another incredible moment. The music was just so dope throughout and it undoubtedly paved the way for things like Hamilton. I saw Hamilton this year and I'm looking around and looking at all these different people – all different ages, races and genders – and I was like here now you can see the real global domination that hip-hop and rap culture has – I saw it at the start with things like Wild Style and I see it now with Hamilton and its some mad fucking shit to see how far it has come. It's like we took over the world."

"Andrew Smith (Winger; Grasshopper Jungle) pens a phenomenal novel about life's many detours, told in the unforgettable voice of an epileptic teenager with heterochromatic eyes (one blue, one green) and a strange history. When 16-year-old Finn Easton was seven years old, a dead horse that was being transported to a rendering plant fell "one hundred sideways miles" off a bridge and landed on Finn and his mother. The impact broke Finn's back and killed his mother. His epilepsy, which he may grow out of, is a "souvenir" of the accident, and if he does grow out of it, he suspects he may miss the way the seizures empty the words out of his head. Finn measures the world in miles instead of minutes, because he believes "distance is more important than time." His crush, Julia Bishop, a Chicago transplant living with her aunt and uncle because of a devastating secret, admires Finn's perspective on life. The moment he meets Julia, Finn wonders "how many atoms from the same calamities out there in the universe our body shared.... Maybe my right hand and her left hand both came from the same supernova." Julia, ever astute, gets why Finn named his dog Laika, is patient with him during his wild mood swings when he's returning from a "blank out" (seizure) and, most importantly, she loves Finn back. Which makes it crushing for both Finn (and readers) when Julia must return to Chicago--the very place where she was victim of a tragedy that makes Finn wish he "could push the world back all those miles with my bare hands and make it change direction," even if it means they'd never have met. Throughout the novel, Finn suffers from an identity crisis as he questions whether or not he's the product of his father's bestselling cult-classic novel, The Lazarus Door, starring a protagonist with the teen's name, heterochromatic eyes, seizures, and scars identical to the ones he has on his back from his post-accident surgery. So Finn sets out on a road trip with his best friend, the memorable Cade Hernandez, to figure out the ending to his story, when an unexpected accident rewrites their future. Smith's sly commentary on today's school system ("designed to make us all the same," in Cade's words) intertwines with the story of Finn's desperation to break out and be different--not a reproduction of anyone's expectations. The well-rounded supporting characters and the Southern California setting make for a welcome departure from the usual glitz of Los Angeles life. Hilarious and wise, 100 Sideways Miles is an addictive and panoramic read about the intersecting--and divergent--paths that lie ahead. Breathtakingly good."