The book features contributions from scholars and intellectuals including Adilifu Nama, Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., James Peterson, Marc Lamont Hill, Mark Anthony Neal, Imani Perry, Kyra Gaunt, and Eddie S. Glaude.

But the final mix you hold is more than the sum of its parts, as we've brought together an eclectic group of writers, scholars, poets, filmmakers, journalists, novelists, musicians, and combinations thereof who have all grown up with hip hop and have been deeply connected to it from jump.

In essence, Born to Use Mics is a literary remix, a cipher in book form as all of these contributors offer up unique and fresh perspectives, as they mediate on the significance of Illmatic.

[3][4]Born to Use Mics... attempts to establish itself as a guide for exploring Illmatic and its lessons on race, gender, and hip-hop culture.

The book has been noted as a milestone in hip-hop scholarship, since it is the first to assemble a group of scholars and intellectuals to analyze a singular album within the genre.