Black musicians have found themselves at the heart of British culture for some 500 years and, in the course of the last 50, have not only transformed the creative landscape but now define music in the UK with acts like Stormzy and Ezra Collective.

This book accompanies the first ever large-scale exhibition on Black music in the UK and explores the people, spaces and messages that formed part of this central British soundtrack. We travel from jazz to calypso, from reggae and punk to soul and rap and onwa