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Some Books About Rap That Are Not By Nelson George, Jeff Chang Or Ego-Trip But Are Worth Reading… Part 1 · by Brandon Soderberg
Signifying Rappers
Many don’t know that one of the generation’s best fiction writers co-wrote a book about rap. It is often left off of Wallace’s biographies making me think he’d rather forget about it, but he shouldn’t because it’s probably the only “intellectual” rap book that is also fun. Costello and Wallace write the book with the premise that they are white guys that share “an uncomfortable, somewhat furtive, and distinctly white enthusiasm for a certain music called rap/hip-hop”. As a result, they take a primarily distant approach to the music, dutifully tracing its origins, and then, moving on to real analysis of the actual signifiers of rap music and rappers.
Even for a bunch of semi-apologetic white guys, they are not afraid to have some rather bold opinions, delineating between “real” rap and “commercial-crossover slush” and repeatedly returning to Jesse Jackson’s infamous and rather questionable post-MLK assassination “blood-stained shirt” both as a symbol of disingenuous action and as Exhibit A of rap signifying. This book can get really smart really quick but it also has fun; one section uses ‘I Dream of Jeannie’-sampling ‘Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble’ to segue into an extended rant about the absence of African Americans on 60s television which itself extends into an imaginary scene of Malcolm X, played by Nipsey Russell showing up on an episode of ‘I Dream of Jeannie’.
‘Signifying Rappers’ is also fun as a time capsule. Reading a book that contains a first-person account of a Slick Rick concert and refers to Gang Starr as “Dorchester’s own” is interesting because it reminds you, the present reader, that these rappers weren’t legends yet, just what everybody was listening to at the time. Oh yeah-rap snobs beware, like a certain Village Voice blogger, these guys’ enthusiasm and intelligence outweighs their rap obsessiveness and as a result, they aren’t afraid to say the wrong thing or get some facts messed-up, so if it annoys you that these guys would refer to (what I assume is) ‘Hunted Child’ by Ice-T as “a 5-minute untraceable cut (taped off WILD-AM/Boston)” with an “inscrutable chorus ‘Honeychild/I’m the Honeychild” then look elsewhere, prick.
Representative Quote: “This is a prototypical 80s-loop reversal, equivalent to arguing that singing ‘Here is my dick’ is innocuous because ‘dick’ is actually functioning as a metonym for the ‘love’ that informs what are ‘really’ just love-song lyrics. That the obversion seems absurdly circular is a fact about semantics and usage, not about the ambition and neat creativity of a rapper who would strip artistic terms of contexts so traditional they’re pre-Greek.”
Rebel for the Hell of It: The Life of Tupac Shakur
Armond White, currently writing for the New York Press, is one of the few critics actually deserving of the tag “controversial”. Like most of White’s work, ‘Rebel for the Hell of It’ is an in-depth, contrarian approach to a popular subject. This was the first biography on Tupac but the book is something of a smuggling act, looking like a typical biography but being really short on facts and moving fast, assuming you know a lot about Tupac, instead concerning itself with what really matters: the music and the politics connected to that music. It is more of a book trying to make sense of Tupac.
Any fan of Tupac, must acknowledge his remarkably consistent inconsistencies and White does this, without veering into critical snark or ever seeming mean-spirited. However, White is not afraid to address Tupac’s hypocrisy, moving beyond what many critics and fans passed-off as “complex” showing how it ran much deeper than that. White is never too harsh but he never shies away from Tupac’s notable shortcomings, particularly Tupac’s strange mix of take-no-shit rebellion with an equally fervent need to please. The tone is “almost…” as White consistently finds Tupac’s music falling short of greatness or true insight, moving so close and only occasionally hitting its mark exactly. A particularly strong section compares and contrasts ‘Dear Mama’ with country singer Merle Haggard’s wonderful ‘Mama Tried’. Sometimes White’s multi-genre approach fails but even when it does, it fails bravely and wisely (like Tupac), out of perhaps, too much effort rather than not enough.
An early section attempting to connect the Undisputed Truth’s ‘Smilin’ Faces (Sometimes)’ to Tupac’s childhood is not so much incorrect as it is a stretch, feeling more like White just wanted to talk about how great that song is but then remember he was being paid to write about Tupac. But there’s something appealing about that too, right? The enthusiasm and passion of Armond White’s writing spills over even when the presentation feels incongruous.
Representative Quote: “The [Village] Voice made entertainment of Tupac’s trials, running feverish speculations about his shooting and hospital release as the lead Music Section story (meanwhile neglecting to review the simultaneous release of Scarface’s solo album ‘The Diary’ – an extraordinary musical work that is the model for psychological expression Tupac openly imitated). Tupac became a favored rapper for hip journalists because he exemplified white negro fantasies more than other rappers – L.L., too sane; Chuck D, too political; Speech, too erudite; Geto Boys, not slick enough; De La Soul, too idiosyncratic.”
More to come tomorrow.
Comments for "Some Books About Rap That Are Not By Nelson George, Jeff Chang Or Ego-Trip But Are Worth Reading… Part 1"
love A.W. never knew he put a book out on 2pac. will definitely have 2 check it out.
— jb May 3, 05:05 PM
Cool, love the title & look forward to Part 2.
— hoosteen May 4, 01:05 AM