Some Books About Rap … Part 2

May 04, 2007

Some Books About Rap … Part 2 · by Brandon Soderberg

Yesterday Brandon looked at two quality rap books not written by Jeff Chang, Nelson George or Ego Trip. He presents another three notable titles today.

Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G by Cheo Hodari Coker

Most rap books are bad, most rap biographies are even worse, but Cheo Hodari Coker’s is nearly perfect. Are there any other Biggie books? There’s a book or two about his murder and Jake Brown, author of numerous cash-in rap bios wrote one, but there’s not really another Biggie bio.

Coker is also a screenwriter and his ability to turn real-life into drama works towards making this a stellar biography rather than an adequate one. We get a factual account of Biggie’s life but often through a style that is a bit more immediate than typical biography, we get scenes of dialogue, plenty of quotes from Biggie and other direct participants, and film-like juxtapositions.

Coker not only informs but educates, dropping references that the average reader of the book may not necessarily know. Biggie’s entry into dealing is prefaced with a short but informative history of cocaine, its origins, its place in pop-culture, to its development into crack and the crack epidemic. The rap culture in particular, seem willfully ignorant of anything other than rap, so Coker’s references to Richard Wright or ‘Superfly’, even the cocaine gag from Woody Allen’s ‘Annie Hall’ have an added dimension of not only illustrating a point but maybe piquing a curious reader’s interest.

By refusing to simply present a narrative of facts, dates, and events, the information provided actually becomes significantly more memorable. Early on, as Biggie moves from being a smart but smart-ass high school kid to a crack dealer, it’s presented through Biggie hiding his fly drug-dealer clothes on the roof so his mother wouldn’t find them. Focusing on this deceptive aspect of Biggie, the negative aspects of crack dealing are highlighted while also giving the scene suspense. We’re moving through Biggie’s life along with him. Like Biggie, we are kept on-edge waiting for the scene where Big will get busted for dealing or his mom will find out. Also, because we all know how Biggie’s life ends, Coker’s book is constantly moving towards death, but with something a bit more personal than “just the facts” making Biggie’s death all the more palpable. I recall finishing this book and being devastated for the rest of the day.

Representative Quote: “Wallace always figured that, over time, the paranoia and confusion of those tumultuous days would work themselves out. He figured that he would run into Shakur sooner or later, sit down, and iron everything out. The situation was hot, but he was sure it would eventually cool off. Wallace was wrong. Dead wrong.”

The New H.N.IC: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop by Todd Boyd

The thesis of Todd Boyd’s book is intentionally provocative: The civil-rights era is over, it can only be of interest from a historical perspective, and it has been replaced by among other things, hip-hop. Boyd, who was born in 1965, falls somewhere between these two eras, and thinks the death of the civil rights era and the ascendancy of hip-hop is a good thing. Besides Boyd’s precarious position between the two eras, he also occupies a weird space between the right and the left, openly criticizing and being openly criticized by both. He has been attacked by Spike Lee but Boyd’s book is fairly Afrocentric and openly refers to anything with connections to white culture with disdain. Boyd focuses on Eminem, referring to him as a “white nigga” and discussing the white media’s embrace with an equal amount of intelligence and what often feels like blind anger. Early in the book, Boyd brazenly dismisses 60s Motown because of its integrated fan-base and dismissively refers to it as “the first crossover music”. At the same time, he has little patience for identity politics games and has a rather interesting perspective on the dreaded N-word. The book is legitimately complicated because it’s like a rap album: a quick dive into one dude’s mind for better or worse.

Boyd is nothing if not critical, in the truest sense of the word “critical”, meaning, discerning and able to explain his discernment. Although I don’t think anybody could possibly agree with all of his statements, Boyd’s ability to see rap for what it is rather than what it isn’t is refreshing. He often quotes lyrics from Nas or Outkast to prove a point and is adept at quickly cutting to the point, explaining just what a rap lyric can do or is doing. A discussion of Jay-Z’s particularly egregious lyric-biting is defended as a true bridging the gap between the oft-arguing rap regions. These close-readings of rap lyrics build throughout the book to an overall point about rap’s ability to bring people together, to improve things, quite the opposite of what those on FOX news or ’60 Minutes’ want to do. The way rap is unfairly criticized is a point Boyd often returns to and he makes a good argument that in, what I’ve been jokingly referred to as “this post-Imus climate,” is increasingly important.

Representative Quote: “During the summer of 2001, the young actor Robert Iler, who plays Anthony Jr. on ‘The Sopranos’ was arrested in New York on charges of assault, robbery, and smoking weed, with a posse of other individuals. Iler’s actions seem to parallel the actions of the mischievous character he plays on the show, but will there be a public outcry that suggests that Iler is a thug and that because of this the show should be taken of the air? Not likely. Though some lone individuals have expressed that the show demeans Italian Americans, this in no way stands the chance of becoming a national outrage or cause of censorship from some avaricious politicians.”

Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America by Bakari Kitwana

This book made OhWord’s 2005 list of ‘Books We’ll Never Read’ and while the title led me to think the same thing, it’s actually a very interesting read. Using obvious subjects like Eminem to profiles of “everyday” white people who listen to rap music, the result is a very sympathetic approach to the white rap listener.

Kitwana frames the book around the division between “old racial politics” and “new racial politics” and the way in which “new racial politics” is at work in hip-hop culture and can become a minor but not insignificant step towards racial equality. This, in and of itself makes it worth reading because so many discussions of rap remain stuck at cultural ownership. Kitwana addresses, understands, and accepts this approach but attempts to look beyond it, towards something a bit more complicated and unexpected.

The book maintains this sense of giving the reader the unexpected. In a chapter on hip-hop films made by white people, Kitwana analyzes James Toback’s ‘Black & White’, Warren Beatty’s ‘Bulworth’, and yes, Jamie Kennedy’s ‘Malibu’s Most Wanted’ and then, makes the argument that ‘Malibu’s Most Wanted’ is the most relevant and intelligent depiction of hip-hop! And you know what? Kitwana’s right! Another chapter gives an interpretation of Eminem that is in every way sympathetic as Todd Boyd’s discussion was critical. Kitwana intelligently equates Eminem’s rough-and-tumble trailer park childhood to the “ghetto” life of many black rappers. Another chapter destroys the myth that rap music is primarily purchased by whites in the suburbs through tangible research and a discussion of social trends. Although a bit dry at times, the book is quite good at making an argument for white people’s active place in hip-hop.

Representative Quote: “…Hip-hop is a framework, a culture that has brought young people together and provides a public space that they can communicate within unrestricted by the old obstacles. Simultaneously, young whites are engaging with Black youth culture just as corporate culture has become a tool for marketing everything, even Blackness, via pop culture. In short, American has changed.”

Comments for "Some Books About Rap … Part 2"

Armond White on Todd Boyd’s HNIC: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030317/white

— jb May 4, 01:20 PM
I’m going to write a book on Illmatic. You wait and see, my friends!

— Renato Pagnani May 4, 05:17 PM
that biggie book is def the sauce. i havent read it in a while, might need to crack it open again.

— khal May 5, 11:23 AM
Good rap-up; i’ll be checkin for a couple of those titles. The first Hip Hop book I really got into was ‘Bomb The Suburbs’ by Upski or something(?)

— CommishCH May 5, 04:28 PM
That Biggie book is top class. I’m a Biggie stan so for me it is gold, Coker can definitely write. I also have ‘Have Gun Will Travel : The Rise and Fall of Death Row Records’ also written by Coker. That book is top bollocks I would recommend anyone get it. The research that has gone in to it is phenomenal and breaks down the whole hip-hop scene in LA from the mid 80’s onwards. Definitely a worthwhile read.

— EnglandRepresent May 7, 03:45 AM
Here’s a good book you missed.

http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2007_04B_opptanz.html

— DJ Flash May 10, 06:26 PM
I didn’t miss that one, I’m just not a big fan of it. Starting with the title and going from there, Tanz’s perspective on who should and how they should listen to rap is to me, outdated. Also suffers from Jeff Chang syndrome: spending little time actually discussing the music…

— brandonsoderberg May 10, 09:01 PM