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  Posted By:
  Rowdee at 05/08/2008 7:18:30 PM
  Comment:
  This is one of the most beautiful and accurate accounts of what life was like during the age of Chuck D and De La Soul. No one could explain our anger and hunger except those few who were bold enough and bad enough to pick up the steel. As one of those kids who came up similarly during the same time period, I am moved to know that the feelings and the atmosphere of '88 is not forgotten. One love, awesome job.
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  Posted By:
  DeBigBri at 05/08/2008 6:37:29 PM
  Comment:
  This is a powerful excerpt. I'm eager to read the book but would hope to find some balance there where the gangsta/angry style (not that there aren't things to be angry about) is juxtaposed with something else. In particular, some clues/guidelines as to how young black men might navigate the danger age from 12-18!
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  Posted By:
  swiffish at 05/08/2008 4:16:45 PM
  Comment:
  Mr. Coates does an outstanding job of expressing the times that helped to mold him. Easily accessible, popular culture leads us to believe that there is no way to survive the streets with a soul intact. A salute to his father and to Mr. Coates' own strength for doing just that.
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  Posted By:
  Typhoon McGoon at 05/08/2008 12:34:34 PM
  Comment:
  Interesting. But also sad and pathetic.
  
  Much like the hippie movement of the 1960's, which they believed was going to change the world, this article describes an imaginary afrocentric reality created out of massively overscrutinized and overanalyzed navel-lint, and purports that the real world revolves around it. Analogous to the LSD trips of the hippies, this world is filled with larger than life plans and concepts of great significance, and much like the acid-hallucinations, these ideas become obviously mundane and ill-conceived, and maybe a little embarrassing, in the cold light of morning when the high has worn off.
  
  The black-nationalist-militant concept, and the rap music of the late 80's that capitalized on it, included no realistic plans or detailed blueprints for improving the future for blacks, instead relying on generalized idealistic rhetoric based on lurid fictions, fueled by strong but misguided intentions. It was more of a fashion statement than a political movement, a soapbox for self promoting hucksters and sociopaths with delusions of grandeur.
  
  This article makes mention several times of calls for black men to take up guns to engage in some undefined struggle (Against who? Who were you going to use those guns on? Each other as it turned out...) as if armed struggle or civil war was what was needed for blacks to improve their lot in life. And courtesy of Public Enema, the abomination of "gangsta rap" was born. Thanks a lot for that, just what the world needed...
  
  The author starts out with a description of himself as a very young man, and on the right track. It would benefit the black race more than anything else to add as many as possible examples of educated, nerdy men with taped glasses and polyhedric dice to their ranks, as this man describes himself. Instead as he grows older he buys into the destructive ideas violent black militancy and the gang/thug "lifestyle" (deathstyle?)
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  Posted By:
  LupinYonsei at 05/08/2008 10:09:42 AM
  Comment:
  I grew up white and nerdy, and also had a similar epiphany regarding hip hop in the 80's. This is a great excerpt. The author seems like a skilled writer and I look forwarding to reading the book.
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  Posted By:
  professorh at 05/08/2008 8:13:15 AM
  Comment:
  NOW I understand better why young men in public rap to themselves. I used to find it annoying (and likely shall continue to, sorry!); however, my initial annoyance shall now be tempered with understanding, a la Ta-Nehisi's Rosetta Stone. In fact? As I process what Ta-Nehisi has written, it occurs to me that I have engaged in similar conduct. During my recent existence in a breathlessly hostile work environment, I actively self-soothed and warded off toxicity when I walked the halls, spoke to myself, and made zero eye contact with my tormentors. I didn't rap; however, I did rely upon my ancestral backbones and struggles and triumphs. I look forward to the book tour, hope Ta-Nehisi won't utter the "n" word (I was so riveted by the intro, as well as the announcement that, essentially, the book is HERE, that forwarded his link without reading it in its entirety and had to send a few follow-up "sorry!" e-mails once I saw THAT there), and will introduce myself as a fan from waaay back.
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  Posted By:
  maliph at 05/08/2008 12:44:24 AM
  Comment:
  whoah nellie. head still spinnin.
  . and in the beginning was the Word .
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  Posted By:
  dobojite at 05/07/2008 9:34:21 PM
  Comment:
  Amazing. Reading it leaves me feeling a bit empty as my life is flatland and wind blowing through the cornfields of the midwest. It seems unreal sometimes and without MTV and other mediums would have been completely unknown to me. Can't wait to get ahold of the book.
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  Posted By:
  bgilmore62 at 05/07/2008 8:05:03 AM
  Comment:
  unemployment at a record high
  people comin' people goin' people born to die
  don't ask me because i don't know why
  but its like that and that's the way it is
  -run dmc
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  Posted By:
  bgilmore62 at 05/07/2008 8:03:18 AM
  Comment:
  "unemployment at a record high...
  people comin', people goin' people born to die
  don't ask me because i don't know why
  but it's like that, and that's the way it is..."
  - run dmc
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  Posted By:
  amazonred at 05/06/2008 1:17:31 PM
  Comment:
  Beautiful.