Urban Literature: Wish It Would Disappear

Urban Literature: Wish It Would Disappear
12-Jun-2009
Written by: Ivory Sherman

Honestly, Urban Literature is not even worth reading.

I read novels because they are an escape from reality, so to read "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by the talented Zora Neale Hurston was truly a privilege. I had the chance to analyze this beautiful and delicate language that made this novel a true classic. Unfortunately, I could not say the same for my colleague who told my English teacher she would much rather read "Chocolate Flava II" by Zane.

When my colleague said that, my world turned upside down. Why would you want to read a Zane novel instead of a true classic? This so-called urban literature promotes negative images of African-American people has become significantly popular over the last few years and I disliked it. However, as long as major bookstores or kiosks kept what I called "sex in books" out of my sight, I was sane.

Unfortunately, when I walked into a Karibu Bookstore and saw a whole section of these so called books, I lost a piece of my mind. These urban literature books remind me of the slime mold in my mother's garden. No matter how hard or how many times you try to get rid of it, it keeps coming back. Recently published urban literature introduces the reader to the world of hustlers, pimps, thugs, blinged-out rappers, and "baby mama drama." Make sure you keep those books with an erotica label away from your impressionable 13 year old because they might learn too much about the "birds and the bees."

Books were the last thing that the African-American people had that didn't promote negative stereotypes; but like a virulent virus, urban literature came and destroyed the true essence of books. The media promotes images that the African-American community is promiscuous, materialistic, irresponsible and uneducated. Every time I turn on BET or MTV I see these images and it upsets me, I cannot turn on the television without a stereotype jumping off the screen. I think it is even safe to say these authors are dumbing down Black literature. If they are capable of writing trashy novels then they could write a novel uplifting the human spirit. Instead it gives another reason for the older generation to point their finger and say "your generation is all about sex."

As much as I love my generation (and as much as I like to prove the older generation wrong), I have to agree with them. It seems all our generation wants to read or hear about is sex, as if that is the only thing they could possibly relate to. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston and "Beloved" by Toni Morrison are examples of novels that introduced sex but they are deemed as classics. The difference is Morrison and Hurston introduce sex using poetic imagery while urban literature introduces sex in an explicit manner that many would find offensive.

Some teens do not like reading literature written by Mark Twain

or Nathaniel Hawthorne because they cannot relate to the story. If that is the case, then how can you relate to a thug that is in love with an exotic dancer for solely physical pleasure? How can you relate to a young woman who has sex with any and every man just because she "feels like it?"

According to Walter Mosley, a famous African-American author, "It's not about the book--it's the idea that reading becomes an important part of your life." I ask you, Mr. Mosley, at what cost?

Are Black People Stupid?

Saturday, 06 June 2009 Are Black people stupid? And if so, did I get that memo? The reason I ask is because I've noticed in politics, whenever a Black runs for office, it is naturally assumed that Black people will ALWAYS vote for Black candidates, simply because they are Black. Now, it doesn't matter if the person isn't qualified for the job just as long as he/she is Black and that and ONLY that reason is necessary to gain the votes of other Blacks. Since I live in the New York City area, I am being told, indirectly, that I HAVE to vote for Comptroller William Thompson for mayor because, as a Black man, I have to support him. And although Governor Patterson is not doing such a great job, I MUST vote for him for re-election because, hey, he's Black! And you do know that Barack Obama is a Black man, so we MUST continue the trend of electing Blacks to office! Now, don't get me wrong, I am a GREAT supporter of Black people, but, I am a BETTER supporter of people who will do a great job for me when they get in office. If I had a choice to vote based on race versus based on getting the job done, I am voting based on the latter, but hopefully, the candidate would be both. So, all I am saying is, we, as Black people, are being viewed as not being smart enough to make the right choice for ourselves. It seems that even Black politicians want us to vote simply based on the pigment of the skin or the cultural aspects of the candidate. I say, as I do, base any vote on who you feel would do the best job out of the candidates and with all things being equal, then racial pride would win, otherwise, we can't let people do our thinking for us! We need to research and listen and read up on ALL candidates for any office that is being pursued as all decisions based on the winning candidates WILL affect our lives, which makes it that much more important to be educated not forced to pick our own candidate. So, all I am asking is for Black candidates to not anticipate just getting our votes based on the fact that you are Black as well and put forth the effort to prove to us that you are qualified for the job. And Black people, stop going with the theory of voting based on skin color because, believe it or not, there ARE stupid black politicians out there....

Urban Lit is DEAD By: Joey Pinkney

Yep, I said it… Urban Lit is dead. Done. Finito.

Flatline…

Who am I to say that? I don’t have the same status in the Urban Lit industry as Nas has when he said the same thing for his music. I don’t have to. I read a lot of Urban Lit, and it’s dead.

Why do I speak such blasphemous words? This sentiment stems from an email conversation I had with Therone Shellman after reading and reviewing his novel No Love Lost. (Read my review of No Love Lost, click here.) His novel was atypical and his approach to life after the streets was refreshing. Another one that comes to mind is Erick Gray’s Crave All Lose All. (Read my review of Crave All Lose All, click here. Read my interview with Erick Gray. Part I, click here. Part II, click here.)

In brief, we discussed how Urban Lit doesn’t do justice to the situations that people are relegated to in hoods across America and beyond. The immorality and reality of the streets isn’t present in a lot of stories on the market today. Without going into detail, that book was the first one that I read in a long time that actually shined the light on the side of the game that most people see but few want to talk about.

Call the Coroner…

The Urban Lit genre is pumping out books with the same book covers and the same stories. Most of the authors have to boast their jail experience to get the attention and respect they think they need to sell their stories. (Sounds like rappers who have to talk about their hood exploits in order to be respected, instead of being lyrically proficient.)

The Urban Literature landscape is taking the natural life cycle of all cultural trends. It’s just like Hip-Hop, born from desolation and neglect. Just like the Hip-Hop that influenced its current direction, Urban Lit has gone from being an obscurity to being shunned to being assimilated into popular culture. That’s why the larger publishing houses are following suit and creating imprints to cater to ravenous readership that Urban Lit definitely has. That’s why you can go to Barnes and Nobles or Borders or even Wal-Mart and see the latest and greatest in the (unofficial) Urban Lit section. It’s selling.

Before it got it’s name, authors like Omar Tyree (who recently stopped writing Urban Lit), Sistah Souljah and Teri Woods wrote books that spoke to a group of people who couldn’t get the time of day from the larger publishing houses. The prevalent thought at the time was that “those people” don’t read. Urban Lit has now been digested and regurgitated by the large publishing houses just like Master P did to rap music during his hey day. And just like his albums covers, words are blinged out, the men look mean and the women look horny.

From the Cradle…

With a “for us, by us” mentality, what would later become Urban Literature was strictly a person-to-person enterprise. Authors were printing up there own books and selling them out the trunk, on the corner, mom-and-pop stores and beauty salons. Full of sex, violence and grammatical errors, these books and the readers who loved them were looked down upon by the mainstream book industry.

Then the book industry got hip. “Those people” were buying those books terrible books. “Those people” were requesting sequels and anything else their favorite hood author put out there. Why? Because those books were entertaining, but they also had an underlining message. Readers could relate.

Fast forward a couple of decades. Now every book cover either has a young black dude with braids, two ear rings, tattoos, sagging jeans and a mean mug or the book has a young female in her early twenties wearing something that makes it easy to figure out what the birthday suit is like. The stories are still about the hood, but nowadays there is a twist. The money, clothes, hos, jewelry, expensive cars, huge houses and the swagger runs the stories.

Urban Lit authors still have to get on their grind, print up the copies and sell them by any means necessary. The difference now is that they have to compete for shelf space with the larger publishing houses. A lot of times, they have to compromise the integrity of their story to fit what the readers will buy. It’s no longer a novelty to have a book with the hood as the backdrop.

To the Grave…

The immorality and reality of the streets isn’t present in a lot of stories. This article actually stemmed from an email conversation I had with Therone Shellman, author of No Love Lost. Without going into detail, that book was the first one that I read in a long time that actually shined the light on the ___ side of the game. (Another one that comes to mind is Erick Gray’s ___.) Shellman is a person is has been there and done that, and it shows in his approach to his story.

A lot of people complain that most of the Urban Lit books are the same three or four stories with a different title and character names. For that matter, most of the authors have the same felonious background story in their bios. It’s just like Hip-Hop nowadays. You could take a black male between 16 and 36 (because you know we stay young looking for a while) and give him a grill, some tatoos, a fitted, a throwback (or white tee), some sagging jeans (and boxers), a gold necklace with some goofy pendant, a diamond encrusted watch, and some Air Force Ones. Then put him in front of a mansion with a couple of Lambourghinis and Escalades with a buch of women in their early 20s in bikinis. Throw on some music, let him pose and point around aimlessly showing off that goofy pendant. Oh yeah, I almost forgot let him rap…

That’s similar to what you see in Urban Lit. Most Urban Lit books has the guy that’s a drug dealer with all the name brand clothes and cars. He has enough jewelry to finance a small army. The problem is that that guy gets robbed and/or killed in real life. A perfect example is all of these rappers getting their chain snatched left and right. They talk all that stuff on the albums and still get robbed when they leave the studio. Where are the guns? Where are your boys?

On top of the hood watching you, the cops are watching harder. Most of the dudes that make it to BET’s American Gangster get an episode because of one big mistake, being too flashy. Make a solid gold crown if you want, the cops will do everything they can to take that and everything else, including your life.

Eulogy…

I understand what’s going on. People don’t read Urban Lit to get the scoop on reality. Like my girl Davida Baldwin said it, “You don’t read Street Lit for self-help and motivation, you don’t read street lit to help out the community, you read it for entertainment.” If you put the average thug n!gga or hoodrat on the book cover, it wouldn’t sell. It would probably make it hard to sell the book right next to it, too. (LOL!) If it takes a model on the cover to get noticed, then sex has sold again. To be honest, authors don’t spend months and years to write a book for it to sit in a book store. They write it to hopefully put money in their pockets.

The larger publishing houses are in the game to sell units. If you like it, they love it. Business is business, but we the readers should expect more from Urban Lit authors.

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