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nickscoby 's review for:
Actually, I give this book 3.5 stars but because I was so annoyed by the end, I'm not grading on a curve. So the first, like, 80 pages, are charming and effective. In many places I literally laughed out loud. The story about the Jon B wanna be thug is HILARIOUS. What's more, Williams has a great ear for dialect. But then . . . he goes to Georgetown, and it all goes downhill from there. The basic thesis is this: hip hip culture and BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION have ruined young black minds. Guys want to be thugs, and women wanna be . . . bitches? sluts? I'm not sure exactly. This is, in fact, an uninteresting, neo-conservative position that is completely absent of nuance. For instance, the author mentions how he had rejected artists like The Roots until he went to college, then says that HIP HOP IS ANTITHETICAL TO PHILOSOPHY (as a discipline) and A PAGE LATER mentions the Notorious B.I.G. Really? REALLY? The Roots are nothing if not philosophical, and can we please have an intellectual discussion about Biggie and ethics???? According to Williams, most hip hop heads are only listening to the beat, I guess. I also want to take the author to task for his treatment of women. Clearly, Pappy was a major influence for his transformation back to, er, his true self, so I'll give him a pass for the cardboard mother figure. But Stacey? Poor thing is just a pretty girl with a nice booty but no soul or three dimensional qualities. Would love to get her side of the story. Nevertheless, I'm not mad. This is an "important" book in the same way that Kanye is important. You don't have to like it to admit the significance. Also, BET ruins lives!!! Don't forget that.