All posts by Joey Pinkney

street lit, urban lit

Lexus is paying urban lit authors and rappers! Psyche!!

I came across interesting Tayari Jones post about a Galleycat post that Tayari found interesting.

Lexus is paying (a select group of) authors to write short stories about the Lexus IS F. The 2008 Lexus Original Fiction Series “In The Belly of The Beast” is about a young couple traveling in the car from Brooklyn to The Bay Area. Sounds like a good rap collabo in the making.
Tayari points out the fact that there are literally thousands of Urban Lit authors and rappers in the belly of the beast giving tons of free publicity to Lexus, Cristal and Armani in their works. I have to admit that I couldn’t tell you if what I’m reading is slang or product placement. Red Monkey? Murcielago?

Will the artists and writers get paid by Lexus for endorsing their products? Sure they will. Right? Just like Tommy Hilfiger and Granda Puba. Just like gangsta rap and Glock and Mossberg. Just like R. Kelly and Jeeps. Just like Timbaland and Timberlands. Just like Gucci Mane and Gucci.

But on the flip side, if urban lit authors and rappers didn’t reference material items would the stories be as interesting?

criticism, street lit, urban lit, urban/street lit

Hate Street Lit? Me, too! What are we going to do about it?

1 Comment

This is a great follow up to the Street Lit is the New Gangsta Rap post.

Felicia Pride of TheBackList.com, a prolific literary figure herself, wrote an interesting blog post. Instead of continuing the “street lit is taking us all down” angle, Felicia not only asks “what are you going to do about it?” but also giving some good examples of people who are taking action instead of just taking shots.

Here is the shortlist of movers and shakers:

There is more to be found on that Back List blog post.

I guess this website is my attempt to add my two cents for the sake of adding cents. (By the way, I don’t hate street lit…)

criticism, urban/street lit

Street Lit is the new Gangster Rap

You can tell that street lit is a thriving genre when library managers are breaking down what street lit is to each other. I came across this blog post by Libraryland Roundup that pretty much summed up the ins and outs of street lit without being too specific.

I find it interesting that most critics that are not coming from an academic slant only like to point out how bad street lit is: bad grammar, bad characters, bad stories, bad, bad, bad… And this negative criticism isn’t exclusive to “white” people. Even “black” authors take a stab at street lit.

It reminds me of the early 90s when gangsta rap was taking hits left and right. Everybody and their momma wanted to talk bad. The similarity continues with the fact that a lot of street lit, just like gangsta rap back in the day, was about morals, stories true to the times and areas, and how living wrong could lead to your death.

Just like outsiders to gangsta rap, or hip hop in general for that matter, there is something missing in the analysis. There are aspects to the culture of street lit, better yet “the hood”, that can’t be quantified and defined. You just have to live it to know it…