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Urban Lit is DEAD!

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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.

Leave a comment and let me know how you feel.

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Interview: Adin Kachisi, author of Keys of Destiny

This is a followup interview I did with Adin Kachisi after reading and reviewing his book Keys of Destiny. The book review can be seen here:

http://joeypinkney.com/criticism/book-review-keys-of-destiny-by-adin-kachisi.php


adin kachisi headshot keys of destiny book cover

(click the pictures to see reviews on Amazon.com)

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Keys of Destiny?

Adin Kachisi: After a nonfiction book I wrote called Beyond the Talented Tenth I felt that I had a lot to say about society especially on issues of culture, history and spirituality. I felt that if I wrote a fiction book, I could probably reach out to a larger audience. I decided to write a fictional book expressing my opinion, experiences, and vision of present and future society. I decided to use the theme of Mayan prophecies and 2012 because I that it was a subject containing elements of truth and fiction with possibilities of being taken in any direction.

JP: Kazra’s wife played a small but powerful role as a person who is not equally in tune with Kazra’s perception of the world. Why did you decide to give her that type of character instead of one who could fully empathize with Kazra’s dilemmas and yearnings?

AK: Besides my intension to put Kazra in an environment of struggle and bring domestic conflict, which is good for fiction, I wanted to illustrate a scenario many people can relate to. Many marriages are usually characterized by one partner’s failure to see the other’s vision. Even though in this case, it’s the wife pulling the husband back, sometimes it’s the husband who pulled down the wife.

Here is my subjective opinion on the black family:

On a subconscious level, I was probably expressing my opinion of how I look the typical Black family and community. In my observation the most difficult person to fix or transform is usually the young female about 22 to 35, she is usually more caught up in the drama and illusion of society. She is followed by the male counterpart who is more easily changed by the female partner, unless he has been criminalized.

Then comes the adult male above 40 whose role is usually not too clear. He is basically unavailable. Finally there is the adult female above 40 who is the most enlightened and most powerful of them all, she is the mother and grandmother.

In the book you will notice that I use the elder female as the wise shaman who helps the seeker find the way.

JP: You have 10 books listed in the biography. How did you come across these books?

AK: I basically came across the books in my research. I am a very serious researcher especially on the subjects of alternative history and spirituality.

Judging by the quantity and quality of the information each scholar and shaman covered, do you have an extended biography of sorts that you drew from when writing this book?

AK: Yes, I have a more extended biography of research books, but most of the information is knowledge I accumulated through interactions with people of all sorts over several years.

JP: Your use of English in Keys of Destiny is precise. How did your birth in another country affect your career as an author?

AK: My English writing is probably influenced by my British based education growing up in a British colony. My birth in another country has helped me view every issue with fresh eyes or from a different perspective. I am able to put a different value system in my writing and that makes the work unique when I combine it with my Western experiences.

JP: This is your fourth novel. What did you learn from your experiences with producing the other novels that you applied in the production of Keys of Destiny?

AK: I have grow in style and character as expressed in words. I have learned that there is no feeling better than producing good quality work you can be proud of. Written work has the capacity to influence people, so its better to write meaningful things.

JP: The detail in which you used to write about the different locales was remarkable. Did you travel to these places as part of your research?

AK: Being born in Zimbabwe I was able to write realistic and factual things about that culture and location. I have also traveled to Korea and could also portray a realistic picture about it. As for the other places I had to do serious research on every single detail of the country. Even more, I had to interact with people from those countries. I have also had the luck of living and interacting with many people of different cultures so I have a wide knowledge of world cultures.

JP: What’s next for Adin Kachisi?

AK: I am in the processing of rewriting Keys of Destiny. The revised book will include a few more chapters at the end. The story goes to years between 2024 and 2029. The global elites control the world and are involved in serious genetic engineering projects creating strange creatures and mixing humans with animals. The New Book will be called Tablets of Destiny: Rise of the Anakim and will probably be out beginning of 2009.

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Book Review: Keys of Destiny by Adin Kachisi

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When a novel has a bibliography, you know you are about to embark on a journey that aims to separate fact from fiction!


adin kachisi headshot keys of destiny book cover

(click the above picture to see reviews on Amazon.com)

Keys of Destiny is Adin Kachisi’s fourth novel. He delves deep the ancient cultures of the world, showing how they connect present-day societies and current events. From beginning to end, Keys of Destiny pushes the reader to a broader understanding of the world, both geographically and spiritually.

Keys of Destiny is able to keep your attention regardless of your level of knowledge of world history. If you are totally unfamiliar with ancient history, conspiracy theories and secret societies, you will stand to learn a lot about how different religions and groups of people from various time periods are connected. If you are well-versed in historical studies, Key of Destiny is a refreshing utilization of nonfiction in a fictitious setting.

The main character, Kazra Moore, is a professor at City College in New York City. He is educated and trained in Western philosophies. He is overwhelmed by his spiritual awareness of the shift that slowly takes place around him. Things like this preoccupation with the number 11 and the Mayan apocalyptic theory involving the year 2012 seems to be related but Kazra can not figure out why. Things begin to unfold when he gets a phone call from Rick, his favorite student. Rick’s uncle is a Creek Elder and wants to meet Kazra.

That meeting with Uncle Yuccah in Carterville, GA, proves to be much more than Kazra could have imagined. The sacred crystals, known as the Keys of Destiny, are scattered around the globe and must be gathered and brought back to the Creek Elder Yuccah to initiate an aspect the Purification ceremony which will eliminate the negative energy stuck on the Earth’s physical plane. Otherwise, two-thirds of humanity will perish in the Earth’s natural cleansing process. This is the same purification previously prophesied by many ancient cultures and currently seen manifested in the natural and man-made disasters around the world.

Yuccah already possesses one of the keys. It’s Kazra’s spiral-shaped birthmark reveals him to be the person who has the task of gathering the three remaining keys. Kazra must use his spiritual awareness and deductive reasoning to figure out where in the world to go – literally. Kazra travels from the United States to Ireland to Ethiopia to Zimbabwe to Korea. He is lead to each location by by his intuition and connects with religious and historical scholars at each location who are able to connect him with the keys he needs. Each location is beautiful but equally dangerous since Kazra is followed by the Illuminati Order of Kingu, an evil cult in search of the same Keys.

Great dialog and attention to detail makes this novel easy to read and hard to put down. Although many of the conversations are intellectual in nature, Adin Kachisi allows the characters to give you the facts in easy-to-digest, bite-sized chunks. He has also mastered the use of imagery that is so vivid, you can mentally visualize the natural settings, peoples and languages. You can also picture the super-natural beings, both good and evil. These characters are sprinkled throughout the story and easily transform Keys of Destiny from National Geographic to X Files and back again.