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Coming Soon: Paperbacks That Sound Like Hip-Hop
September 21, 2000 MAKING BOOKS By MARTIN ARNOLD
Life is good for Jerome Usher, who drinks Dom P and lives in
an enormous apartment with three bedrooms and a walk-in
closet with rows of Versace, Armani, Valentino and Gucci
suits, a $15,000 billiard table, an 80-inch Mission armoire
and 10 universal remotes with which he can flip on Mobb
Deep's "Hell on Earth" or just about anything else. Jerome
also has a collection of watches, from Cartiers to Patek
Philippes, and a six-foot Mosler safe that holds an
assortment of handguns and silencers and an AR-15 sniper
rifle. They are his professional tools. Usher is a black hit
man.
He is the main character in the first of a series of
bold and provocative pulp fiction paperbacks to be produced
by a small publishing house that has popped up on the West
Coast. The novels are geared directly and unashamedly to
black urban youths and are meant to be more than just reads.
They are the literary equivalent of hip-hop videos, using the
language and metaphor and rhythms of hip-hop, its sex and
violence, only in prose rather than lyrics and beats. Indeed,
each novel comes packaged with a Def Jam CD, with tracks by
artists like Jay- Z, Foxy Brown, Memphis Bleek, who have more
or less donated their work. As the publisher's sampler
proclaims, "They aren't just books - they're `joints.'
"
Now, one can argue that the last thing the world needs
is a series of novels for young people that glorify sex and
mayhem. Or one can argue that getting young people to read,
whatever they read, is an important end in itself. Whatever
the argument, and whatever one wants to make of these novels,
the idea behind the enterprise is being examined with both
fascination and wariness by some traditional publishers
because there are plenty of other interesting impudences
about these books besides their content.
For instance, the books will be sold first not in
bookstores, but in record stores and gear and clothing shops
where young urban blacks shop. And each book will contain six
or seven one-page color advertisements. Included in the first
novel is an advertisement for Saucony sneakers and one for
L.L. Cool J, as well as one for "The Art of War," the latest
movie featuring Wesley Snipes (who is an investor in the
publishing company). Not since the early days of paperbacks
have books carried advertisements in them. Despite the book's
violence, about 1,000 copies have been shipped, so far, to
prisoners.
Each novel will be about 6 by 6 inches, slightly larger
than its accompanying CD; each will have a shimmery cover
with a parental warning. Each will be about 150 to 160 pages
and sell for $16.98, book and CD.
The first of the novels will be in stores next month.
It is
"Street Sweeper" by Ronin Ro, the author of "Have Gun Will
Travel: The Spectacular Rise and Violent Fall of Death Row
Records"
(Doubleday, 1998). There are 50,000 copies of "Street
Sweeper" ready for distribution, the publisher said. The
second book, in January, will be "The
International/Assignment Hong Kong" by Antoine Black. The
authors receive modest advances, ranging from
$5,000 to $10,000.
How does one describe Jerome Usher, the protagonist in
the first novel? One part Richard Gere in "American Gigolo,"
one part Sean Connery as James Bond and one part an
emotionless Wesley Snipes in
"The Art of War." Toss in a touch of "Goodfellas." Then make
him bad and black, put a roll of $100 bills in his pocket and
provide a different woman nearly every night. Wow, what kid
wouldn't want to be Jerome? Still, Jerome becomes somewhat
ennobled in the end, showing an unanticipated moral resolve
when he falls in love, leading to a violent denouement, a
recognizable scenario if you watch enough music videos. The
ending is just unclear enough that if the book is a
commercial success perhaps the hit man will be back.
The books are being published by [S] Affiliated, an
imprint of Syndicate Media Group, a small company in Los
Angeles whose president, Marc Gerald, is one of two whites
involved in the business. His previous experience in book
publishing was as the editor, from 1996 to 1999, of the Old
School Books imprint at W. W. Norton, which specialized in
African-American suspense novels but not hip-hop.
The arguments, of course, will center on whether
reading this stuff will encourage violence. Which is much the
same debate that surrounds rap music.
"Our only goal is to sell books to a readership that
just hasn't had books," Mr. Gerald said. "They are not about
the urban realism people expect. They're about style and
suspense and no more violent than a Don Westlake or an Elmore
Leonard novel." He argues that anything that gets young
people reading is probably positive, almost regardless of its
cultural virtue.
He added: "It's not our burden to be responsible. Our
burden is to make people read, even if the books tread on
dangerous ground. Nobody asks white kids to read responsible
books. People need a first book to make them read more."
Self-serving? Of course. Mr. Gerald is a businessman, and
just about anything that will sell between covers, he'll
consider publishing.
But next year, to sort of balance things, Syndicate
Media Group plans to offer several series of nonfiction
books, also aimed at black urban youths. These books will be
about self-help, finances, about relationships, sexuality,
mental health and faith and spirituality. "We'll tell young
black men what Wall Street doesn't want people to know about
investing," he said.
That's perhaps for the future. For now there are the
novels, and for the black mother these books are not
necessarily a positive. One African-American professional
called them "the literary equivalent of a sugary soft drink."
She said: "They're diversions that I don't think add anything
to the understanding kids need of the world or themselves.
Kids need to learn good contemporary writing and the
classics. Pandering or dumbing down books for poor black kids
is offensive."
Anita Diggs, an African-American who heads the One
World imprint at Ballantine Books, said the whole enterprise
"doesn't sound like anything new."
"I used to read Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim under
the covers when I was a teenager," she said. "I don't think
that's what I should have been reading. This is the same wine
in new bottles. Would I want my daughter to read them? No, I
want kids to read substantial fare, enriching books."
Certainly traditional publishing floods the world with
books for children and teenagers. How many of are aimed at
young black readers? That's for another column.
The New York Times on the Web http://www.nytimes.com
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