rappers write like THIS
rappers write like THIS:
the indefatigable www.allhiphop.com emails to say “NAS WORKING ON NOVELS: Rap vet Nas has decided to pen his own novels.”" Probably the only surprising aspect of this really is that it’s taken rap so long to establish itself in this territory* - i can remember back in old-skool daze when harry allen and stanley crouch were snarling at each other in the v.voice abt definitions of “literate” (allen: “rappers are BY DEFN literate”/crouch (paraphrase): “not if they are unversed in henry james” etc etc) (i’m with allen of course) - but i still love the blithe boldness of the plural here: “pen his own NOVELS”! = Nas is establishing HIS OWN ENTIRE COUNTER-WESTERN CANON! h.bloom headz up plz
*i assume nas is not the FIRST into this realm, but i am v.ill-skooled in hiphop’s byways
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FT's alext on August 15th, 2006
‘Pen his own novels’ also implies that up until now he has been publishing novels penned by someone else!