The Return of Street Lit

"Reading literature is important because it expands one's vocabulary, perspective and intellectual capacity. And though some might argue that any reading is better than none, the reader ingests poison when metaphor and imagery are replaced with sex, violence and expletives." — Yolanda Young, USA Today

It’s been said that “reading is fundamental." But with the revival of “Street Lit,” or what some have dubbed “Gangster Lit” it has many people arguing that the books promote sex, drugs, crime and are fundamentally violent.

“Street Lit,” or what is commonly known in the publishing industry as Street Fiction, first received notoriety in the 1970’s with the emergence of works like, “Pimp: The Story of My Life” by Iceberg Pimp a.k.a. Robert Beck, and later with the works of author Donald Goines. Both writers used their personal experiences to inform and provide authenticity to their fictional tales of urban and street culture. Many were set in some of the United States major cities, where drugs, prostitution and crime flourished. Iceberg became a pimp at age 18 and worked the Chicago street corners. He pimped for a total of thirteen years and spent seven years incarcerated for various offences. His book, “Pimp” would later become a controversial success.

Left : Donald Goines Photo Courtesy: amazon.com    Right : Photo Courtesy: from relentlessaaron on Flickr

Donald Goines was born into a middle-class family in Detroit Michigan, but later succumbed to heroin addiction. While serving time at Michigan’s Jackson Penitentiary, Goines wrote sixteen books in five years, all depicting urban street culture and prison life. Goines was later shot to death in his home, along with his wife. Speculation surrounding what led up to Goines’ death continues to circulate. Some believing it was a drug deal gone wrong, while others attest it was a result of his novels, and the characterizations which were based on real gangsters in the neighborhoods. The gangsters felt the characters and storylines in Goines’ novels implicated them by connecting them to crimes and providing clues to their true identities. Both Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines’ novels have influenced today’s Hip-Hop Generation and now a new crop of Street Fiction authors are appearing on best-seller lists. Authors Relentless Aaron, Sister Souljah, K’wan and Keith Lee Johnson, have all solidified their places in the publishing word. Although the resurrection of Street Fiction is helping to revitalize the lethargic publishing industry; it has many authors, book owners, book sellers, journalists and even publishers crying foul.

In an article entitled, “Their Eyes Were Reading Smut” published January 4, 2006 for NewYorkTimes.com, writer Nick Chiles lambasted the genre, along with “Black Erotica” as “purveyors of crassness”. He describes entering a Borders bookstore and finding his book sharing the same shelf with lurid titles like: "Hustlin' Backwards" "Legit Baller" "A Hustler's Wife" and "Chocolate Flava," with book jackets featuring tattooed and shirtless Black men holding guns, Black women drenched in chocolate syrup or swimming nude in bathtubs of cash. “Authors of street lit now dominate, driving out serious writers. Under the heading ‘African American Literature,’ what's available is almost exclusively pornography for black women,” Chiles says. Author Chris Chambers likens “Street Lit” to Twinkies, stating, “I like Twinkies, but I wouldn’t eat them for dinner.” He adds, “We can do better as a people by demanding better.”

Left : Photo Courtesy: mtbensonreport.blogspot.com     Right : Photo Courtesy: www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

This debate has only increased since the rise of Relentless Aaron. Born Dewitt Gilmore, his pen name is a derivative from legendary baseball player Hank Aaron, his hero, and Gilmore’s ‘relentless’ need to succeed. Relentless Aaron, much like Iceberg Slim and Goines, found his passion for writing behind prison walls while serving time for check cashing fraud. Once released, Relentless began selling his books on New York street corners and secured a quarter-million dollar mass market deal with St. Martin’s Press, the largest for any African American writer. The plot lines often glorify sex, murder and crime, and depict characters that speak in a dialogue that would make any English teacher cringe. The books have been labeled “real” and authentic to the streets. They offer a peek into the underworld and underbelly of many cities like, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and specifically Harlem, which is the preferred setting for many of Relentless’ titles. But in this quest for authenticity, where is the line drawn? As a writer and lover of crime and noir fiction, I’m accustomed to plot lines involving sex, drugs, crime and murder, so what makes “Street Lit” or what many call “Hip-Hop Lit” different? I believe the shunning of “Street Lit” has less to do with the edgy material and more to do with the race and ethnicities of the characters featured in the books. The stories and characters do not portray African Americans, especially Black males in a positive light. It’s similar to the argument that erupted in the 1990’s with the rise of ‘gangster rap’ that resulted in numerous protests and hearings regarding the promotion of albums with lyrics involving: murder, rape, crime, and gang violence. And in an industry dominated by Caucasian male writers, it’s understandable why many African American authors are fighting to protect their niche and don’t want literature written by African Americans to be confused or replaced with “Street Lit”.

Whether or not “Street Lit” has a damaging effect on its readers has yet to be seen. And history has shown statistically that Rap and Hip-Hop hasn’t helped increase or decrease violence and crime in the urban communities and cities. And I believe that teenagers and twenty something African Americans, who are the main readers of “Street Lit,” can decipher between fantasy and reality, just as any average watcher of horror or action films can. “Street Lit” like any other genre has its place in the publishing world, but if it’s becoming more celebrated in African American culture than the works of Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Huston, Jean Toomer and James Baldwin, just to name a few, then the problem doesn’t lie with the authors or publishing industry, it lies with the readers. The publishing industry will only promote what sells, and if stories of murder and mayhem in the Black community sell, then that’s what gets printed, promoted and carried in bookstores.

The argument over “Street Lit” has only shed light on a much larger issue, and that’s the issue of class. African American literature and non-fiction isn’t promoted nor intended for young African Americans, but instead it’s intended for a college educated population and the intellectual reader, and that reader in some cases is not Black. In fact, when actor turned author Hill Harper was searching for a publisher for his book, “Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny” he was told his intended audience just didn’t read and that maybe people would buy his book if he was on the cover.

The notion of the Hip-Hop Generation being an overall illiterate group has been widely established and accepted within the publishing industry. Over the years it’s been increasingly difficult for authors to convince publishers to publish titles that are intended for the young African American market. But now, one could argue that “Street Lit” proves that the demographic of readership that publishers contend doesn’t exist, actually does. So much so, that rapper and entrepreneur Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has launched his own publishing company, G-Unit Books, and has signed Relentless Aaron to write for his line of “Street Lit”. 50 Cent, who is known to be a shrewd businessman, and who is said to “only get involved with things that make money” is betting the revival of Street Fiction is going to generate serious revenue.

But is “Street Lit” poison to the minds of young African Americans as Yolanda Young suggests? Sure, the novels lack literary merit and the quality of storytelling is sub par, but I can’t help but be pleased that young African Americans are reading. Growing up I was ridiculed for walking around with a book in my hand that wasn’t given to me by a teacher. Reading signified you were attempting to be uppity, or act “White”. My peers called me “White Boy” and said, “You talk White” and “You’re a nerd” when I expressed myself intelligently. On one occasion in high school, when visiting the library during my lunch period, I was asked, “Aaron, what’s with the book? You a geek now?” I suppose the image of the young literate Black male goes against most stereotypes perpetuated in news media, music, film, television and now publishing, which is why I can only hope that as young African Americans discover a joy and passion for reading, they will hopefully be led to literature and other genres of writing that will offer them much greater substance than “Street Lit” alone.

Comments

A fascinating article, Aaron. My only concern is that the rise of street lit in its present form will only reinforce the stereotype. Hopefully, the genre will expand to allow more sides of the story to be told.

Thanks for introducing me to a literature form I didn't even know was growing.