Imperfectly executed secret history of the hustlers and blood feuds that continue to inform gangster rap.
Bloody chronicle of the ’80s-era cocaine hustlers of southeast Queens and their influence on the rap music industry.
New York magazine music editor Brown recounts the triumphs and travails of Queens, New York, drug hustlers Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols, Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff and Thomas “Tony Montana” Mickens, among others, and the appropriation of their mystique and violent approach to doing business by the hip-hop artists who came of age in their shadow. Brown does a thorough job delineating the savage milieu of the crack-devastated communities and their code of pitiless, often pointless violence, drawing on copious wiretaps and courtroom transcripts, search-warrant affidavits and interviews with those involved to shed new light on the murders of Tupac Shakur and RUN-DMC’s Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell, as well as the shooting of superstar rapper 50 Cent, who emerges from the narrative as a singularly effective maneuverer and survivor. From the numbing iterations of brutal murders and assaults (southeast Queens would send Sam Peckinpah running to his mommy) arise a few compelling voices: Entrepreneur Russell Simmons speaks eloquently on the insanity and tragic waste of the lifestyle, while embattled Murder Inc. record exec Irving “Irv Gotti” Lorenzo’s self-serving monologues have the piquant volubility of a Tarantino monologue. The book may have benefited from a larger historical perspective—there is no mention of the mafia’s analogous involvement in the music industry of the ’50s and ’60s, which seems an odd omission—and the endless intramural beefs and reprisals, recounted in Brown’s dry, journalistic style, become a bit claustrophobic.
Imperfectly executed secret history of the hustlers and blood feuds that continue to inform gangster rap.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2005
ISBN: 1-4000-9523-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Anchor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2005
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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