An artful book that just scratches the surface of D’s life in hip-hop.
An iconic MC sketches out his brushes with music, sports, and political celebrities.
Though not exactly a memoir and not arranged chronologically, this book by the Public Enemy frontman and accomplished graphic novelist (Summer of Hamn, 2023, etc.) does capture key moments on his path from Long Island deliveryman to hip-hop royalty. Each page typically features an ink-and-watercolor rendering of the person he met, along with some handwritten commentary. The drawings have a hasty-looking but still careful aesthetic—his renderings are remarkably accurate. Unsurprisingly, many of the subjects hail from the worlds of hip-hop and R&B: Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Mavis Staples, Erykah Badu, and more. But there are some surprises, like Fox News chief Roger Ailes (who briefly hired Chuck D as an on-air analyst), Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and Prince, seen administering a yard sale at his studio. He shares a few examples of awkward interactions—Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, a counterpoint to D’s late-’90s enthusiasm for file sharing, and Percy Sledge, whom D mistook for Fats Domino on a plane. And he remains a supporter of the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, rendered here as a peacekeeper during the East Coast–West Coast rap wars and the Million Man March of 1995. But generally, his commentary reflects admiration and wide-eyed astonishment that he got to breathe the same air as the named celebrity. To that end, this book feels like a missed opportunity: You sense that D could create a full-dress graphic memoir and say much more about the likes of Spike Lee and his longtime friend and sidekick Flavor Flav, or moments that cry out for more explanation, like a concert at a Cleveland roller rink where he performed on skates.
An artful book that just scratches the surface of D’s life in hip-hop.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781636142043
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Enemy Books/Akashic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
