Mael promises a weighty concept album of insight into a legendary concert, but he manages only an uneven mixtape.
An attempt to capture the heady early days of hip-hop.
The subject matter is unquestionably compelling. However, like an up-and-coming rapper battling too hard too soon, Mael, a reporter and high school teacher, bites off more than he can chew. It’s clear from the subtitle that the author had grand ambitions. The showdown refers to the rap battle between the Cold Crush Brothers and the Fantastic Romantic Five at Harlem World nightclub on July 3, 1981. Mael offers plenty of fascinating details about the night, both groups, and how the beef, which pales in comparison to contemporary battles, developed between them. The Cold Crush Brothers—which included Grandmaster Caz, whose pioneering rhymes were used by another rapper on the first hip-hop hit, Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”—were known to be “tough, thoughtful, uncompromising, and slick all at the same time.” The Fantastic Romantic Five, which included standout DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore, were more about improvisation and pleasing the crowd. “For Fantastic, the party was key to a successful routine,” Mael writes. “They knew who was judging that night and understood that the trick to winning the battle would be getting them to dance and scream and make out and have a good time.” That reporting and those insights into one of hip-hop’s legendary evenings are important for what they add to the history of the genre. However, it takes more than half the book to reach that night, as Mael takes readers through lengthy tangents into the history of Malcolm X, the formation of the Sugarhill Gang, and how looting during a 1977 blackout in the Bronx helped supply a lot of new DJs with equipment. The interesting detours don’t quite explain how music was irrevocably changed, however; it’s a little too much hype to be believed.
Mael promises a weighty concept album of insight into a legendary concert, but he manages only an uneven mixtape.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781421446882
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
