Cautionary Tales? Street Fiction Round-Up G-uuunit!

There are many criticisms of street fiction (that's what I call it, urban fiction is really too narrow and as a hip hop baby, hip hop fiction is just wrong). One of the more prominent accusations is that the books, which usually include some sort of drug/criminal element, glorify a negative lifestyle. And we know our young people are eating these up like 5-cent candies.

As a mother of two teenagers, and a street lit author, Tracy Brown, says that her books, including the most recent, White Lines (shout-out to Melle Mel), are indeed cautionary tales. In her interview with MTW, she is adamant about the fact that she wants to show young people (even as young as thirteen years of age) that there are no winners in the drug game.

Now is she successful? I don't know. I only had the chance to read the excerpt (which I invite you to do too). So this isn't about the merits of her book. The question that most interested me from the interview was whether or not our young people can unearth the true message from the cautionary street lit books?

I'd like to believe that our teens have the analytical skills to do so. But then I think about how young people (thanks in part to rappers) look up to and nickname themselves after incarcerated scarfaces (think Freeway and Rick Ross). Or young people (and adults) that rock Scarface t-shirts even though we all know at the end of the movie, Pacino is brutally killed in a spray of bullets.

My personal feelings about street fiction waver like the weather. Who am I to say who should and shouldn't be writing books? I say adults should read whatever they want to. Street fiction is not my cup of tea, my taste buds tend to crave something more substantial. But after our youth have their fill of street fiction, do their palates change or will they forever order drugs, violence, and the trife life, especially if that's the dish du jour when they walk their own neighborhoods?

Major publishers are snatching up street fiction because it's selling. That means people are buying it! There's demand. If the demand for a Nikki Turner book matched that of, say a Martha Southgate, publishers would be promoting and pushing her just the same. But we are not supporting/buying Southgate the way we are Turner (for the record I'm a fan of Turner's and of Southgate's).

One thing is for sure: street authors take it to the streets, where people live, work, play. Some "literary" authors don't step foot out of their house to connect with audiences. The way that the publishing industry is changing, authors need to be guerrilla marketers to spread the word about their books. So I really can't knock the hustle of street authors who get books into the hands of readers.

STREET FICTION ROUND-UP
50 Cent made headlines with his launch of G-Unit books, an imprint on MTV/Pocket Books. His autobiography, From Pieces to Weight was a New York Times bestseller. The first three books include Death before Dishonor by Nikki Turner, the queen of street fiction, (I love how people give themselves titles, I think I'm going to call myself the queen of black literary blogging), Baby Brother by Noire and The Ski Mask Way by K. Elliott.

Watch the G-Unit launch event at Borders (done by Relentless Aaron) in New York City earlier this month. Check out how 50 Cent mispronounces Noire's name.

Recently, the self-proclaimed father of street fiction Relentess Aaron has been added to the G-Unit roster of authors. His book is called Derelict and is slated to release August 2007. Aaron has been profiled everywhere from the New York Times to Time Magazine because of his relentless pursuit of his publishing dream. His hard work pushing books on visitation buses headed to prisons and outside of concerts, has paid off. He was signed to a four-book, six-figure deal with St. Martins Press and announced on his website that he's signed up for an additional ten books. According to Aaron, he is the author of 32 books. 32 books? He's turning them out like mixtapes. And I struggle to finish two book projects. He asks the question, "can anyone hate on a man who's encouraging young people to read?" There's that reasoning again.

Noire's next "urban erotic tale" which drops in March is called Thong on Fire. Call me a prude but the title is too much for me. G-Spot and Thug-a-Licious, two of her other books, not so bad. But Thong on Fire? That sounds scary, like a doctor may need to be called.

So while we may offer "cautionary tales" like Tracy Brown's White Lines, in a style that our young people can relate to, do we simaneoustanely provide them with the skills to understand what the true message is, in the midst of the juicy drama, or are they left to figure it out on their own (with their parents help I hope)? Or am I not giving our young people (our future) enough credit?