| You gots ta break out the 164 pack of Crayolas on this bitch! The NEW GANGSTA RAP COLORING BOOK is in the hizouse, shorty.
NOW WITH MORE GANGSTAS!
48 pages of line drawings of 'Gangsta' rappers, done with the thick black line we all remember from the coloring books of our youth. In a smaller self-published edition, the book was an immediate hit with the few people who were able to see it.
Now expanded in this Last Gasp edition from 20 to 48 pages, the book includes all of the top rappers and their underground peers:
Dr. Dre
Ice Cube
Schooly D
KRS One
... and many more.
The juxtaposition of the outlaw image of the rappers with the childlike innocence of a coloring book makes for an instant laugh.
So, um, buy this coloring book and, er, keep it real dog?
REVIEW
This is a new edition, with much nicer production values.
If you are a sincere fan of Gangsta Rap, if it appeals to you on some deep, musical level, you need to pick this up, break out the Crayolas and get to work coloring. That's all I can say about that.
If, like me, you find Gangsta Rap funny, this just heightens the joke. I mean come on, the guys are gangstas? Hahaha. And their fans? The only people who are bigger dorks than Gangsta Rap fans are Trekkies.
People who take this shit seriously, just look at them. They dress up in costumes like their heroes, memorize the lyrics like gospel, assume the proper posture, and pretend they're badasses. Gangsta Rappers are fucking entertainers and businessmen. I mean, look at Ice Cube. Once a tough guy, now he's a cute-n-cuddly movie star. The same for Snoop Dogg. KRS One? Didn't he used to be, um, buddies, with Michael Stipe? That's hardcore. Ha. Oh, and 2Pac? Yeah, he came from the streets, the same streets all those kids who attend the Baltimore School of the Arts come from. Those streets are located in nice neighborhoods too.
And this coloring book skirts the line, appealing to both the serious, Gangsta Rap dorks, and those who see all the make-believe, role-playing posturing for what it is, theatrical comedy.
J-Zone sums it up nicely in his intro, 'Yes, I'm pretty sure the artists didn't mean for their records to seem funny. But sometimes, you gotta laugh at the cartoonish violence, excessive profanity, and poor sound quality...'
Of course, J-Zone ends his intro the exact same way as Sacha Jenkins ends the afterword, 'Word.' That is the Gangsta Rap equivalent of the comic book nerd ending an essay with 'Nuff said.'
Peace out. Ha.
-Benn Ray, THE MOBTOWN SHANK |
