 The Resurrection of
Street Fiction
by Jihad
January 2009
So often and for so long we, as African-American authors, have been pigeon-holed into very few categories. Let's be real, Mr. Charlie publishes what has been proven to sell: mainstream, baby-momma (daddy)-drama, and romance. Now over the last decade, Mr. Charlie has added Christian Fiction thanks to Victoria Christopher-Murray, Erotica thanks to Zane, Urban Erotica, thanks to Noire, and Street Fiction thanks to Teri Woods.
Street fiction: dead? I don't think so. Saying street fiction is dead is like saying poverty is non-existent. Street fiction is the re-emergence of the Harlem renaissance era. Look at Chester Himes, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Claude Brown, James Baldwin, and others.
Yes, there are a lot of authors writing poorly edited and meaningless street tales, as there are a lot of authors writing poorly edited mainstream, Christian Fiction, and Erotica stories. Let me give you some names of some Street Fiction authors that should be mentioned in the same light as Toni Morrison or Alice Walker: K'wan, Y. Blak Moore, Sister Souljah, Keith Lee Johnson, and Treasure Blue.
It is so easy to focus on the negative, and there are some atrocious stories, but I would much rather see us writing, than stealing, drug dealing, and killing. There's no glamour in having gone to prison, it's a stage that many black men go through unfortunately, but if we write about the life that we have lived, then just maybe we can prevent others from following in our footsteps. I did time in prison, a lot of it, and I was the first to write and publish a street fiction book, in August of 2000, (Wake Up Everybody: The Life of a Player) later renamed Street Life, since the days of Donald Goines. And it was the Street tales of Goines and Iceberg Slim that captivated me enough to keep my fingers turning pages. These books inspired me to read and I moved on to write about my life and the streets, for the sole reason of preventing our youth from following in my footsteps. You see, there are boys, girls, men, and women that are reading, that would have never picked up a book if it weren't for the Vickie Stringer's and Nikki Turner's of the world. Illiteracy has taken a heavy blow because of Street Fiction. What we need to do is help those who want to write and teach them the craft.
I've watched and listened to Nick Chiles and so many others degrade the art form of Street Fiction, and it is sad. It reminds me of Delores Tucker and the Reverend Calvin C. Butts who so adamantly campaigned to stop Hip-Hop in the early 90's. But, let's take a look at Hip-Hop. Look at Nas, Common, Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Q-tip, Grand Puba, Public Enemy, Krs-1, Rakim, Outkast, Gnarls Barkley, Paris, Tupac, and so many others that are teaching, and preaching about conscious, political views, and a history that Pastors and schools are not teaching and preaching. If Hip-Hop ended, millions of people would not take any time to reflect on issues such as the diamond trade, which was brought to the consciousness of many solely because of Kanye's song Diamonds are Forever.
So, let's lift the Street Fiction up that is good and relevant. The bad will eventually be weeded out, and hopefully these authors that really love to write will begin studying the craft. But we have to stop assaulting Street Fiction. Instead, assault bad writing and bad editing; Assault these mainstream publishers that won't sign someone if they write conscious street fiction, but will sign someone writing inconsequential garbage, solely because they've sold a lot of books in the past.
Love and Life.
Jihad is the author of Street Life, Babygirl, Riding Rhythm, MVP, Preacherman Blues and Wild Cherry.
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I just finished an article you wrote 2 years ago, The Resurrection of Street Fiction. I then read the lively comments. The one thing that stood out more than anything else was your call to better writing. This is good; very good indeed, sir. There no reason why we can't tell our stories at a high level, particularly when we do everything else at a high level. For example, look at what we've accomplished in the entertainment arena, leaving literature out of that mix for the moment. Is the NFL, the NBA, or the Music scene, no matter the genre, the same without those who strove for perfection? No, it isn't, sir. If blacks soar in those vocations, why not soar in all vocations, particularly the written word. I'm not sure I belong with those giants you mentioned at this point in my career, but thanks for the shout out, my brother!
Keith Lee Johnson
Let me start by being clear-I do not buy what is called ‘street lit’ books, not because of the content or subject matter necessarily, but more so because they do not hold much interest. There are actually very few writers, black or otherwise that I will rush to buy their books nowadays, but I have read at least some of the works by most of the well known authors published today.
I am looking both from the perspective of an avid reader & a published writer of fiction and non-fiction. It’s ironic that while demonizing street lit that Richard Wright is used as an example of contrast. Richard Wright, who has in one of his most famous books perhaps the most self-loathing character in the history of African-American fiction this side of Terry McMillan? (Please don’t get me started on her, and I challenge the so-called intellectuals to rise to her defense.) Bigger Thomas’s Richard Wright? Come on now.
Street lit is where we are as a society right now. Not black people, but all of us. Flash over substance. Its why Diddy, Lil Wayne & 50 Cent sells more than Common and dead prez; its why more people paid to see Soul Plane in the theatres than saw an intelligent movie like Love Jones. Its why we allow politicians to skate by when they should be impeached and why we care more about Britney Spears, Angelina’s babies than the fact that over 100 banks are expected to fail within the next 12 months-and with them our economy. It’s why Flavor Flav has the highest rated show in the history of VH1.
For some people, these stories are what they relate to. It’s an escape from reality, a world where people that talk and act like they do win. It’s where the underdog, the corner boy gets the uptown girl, where the hustler is the hero. Street lit is life in every ghetto, working class black & brown neighborhood-Compton, Brownsville, Little Rock, Miami, Baltimore, Oakland etc., As Chuck D of Public Enemy years ago called rap music ‘the ghetto CNN,’ street lit is an artistic extension of that. Every generation has its version of this in the arts, every generation. I remember twenty years ago when people of my parent’s generation denounced hip hop, and now today Stanford, UCLA & Ivy League colleges have courses in it. Funny isn’t it?
I recall talking to my older relatives who have told me about growing up in Jamaica in the 60’s and 70’s when they could not play reggae music in the house, because their elders considered it ‘street’ and for lack of a better term ‘low class.’ And anyone who grew up in Jamaica in the 80’s can surely recall public debates about dancehall music, its place in Jamaican society and if it should even be considered music.
Look at the criticism that Claude McKay (one of the giants of the Harlem Renaissance and the man who I consider the greatest writer ever from my island home,) received from WEB DuBois for his writings. The ‘intellectual’ Mr. DuBois called some of McKay’s writing ‘filth’ and said his depictions of Harlem nightlife and black sexuality as “appealing to the prurient demands of white readers who were looking for portrayals of black licentiousness.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
As a young boy one of the first adult books I read was ‘Dopefiend’ by Donald Goines. He appealed to my adolescent mind and that led me to read the works of Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum, and as an adult, Walter Mosely. If people don’t like what’s out there, support the alternative or put your own vision out there. That’s what i’ve done. 14 years ago, I wrote a couple of stories that I distinctly recall being rejected by several publishers who felt there was no audience for them. They were wrong. Today, these stories would be categorized as street lit. The ironic part is that I could not write stories like that again, because my mind is not in that place where it was back then. The point is, there is a market for this, and the bean counters see that and they are making money from it. If we don’t like it, present an alternative; form our own publishing and distribution companies, actively promote writers that echo how we want to see ourselves portrayed in the arts/media. Don’t mourn the death of black intellectualism, celebrate it and promote it. If you don’t, then what message are you sending? That the promulgators of street lit right in saying this is ALL that the people want?
As the aforementioned Richard Wright himself noted, responding to criticism of his book Native Son “No American Negro exists who does not have his private Bigger Thomas living in his skull." If this is true, then street lit as a genre is the offspring of Native son.
As a published author myself, I will say this though; If half the people who buy street lit are inspired to then progress to read a book by Baldwin, Achebe, Soyinka, Alice Walker or Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or gravitate towards the poetry of Pablo Neruda or Claude McKay, then the genre has earned its place.