Gangsta Rap by Benjamin Zephaniah

Gangsta Rap Reviews

• 
  Kelly (Diva Booknerd)

  I wanted to like it but just couldn't get into it. The trouble Ray has, it's his attitude. He's so abrasive towards both his family and authority and is rewarded for his efforts. I just. Can't.
• 
  Alice-Elizabeth (Prolific Reader Alice)

  This is a book I read a while ago, but had to sit back and fully digest my thoughts before sitting down to type up this review. Gangsta Rap had an interesting premise, set in London and following three boys who get excluded from their secondary school, end up forming a collaborative group and get a record deal. Things are going well until the violence that starts to escalate at their gigs, including threats and stabbings. I found the pacing to be quite choppy and I struggled with character connection. I also thought that most of the behaviour present, including Ray's relationship towards his family was often quite uncomfortable to read. I have a couple of other Zephaniah books before, but this one is not a re-read for me!
  
  T/W- Violence, Death
• 
  Ringo The Cat

  Probably the worst book I've read in a long time. Though the themes are contemporary and recognisable it is written in such a superficial style... the characters have no depth, the story just happens without any sort of lead-in, or explanation. A total miss, in my opinion!
• 
  Dani Dányi

  Nagyon pozitív olvasói élmény volt ez nekem, amit kevés ilyen pamfletszerű, moralizáló ifjúsági könyvről mondhatok el. A szerző igen hiteles figura, mint repper, költő és író, Benjamin Zephaniah tudja, hogy miről és hogyan beszél. A könyv nyelvezete autentikus ám kifejezetten egyszerű, szlenges ám nagyon is érthető, a londoni multikulti gettó-fiatalságot elég meggyőzően adja.
  Sok sztereotíp figura kerül elő a történetben: a terhelt családi hátterű tehetség, rossz szülők, jó szülők, jó és rossz zsaruk, többnyire jó tanárok, normálisan kommunikáló, inkább többé, mint kevésbé nyitott felnőttek, egy rakás jó üzenet és emberséges fordulat egy bonyodalmas fiúcsapat-sztoriba csomagolva. Vannak súlyos és komoly részek (nem szpoilerezek), bemutatkozik egy alternatív oktatási megközelítés, és elég tárgyilagos, hiteles meglátások a zeneiparról és a lemezkiadókról, pozitív szerepmodellek, életszagú újságcikk-betétek, abszolút vállalható társadalmi kritika. Ja, meg rapszövegek. Jól össze van ez rakva.
  Kissé idillikus de még épphogy nem szirupos a mese habbal, a helyi nyolcker mélyéről. Iskolakerülőkből kreatív önerők, kritizált gondozottakból kritikus gondolkodók. Ha ilyen egy naív és didaktikus tinikönyv, akkor nagy szükség volna még néhányra.
• 
  Maja

  I had to read this for school and I still can't fathom why our teacher made us read this.
  It's terribly written, unrealistic, violent and promotes all the clichés there are about rappers/hip-hop.
  
  Three boys get excluded from school and have trouble at home, they start a rap band, are immediately successful, their first single is a #1 on the charts, they win the MOBO awards, they get in a fight with another rap band, some people get shot/stabbed, it turns out it was just their manager stirring up the fight for publicity, everyone becomes friends as he gets convicted, the end! The characters lack any depth and the story is completely unrealistic and encourages teens to think "fuck school, Imma be a rapper and have a lotta fans and mek a lotta money without any effort yo". The only realistic part is where the boys get away with sexually harassing girls and only get in trouble when they get in a fight with the girls' brothers, which is sad reality.
  I could keep ranting but I'll save you the other details that made me hate this book. Just don't read it.
• 
  Hay

  I absolutely loved this book :)
• 
  Carrie-Anne

  I've seen Benjamin Zephaniah on talk shows, and he seems like a really great guy, but after reading two of his books, the same can't be said about his writing. First of all the style - there is none. Sentences are clunky and don't flow together, there's no depth or emotion to anything and the story is just a series of things that happen. The strange thing is, he's clearly capable. There's a two page introduction by Zephaniah on why he wrote Gangsta Rap, and honestly, it's the most interesting and well written part of the whole book. Maybe it's just growth as an author, maybe the juvenile approach to writing is a specific choice, or maybe Zephaniah is just better at speaking with his own words, rather than through a fictional character. Either way, his books just don't work for me (at least, the two I've read don't)
  
  This book tells the story of three friends - troublemakers, who compulsively get expelled from schools, back chat their parents and speak to every girl they meet like crap - who have big plans to dominate the UK hip-hop scene.
  
  One of the first problems I had was with the characters themselves. We follow Ray mostly, and he is so unlikeable without any redeeming qualities. I don't mind an unlikeable character, but they need to at least show a sprinkling of doubt, or a pinch of inner emotion. I appreciated the attempt at showing his home life and how he was treated by his Dad, but even that was very surface level. If we had even one scene where he showed any emotion other than angry and petulant - sad, scared, disappointed, confused - his home life would have been more impactful. Instead we got Ray asking for money the day after being expelled, then having the cheek to ask for more because a fiver wasn't enough. Now, maybe I'm projecting just a teeny bit here, but as someone who grew up in a household with not much money, I would never be so selfish and self-absorbed to demand £10 - especially right after a massive argument and expulsion. More than once Ray gets physical with girls, just because they refuse his advances, and although his character does get a bit of wisdom as the story progresses, it's more a 'oh, now I'll talk about other real things in my rap' rather than 'oh, now I'll take these things and bring them to my real life'.
  
  From here on out I'm probably going into spoiler territory, because I have to explain just how unlikely and bizarre this story is.
  
  This book is about three young guys trying to make it in the rap game, and the thing is they do...with absolutely no grind, fight, push or effort whatsoever! They literally get a record deal a day after they record their FIRST song! How can a story be both an exploration of working class youth trying to push through that dirt ceiling to make a better life for themselves and work their way into an extremely competitive industry...while also making it out to be the easiest thing in the world to make it big and become famous household names?! These guys make one song, get a record deal, make an album, play ONE live show and win three MOBO awards, top the charts and play on Top of the Pops?!?!?! It's so unrealistic that it isn't in any way inspiring for young folk actually trying to do this. I know that 'big break' is something that happens (very, very rarely) but every part of the music side of this book screams 'I don't know anything about this industry'. The band have their second album recorded before they even play their second live show!!! And then on their first tour they play a TWO AND A HALF HOURS set!!! With four encores!! With only two albums under their belt?!? This book is so far from reality!
  
  Moving on, after they get big there's a rivalry with another group from the opposite end of town. Violence, injuries and even death ensues, but because of the lacklustre writing style, none of it has any impact. Someone dies - oh well. I don't care about any character, so inevitably, I don't care when any character s hurt. I know gangs and street crime happens in England, but this book feels very Americanised. Maybe if this book was written a few years later and told of kids trying to make it in the Grime scene I would have felt some sort of way about it.
  
  Another thing that this book falls short on - and similarly Teacher's Dead also does - is the extremely abrupt, big-reveal-then-rectify-in-the-space-of-a-few-pages ending. This book is based in reality (even though every part of it is unrealistic) then for some reason there's a big twist that's so unlikely, it turns this (attempt at a) gritty book into a whodunnit, twisty moustache mystery. It's such a strange choice. It's also like a speeding truck of an allegory that big record company bad, rich man at the top evil which I somewhat agree with, but the way it is portrayed in here is almost laughable in it's absurdity.
• 
  Nyasha Tarlia

  When reading please acknowledge my grammar is not the best as I am dyslexic.
  
  I’m not the biggest fan of the writing. The speech seems kind of scripted, as in it just doesn’t sound like something people really say, it just feels very forced at times.
  
  Honestly i struggled to like Ray, I understand his dad isn’t the best person but Ray is just out right rude and disrespectful I just don’t like his character. The way he treats people for example the girl in the park, it’s just disrespectful, he was rewarded for being an ass. I feel the author should have shown more character growth.
  
  I get what the author was trying to achieve, But I still found a book boring. There was nothing that had me at the edge of my seat, nothing surprise me, Nothing shocked me. I thought as the book progressed I would get ropped in, but I was still just as Bored in the end as I was in the beginning.
• 
  Aiana.G

  Too much violence, unrealistic ending and the entire book was just too boring and childish. Would not recommend.
• 
  MARGE.

  I haven't finished reading this book yet but so far it is about a boy called ray who has problems at home and school but knows exactly what he wants, to rap his feelings to people. When he gets permanently excluded from school, he is now like his friends and they just roam around the streets together, getting in to trouble. When he tells his parents about his exclusion, things for him start to get tougher for him as his parents decide weather he should leave home as well. Even though i didn't give this book 5 stars, i still think that he is really good at getting you to imagine what's going on. I also like it because it makes you think about life today for people like ray and his friends. this is a really good book and i would recomend this book to anyone above the age of 12.
• 
  YARIS

  I read Gangsta Rap in the holidays and I have to say it's become one of my favourite books. Somehow I find that I can relate with Ray and his mates and their frustration with their parents and authority. This book is unputdownable and I have re-read it over 3 times. I would defiantly recommend this book for teenagers (boys and girls) Peace ✌
• 
  Sally

  I watched a program about this author and that led to me reading this. Its not something I would have normally picked up to read.
  If you like to read book that are fast paced and topicall then this is for you.
• 
  Kireth

  Brilliant book, brilliant rhyming.
• 
  Alyson

  Gangsta Rap was an alright book to read, could be better as it didn't really have you hooked on every page. (:
• 
  Sterling Brown

  is ight so far
• 
  Jen

  Not a bad read but not one I was totally gripped by either. I picked it up as we had lots of copies for World Book Day 18 and I wanted to see what it was like as I do like Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry and it had a warning that it was not for younger readers. Ray, Prem and Tyrone are 3 friends who want to be rappers and don’t care about school. Once Ray is kicked out for his behaviour, the three of them are put in a special unit by the very understanding headmaster and allowed to follow their dream by learning about hip-hop and school simultaneously. They have a lot of success very quickly in the music business and it seems a tad unrealistic.
  I didn’t really like the character of Ray because his attitude was awful for most of the story although he did improve a bit! I would have preferred more character development of Prem and Tyrone as it doesn’t feel like we really get to know them and they seem to be nicer people! It seems a bit stereotypical of the image portrayed of rappers with gang fights, shootings and murders featuring but I suppose it is topical of the time it was written. I did like that they were trying to promote a message of peace in comparison to the picture that the media was trying to paint of them. It was also odd and quite a change reading something where mobiles, streaming and the Internet are not mentioned much - it made me nostalgic for CDs!
  All in all a good read with a twist, which I always enjoy, but I had a bit of a break in the middle.
• 
  Alice

  Oof, not good. Absurd plot, stilted dialogue, sometimes-awkward prose and sloppy proofreading. I might not have been so disappointed had the publisher not elected to describe the book as 'groundbreaking' on the back cover.
• 
  Lisa

  Really bad. The writing is incredibly weak (it goes down to he did this, he did that, this happened and then that happened) with no real psyche into any of the characters, who are extremely unlikable and not at all well developed.
• 
  Alice

  A re-read as I'm thinking about it for a KS4 book club. Rage, hip-hop, defiance, inspiration, against the odds success, peace & violence -- and a gripping narrative. Zephaniah brilliantly explains motivations & themes in his intro.
• 
  oseremen

  Eh.
  
  This book is definitely not meant for my age demographic. At all. However, it has a nice story and would recommend it to young people.
• 
  Good Dude

  good