City Kid: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success [Hardcover]

Nelson George (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2009

A candid, colorful memoir about a nerd from the Brooklyn projects who made it big

Nelson George grew up in the Tilden housing project in the crime- and despair-ridden Brownsville section of Brooklyn during the 1960s and 70s. In this tough neighborhood, Nelson was the nerdy kid who, in between stickball and street games, devoured Captain America comics, Ernest Hemingway novels, and album liner notes.

City Kid introduces us to Nelson's family: his absent wanna-be-hustler father; his tough-minded sister, who is seduced by the streets; and his mother, who dreams of becoming a teacher and returning to the South. Amid the struggles of his family, Nelson finds himself drawn into the world of black pop culture, first as a writer and then as a filmmaker, eventually collaborating with some of the major figures of the era-Spike Lee, Russell Simmons, Chris Rock, and many others.

Nelson's story is ultimately one of triumph, but it is not saccharine, sentimental, or full of false inspiration. Seeking transcendence through art and loving New York City, Nelson creates an insightful portrait of the emergence of black artists in the 1980s and 90s and illuminates how the pain of life can be turned into thoughtful books and cinema.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his vivid and charming memoir, novelist and screenwriter George (Hip Hop America) recounts incidents from an eventful life that has ranged from a tough upbringing by his single mother in Brooklyn in the 1960s to a career of assorted writing gigs in music journalism, television and film. Early in the book, George captures the anxieties of an intelligent child in a dangerous neighborhood, finding solace in his mother's soul records, screenings of Planet of the Apes and Hemingway and Fitzgerald novels. Later, George provides a welcome and appropriately nerve-wracking portrait of a young New York writer, interning at the Amsterdam News and writing concert reviews for Billboard. Slowly, the mature writer and tastemaker emerges, witnessing and shepherding hip-hop's sometimes rocky transition into the mainstream pop-music world, as exemplified by a bizarre concert bill featuring the Commodores, Bob Marley and hip-hop pioneer Kurtis Blow. George's life has been blessed by the presences of an eclectic array of black entertainers, including a young Russell Simmons and a struggling Chris Rock, and he sketches these characters with affection, though at times the book feels more like a collection of anecdotes than a cohesive narrative. Nonetheless, George provides tempting glimpses of the vibrant New York of the recent past. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

“Suddenly black nerds were chic”—not just athletes, musicians, and activists. The award-winning author of hip hop America (1998) and other books and films on popular culture writes about his coming-of-age in his Brooklyn inner-city neighborhood. Rooted in George’s personal experience, this memoir is also a lively look back at historical changes in popular music, film, and writing. A voracious reader, George was thrilled as a kid by Wright and Baldwin but also by Hemingway and Fitzgerald. As a music critic at Billboard, then the Village Voice, he charted the journey from segregation to integration via popular music, connecting the established world of rhythm and blues with the still relatively underground world of rap. His moving family story grounds the book—accounts of his still-troubled relationship with his druggie dad and his adult reconciliation with his sister—but it is the wry, sharp, unpretentious cultural analysis that is at the core here, especially what he calls the exhilarating mix of fear and freedom that comes with listening to music. --Hazel Rochman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (April 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670020362
• ISBN-13: 978-0670020362
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,682,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Love Music, Any Kind of Music, July 14, 2009

By 

Dera R Williams (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City Kid: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success (Hardcover)

Nelson George, music critic, journalist, film writer, novelist and producer has written a memoir, City Kid: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success. In it he explains how he came to love the music that became his life's work. Born in 1957 in New York City of parents whose families hailed from Virginia and North Carolina, his love for music came naturally. His mother, Arizona Bacchus was an independent, fun-loving music playing, dancing young woman, who raised her son and daughter, Andrea, after her husband, Nelson Elmer George, abandoned the family. The Samuel J. Tilden projects in Brownsville, Brooklyn was home to George and his family for several years. It was there where his mother gave house parties and played the Soul music of the 50s and 60s on her hi-fi stereo. "Pretty Woman," "Mr. Postman," and various other tunes would entertain George for hours. When his mother's friends came over, he would put on a show in his pajamas dancing his heart out. Mornings the family listened to Soul at Sunrise, a radio music show out of Cleveland, Ohio hosted by DJ Eddie O'Jay, who would later head up the group, the O'Jays. The few times George saw his dad, he was taken to some dive where blues and jazz were playing.

Comic books, Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Baldwin occupied bookish George's time. He excelled in English and writing and thought one day he would write the Great American Novel. When he was in his teens, his mother moved them out of the projects to another part of Brooklyn. In his senior year of high school, he worked in an intern program at the Brooklyn Phoenix, a weekly newspaper where he learned to hone the journalism craft. He then attended St. John's University all the while writing for different venues including The Amsterdam News. He also attended parties and nightclubs writing music reviews. Along the way he became friends with the group Run DMC and Russell Simmons, who was a party promoter at the time. He would later move to Los Angeles, where he worked with Quincy Jones, and worked on several screenplays and wrote a number of nonfiction and fiction titles.

But New York is home to George. He has lived all over the city; Queens, Fort Green and other areas and the City is as much a character in the story of his life as the people he met on his journey. George has struggled to maintain a relationship with his father, who was among other things, a small-time drug dealer and he also had a tenuous relationship with his sister, Andrea. Music lovers and those who enjoy reading about the New York entertainment scene will enjoy living vicariously through the eyes of a man who knows music backwards, forwards sideways, and all ways. George gave a great presentation to a room full of people at Marcus Book Store in Oakland this past spring. A nice addition for memoir collectors.

Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars aswome, May 19, 2009

By 

Kenneth M. Jacobs "josh jacobs" (usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City Kid: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success (Hardcover)

I have raed this book befor and I think It is good book about kids who exprese themselfs I am a kid who is also writting a book and it is a good book