Customer Reviews

Gunshots in My Cook-Up : Bits and Bites from a Hip-Hop Caribbean Life

5 star:		(2)
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This is a good read, and certainly recommended for anyone who wants to understand the history and present 'state' of hip hop. It's also a decidedly entertaining read (for the most part) because it's a personal account: part autobiography, part history, part previously published articles from The Source, the influential hip hop magazine whose editor the author was for a number of key years during the 1990s. I think the book's main challenges are its somewhat narrow view of hip hop as the defining cultural trajectory of a generation, and the 'moral' force ascribed to it as a result. While I may agree with the author's taste in hip hop (he's more of a Tribe Called Quest/Fugees guy rather than a gangsta appreciator...) this is a limited take on what the music is, and should be. Another thing to be aware of here is that this is a 'grown up' fan's appreciation and not an authoritative history (and it doesn't claim to be). It's good - it'll make you think about hip hop as a cultural phenomenon. Just don't expect to agree with everything he says.

Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, Gunshots in my Cook-Up is a gripping and compelling account of hip hop-the music, the business aspect,and the family and societal life of its aspirants. Hinds is indeed a great storyteller. His narrative of hip hop encounters and his personal life is reminiscent of the Black Griots of antiquity. Gunshots in my Cook-Up is a must read,not only for the hip hop generation,but for all age groups.

if you know him from way back in his village voice and source days you know that few writers can touch selwyn seyfu hinds when it comes to honest and intelligent thought on hip-hop, and culture in general. this book is easily the best thing on hip-hop i've ever read, and is one of the best books i've read this year