I read her Thank Yous before I returned this book to the library. She thanked 50 Cent, the biggest instigator on the planet, for "his inspiration" and "words of wisdom." She also told her brother "I told you I'd be famous" like she did something really motivational for the public. With that in mind, do you still want to read this book?
Pros: I tried very hard to go into this book reading it in an unbiased manner. I'd read all of the opinionated reviews about the book and decided I'd read it anyway, because if it was anywhere near as hilarious as Supahead's book, I was game! Just as I did Supahead's book, I refused to buy it. As soon as the library called me, I went dashing there though and I read this book in less than 24 hours. I will say that I agree with her on one point. If Nas' father preached about how a man and a woman are free to do as they please as long as they aren't married, Nas had no right to be so jealous, especially IF he agreed with his father. The physical fights that the two had made me want to be on her side, and I rooted for Sha Sha for making Bryan finish high school and try to coax her into going to college or doing something with her life. Sha Sha seemed to have it altogether and I admired her mother for trying to get Carmen to go into an independent direction. This book would get 5 stars if I based it on Sha Sha.
Cons: At least in Supahead's book, Supahead realized she did a LOT of wrong things and didn't try to justify them. In Supahead's book, she'd been molested as a child so that had a psychological effect on her. But in Bryan's book, it was just pure 100% stupidity, greed, and immaturity. I have no clue why she felt the need to write this book. I had no opinion about her during the Jay-Z/Nas beef because I like to believe that no one should be judged until their side of the story is told. Unfortunately, she made HERSELF look even worse than the raps did. She admits to lying repeatedly to Nas about her whereabouts, her other men, and even trivial things like understanding slang terms. But she picked ALL THE WRONG TIMES to NOT LIE. When she tried to defend the fact that Jay-Z didn't wear a condom or put it on "tighter," she admitted that she had sex with him when HE was completely inebriated and got on him "quietly." When she tried to attack Kelis' "evil stepmother" antics, she made no attempt to point out that a child should be rid of sucking their thumb anyway, especially as old as Destiny was at the time. When she tried to blame Nas for hitting her, she took glory in snatching his chain, almost blinding him with pepper spray, hitting him, hiding it under a washing machine while rumors spread that he'd been robbed of it, but then running RIGHT back to him because she had no money. When she pointed out at the beginning of the book that she had two part-time jobs so readers were beginning to believe "Hey, maybe she's not in it for the money," 75% of the REST of the book was her getting jewelry, trips, clothes, food, cars, and her hair done from OTHER people's money and NO JOB. She kept on complaining about Nas leaving her "broke and jobless," but whose fault is THAT? It was like she couldn't comprehend the fact that she was grown! Get a j.o.b. She even made a comment about how she'd never fill out fast food applications. This is exactly the type of attitude that makes the government go to other countries for employees: too many broke people with picky ways talking about what they AIN'T going to do instead of trying to live up to their responsibilities.
She kept pointing out very unnecessary details like past boyfriends who had NOTHING to do with the story. Her first four boyfriends were irrelevant to the entire book. It made her look like she was straight off of the Jerry Springer show with the episode on how her and her friends jumped some woman for messing with her friend's man. She mentioned so many friends to the point where I couldn't keep up with any of them, and whoever edited this book could've at least put the names of people in pictures into clockwise order. There were parts of this book that were obviously written out of spite, such as accusing Kelis of needing deodorant and saying that Nas told her Beyonce's breath smelled bad. If she wasn't going through the book pointing out who was average, huge, and well-endowed in the genital area, I'd believe her, but it was just way too spiteful. Coming from someone in high school, I could understand that mindstate, but not a grown woman. I definitely didn't need to know how Jay-Z washes his behind. There was a fine line of writing an autobiography and she just kept on crossing it into Humiliation Zone. I understand that she was salty about both men putting her on blast, but what does one of them being "too conventional" in bed have to do with anything? Honestly, I admire Allen Iverson for high-tailing it out of there before she could talk about HIM too much. Jay-Z obviously prefers classier women because even when Beyonce was (or is?) mad at him, she put out an album that STILL kept it classy, but this lady Carmen Bryan stamped "I am a Hoodrat and Proud of It" all over her forehead.
It bothers me SO much when women take advantage of men, when it comes to money, because when there really is a woman who NEEDS child support and the father REALLY is a deadbeat Dad, the courts look at the parents skeptically. More often than not, it's the mother of the child(ren) who wants money for her OWN lifestyle instead of the child(ren)'s. At the end of the book, she says that Destiny should be able to live the lifestyle that she's used to, but a child is a child. I honestly believe that Destiny would've been just as content with a regular average-priced car. When does a child insist on a BMW? When does a child insist on furs? Kids are MADE to think that way. They don't come out the womb talking about "I need to get my nails done." The mother does! I understand why Kelis didn't want Carmen to come to the wedding, and had no choice but to not invite Destiny. It doesn't take a genius to see she's not nearly mature. Nas trusts his father, and considering Carmen admits that Destiny has not seen her grandfather much, I'd think she'd take that opportunity to let Destiny hang out with him. She didn't seem to be so much worried about Destiny when she was moving back and forth to different states because "she needed a break" about 8,000 times, hopping from hotel room to hotel room, and spending days away with her "friend."
What really bugs me about this book is that there are so many times that she had unprotected sex but felt the need to point out how all three guys were messing around on her. Why would she be surprised that she got an STD, had numerous abortions, and nobody took her seriously? A grown woman has to take HERSELF seriously before anybody else will, and this whole book was extremely juvenile. She tried to justify (like all hoodrats do) that if a man can be promiscuous, a woman should be able to as well, but what these women do not realize is that there's one big HUGE difference between a man and a woman. If a woman ho-hops, she could possibly bring another life into this world and have to CARRY it for 9 months. Why risk something like that? Put a condom on. Close your legs. Find something else to do with your time than chase men with money. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I have more respect for Supahead than I do Carmen. Wow!
