Westside: Young Men and Hip Hop in L.A. [Hardcover]

William Shaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2000

From acclaimed author and journalist William Shaw comes this probing exploration of the dreams and realities of seven young African-American men struggling to make it in Southcentral Los Angeles, the world capital of gangsta rap and West Coast hip hop.

In the late eighties, hip hop was revolutionized by the hard new sound that exploded from Los Angeles. The exhilarating and shocking new music described a place where guns, sex, and life are cheap and disposable and where the struggle for success, stability, and respect is hard fought. The seven young subjects of this hauntingly beautiful chronicle have all grown up in a neighborhood riddled with violence where the notion of manhood seems constantly under threat -- and all of them dream of transforming this urban experience into the platinum success enjoyed by their heroes, rappers such as Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre. The sometimes troubled products of a ruthless environment, they look to hip hop as their only viable form of expression, as their key to survival, and as their greatest hope for escape.

Equal parts music journalism, travel writing, and urban history, "Westside" is literary non-fiction at its best, revealing a place and a way of life rarely seen and little understood by outsiders.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The has-beens, the almost-weres and the still-might-bes constitute the core of this look at the contemporary below-the-radar hip-hop scene in South-central Los Angeles. The author, a contributing editor to Details magazine, follows a group of disparate young black men on the West Coast rap scene who are looking to music as a way out of the neighborhood. The particulars of their stories are compelling: Kokane is hoping to recover from the unwise professional decision to side with the late Eazy-E over Dr. Dre in a feud between the two; Rah is trying to cope with the murder of his "sniping" partner Josiah Brooks (the two were in charge of stickering lampposts for up-and-coming rap artists); Khop is working on making the most of his connection with celebrity rapper Ice Cube; and the neurotic stoner Babyboy is faced with choosing between music and dealing drugs. In perhaps the strangest section, the newly reinvented Rodney King--yes, that Rodney King--talks at an album-release party about his latest role as producer. Unfortunately, Shaw cuts so quickly from character to character that the disjointed portraits don't add up to the sum of their parts. (Shaw doesn't use chapters so much as shorter sections with rappers names as headings.) While the book includes timely snapshots of local characters and an interesting though fragmented demographic history of L.A., too often it reads like a series of magazine articles. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Ann Powers author of "Weird Like Us"William Shaw could have written a shocker based on the Wild West mythology gangsta rap has propagated. Instead, he worked intensely to lift the cover from that fantasy. Hip hop players and historic figures do appear in "Westside," from Ice Cube to Rodney King, but Shaw's heart is with the would-be moguls and artists who survive poverty, racism, and harsh circumstance on a diet of dreams. Shaw makes these characters real -- and all the more heart-wrenching because of their tenacious hopefulness.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (April 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684865068
• ISBN-13: 978-0684865065
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #462,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An English Take, June 4, 2001

By 

Marcia Mardis (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Westside: Young Men and Hip Hop in L.A. (Hardcover)

West Side is the American release of a British book called Westsiders: Stories of Boys in the Hood. I picked this book up in London this Spring and it was a worthwhile find. Shaw's strength is his unflagging objectivity; he is truly multicultural. He does not pretend to excuse or to pander to any of his characters. He does an excellent job of reporting their successes and setbacks in a compassionate and respectful way.

The book is incredibly informative and really helps to dispel myths about South Central, gang culture, and West Coast rap. There's an extensive history of South Central neighborhoods that provides an unexpected perspective on the place. There's also a three page description of the drug sherm and its effects. In short, there's information here you won't find any place else if you really want some insight into Southern California urban culture.

This broad view could not have been achieved, I am convinced, if Shaw were a music critic or just another head looking to cash in on his hobby. This is a book for the anthropologist gangsta that lurks in so many rap fans, including me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gangstas paradise, June 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Westside: Young Men and Hip Hop in L.A. (Hardcover)

This is an amazing docu-story which is as insightful as it is a fantastic story. Shaw descibes his innocent journey into one of americas fearsome suburbs. He tells how the wannabe rappers and gangstas of south central LA let this white reporter into their homes and lives. His experiences make for a fantastic story, but you also get to see how these young men live sometimes by hope alone. It is the history of the area, the music and the future of the young stars. Brilliant