this is the kind of book where you have to read your favorite pages out loud because it’s so intricate and literally just so clever and masterfully written - I’m probably going to read it over and over

This book of poems was pretty good, they read more like a rapper's freestyle notebook. I honestly enjoyed the hip hop essays at the beginning and end of the book more than the poems themselves. These are just not as strong as the poems in his other two books "she" and "said the shotgun to the head". If you like hip hop, try this one out –if you like poetry DEFINITELY read his other books.

still one of my favorite poets, and i'm not mad he was an actor first....most actor spoken work people are cornballs....sorry yall....it's true

Personal response
tThis book was a good book and this book lets you read about old hip hop legends i'll give this book 5 stars.

Plot
tThe beginning of this book tells a little bit about who and what you're reading about it talks about Dr.dre and wu tang clan ,2pac,Krs-one,biggie smalls,pete rock, and others. It has a lot of poems in it that all of these rappers wrote a long time ago. It has poems that 2pac wrote before he was shot and killed. Talks a lot of biggie and 2pac’s war against each other. That the first time 2pac got shot he thought that biggie smalls set him up and then 2pac went to jail after he got out of the hospital for some old charges. Then dr dre left death row and made aftermath and did his own thing and started to be bigger than he was from nwa and death row. Biggie smalls made a album and went to cali to promote it then he did left and got shot. They still haven't found the killers for the shooting of biggie smalls and 2pac Shakur. Krs one made a couple of albums and they were one of the biggest hits for awhile and they made some good songs step into a world, clap yo hands everybody,sound of the police underground mc’s.
Recommendation
This book was a really good book i liked it a lot i would say this book is 5 stars and this book is for high schoolers.

Saul Williams continues to be an incredible poet speaking from his experience as Black man immersed in hip-hop and art, and reading this and recognizing what he has utilized in his own art was fascinating. I immediately recognized parts of NGH WHT in his song "Black History Month" off the great album "The Inevitable Rise of Niggy Tardust", or the Amethyst Rocks and Sha Clack Clack poems used in his performance in the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film "Slam", and the reading of Co-Dead Language at De Poetry Jam which I watched on YouTube over a decade ago. Fascinating to see some of my favorite lines come from this manuscript he found in a spray-paint can. So much of the Dead Emcee part of the collection is just so rhythmic and the images just pound into you and I let myself just kind of fall into it and let the images wash over me. The second half, with Williams's journal entries was not as exciting but still showed some gems of thoughts that I recognize as typical of Williams's early collections of poems. To trace how these first Dead Emcee poems influenced his voice is quite interesting. I also love how he both in the early 90s and today continues to call out the misogony and the hyper-fixated focus on material wealth in hip-hop and rap, and how damaging that is to our collective psyche, and it is for this reason that I love his music which utilizes so much of the early hip-hop sounds that I love (Black Sheep, Pharcyde, Native Tongues collective types) but without lyrical content that would make listening to the songs difficult. If you enjoy his music, slam poetry, or socially-conscious poems from a positive voice in Black poetry, this is for you. Definitely worth going back and reading, years after buying this book.

It took me so long to read this book mainly for my lack of interest in the way the book is structured. Some of the poems are too short to be stand-alone pieces, but somehow, all in all, it was OKish.

There were some interesting aphorisms by Saul Williams, and it definitely helped me understand hip-hop a little bit more from a different perspective, an insider perspective from a slammer.

The poems also deal w life issues and mainstream frustration that the poet feels are an on-going issue with art and life. In my opinion, the abstract nature of some of the poetry lost me and didn't quite connect the punch lines.

This book will not stay w my poetry collection at home.

A surprisingly poetic and intelligent look into hip-hop, its history, its culture, and its direction. Powerful and imaginative, Saul Williams writes some insightful lines (mixed with more typical hip-hoppy lines).

This book was OK. A little enigmatic at times and some of the particular themes were opaque, but the main thesis of hip-hop/emceeing becoming more "capitalistic/misogynistic" as opposed to it's more pure roots was clear.