Life: The Lore and Folk Poetry of the Black Hustler

by Dennis Wepman

Here is an authentic collection of folk poems that speak for the subculture known as "sporting life". Typically, they deal with those activities that characterize the pimping and prostitution, the sale and use of narcotics, and a wide variety of confidence games.

Genres: Poetry, Hip Hop

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Antoniolarsongmail.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

strange that university of penn published this book back in the 70s. the cover of my copy is a photograph of a bad ass dude in a field with the most pimped out caddie ever. the sociological commentary before the toasts was professional and well researched.It considered context, history and poetic device without passing judgement on the protagonists or glorifiers of the folklore of black crime.

reading the toasts placed me directly in a blaxploitation film, for better or worse. the subject matter is repetetive and gets a little tedious, but the humor is often brilliant and the struggle of life in the game is evident and tragic: all the toasts were compiled from recitations by prisoners (where the book's authors seemed to be in the background eavesdropping on the toasts in their natural element to their natural audience). there were a lot of moments that recalled funk music and even nods from hiphop: notably the King Heroin toast, which was pretty much recited word for word by James Brown on the song of the same name. The famous Hustler's Convention LP is basically an album of toasts, and the cadence and delivery is echoed throughout the book.

reading this collection felt like a trip down a rabbit hole of heroine, pool halls, empowered whores, and slick dressed hucksters. but behind all the imagery, there is definitely a commentary on a pretty classic slice of underworld life that is found throughout a lot of the world

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, raunchy, and sad collection of tales.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want buy book for my husband

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is dope!!! There are historic lessons to be learned…word play at its finest

[Skyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of folk poetry. Really a pre-cursor to hip hop in may way, it's good to see a collection like this. It provides only little quips about each toast, but references two other books that seem to go into more detail. Those would be interesting to check out as well.