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Wiggaz With Attitude: My Life as a Failed White Rapper
Wiggaz With Attitude is a unique and hilarious account of both the author's attempts to become Leeds’s greatest ever hip-hop star, and of hip-hop itself. A new sound that changed the way we dance, dress and talk, it gave the author's generation a fresh perspective on the world. This is their story, told through one wannabe rapper's rise and fall. Mostly fall.
It's both a scathingly honest memoir and a sharp piece of music criticism, capturing the more universal story of the fans and of the aspirational rappers who toiled in obscurity, penning lyrics in school science classes, being mocked for their fat laces and ringing into local radio stations to rap.
The story follows the author's discovery of hip-hop in 1984, how it subsequently took over his life and set him on a path to be a rapping superstar... or so he thought. From forming his first group to recording his first demos, haggling with record labels and performing pitifully attended live shows, this is an unflinchingly candid telling of the life of an amateur rapper at a time and in a place where they weren't taken seriously. The book also charts how this rich musical culture affected his peers, his town, his country and his world, with extensive footnotes to both inform and amuse. This isn't just about Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, it's also about John Peel, Our Price and Samantha Fox.
Reviews from Amazon
"Plenty of books have picked over how hip hop started and where it came from, but how was it received out in the wider world? What did it mean for the kids thousands of miles away in suburbs and backwaters who picked it up via tapes, imports and pirate radio, got all the references wrong, but still had their lives changed by it and helped turn hip hop from a potentially short lived novelty to a worldwide cultural force? This book's funny and well written enough that even if you're not immersed in hip hop, the story will still resonate - it's close to a rap version of Seb Hunter's Hell Bent for Leather or Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City. If you enjoyed either of them, you'll love this."
"Accessible, punchy and laden with hilarious anecdotes, the 40-something (or 30-something) Hip Hop head will be able to relate to. Coupled with extensive, deep and well researched footnotes to rival Nicholson Baker's 'The Mezzanine', this memoir is essential reading for anyone interested in the personal histories of old school Hip Hop. Brilliance."
"An incredibly amusing and honest look into what it was like being a kid into the niche hip hop scene while growing up in the eighties. you don't need to be a rap nerd to enjoy this book it's written incredibly skilfully with the perfect mix of honesty, comedy and nostalgia. Oh, and the footnotes are superb! Buy it!"
"You'll read it in a day or two, so fresh and breezy is the writing, and whether you love hip-hop or not you'll find so much minutiae of 80s provincial life to wallow in, you'll forget you're reading a memoir and transplant yourself into the hilarious stories within. Ace."
"Andrew Emery clearly knows rap music better than most and the passion is brought out in every page. Highly recommended."
"A hugely entertaining read, filled with self-deprecating humour. I smiled and laughed my way through it- such an easily readable book."
"An honest, funny and heart warming memoir of life growing up with an unrequited love of hip-hop."
"While Emery’s knowledge is frighteningly comprehensive it's worn deceptively lightly. Opinionated, passionate and laugh-out-loud funny, Wiggaz… is essential reading."
It's both a scathingly honest memoir and a sharp piece of music criticism, capturing the more universal story of the fans and of the aspirational rappers who toiled in obscurity, penning lyrics in school science classes, being mocked for their fat laces and ringing into local radio stations to rap.
The story follows the author's discovery of hip-hop in 1984, how it subsequently took over his life and set him on a path to be a rapping superstar... or so he thought. From forming his first group to recording his first demos, haggling with record labels and performing pitifully attended live shows, this is an unflinchingly candid telling of the life of an amateur rapper at a time and in a place where they weren't taken seriously. The book also charts how this rich musical culture affected his peers, his town, his country and his world, with extensive footnotes to both inform and amuse. This isn't just about Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, it's also about John Peel, Our Price and Samantha Fox.
Reviews from Amazon
"Plenty of books have picked over how hip hop started and where it came from, but how was it received out in the wider world? What did it mean for the kids thousands of miles away in suburbs and backwaters who picked it up via tapes, imports and pirate radio, got all the references wrong, but still had their lives changed by it and helped turn hip hop from a potentially short lived novelty to a worldwide cultural force? This book's funny and well written enough that even if you're not immersed in hip hop, the story will still resonate - it's close to a rap version of Seb Hunter's Hell Bent for Leather or Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City. If you enjoyed either of them, you'll love this."
"Accessible, punchy and laden with hilarious anecdotes, the 40-something (or 30-something) Hip Hop head will be able to relate to. Coupled with extensive, deep and well researched footnotes to rival Nicholson Baker's 'The Mezzanine', this memoir is essential reading for anyone interested in the personal histories of old school Hip Hop. Brilliance."
"An incredibly amusing and honest look into what it was like being a kid into the niche hip hop scene while growing up in the eighties. you don't need to be a rap nerd to enjoy this book it's written incredibly skilfully with the perfect mix of honesty, comedy and nostalgia. Oh, and the footnotes are superb! Buy it!"
"You'll read it in a day or two, so fresh and breezy is the writing, and whether you love hip-hop or not you'll find so much minutiae of 80s provincial life to wallow in, you'll forget you're reading a memoir and transplant yourself into the hilarious stories within. Ace."
"Andrew Emery clearly knows rap music better than most and the passion is brought out in every page. Highly recommended."
"A hugely entertaining read, filled with self-deprecating humour. I smiled and laughed my way through it- such an easily readable book."
"An honest, funny and heart warming memoir of life growing up with an unrequited love of hip-hop."
"While Emery’s knowledge is frighteningly comprehensive it's worn deceptively lightly. Opinionated, passionate and laugh-out-loud funny, Wiggaz… is essential reading."
- GenresMusic
250 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 21, 2017
10 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Emery
7 books6 followersAndrew Emery is a writer and journalist who has contributed to dozens of magazines, papers and websites. He was contributing editor of Hip-Hop Connection, founded, edited and published Fat Lace Magazine, and is the author of The Book of Hip-Hop Cover Art. He has written for The Guardian, Arena, The Face, Loaded, The Observer, Jack, Word, Muzik, Ministry, Select, Q, Bizarre, Soho House Magazine and Ego Trip and the NME.
His new book, Wiggaz With Attitude: My Life as a Failed White Rapper, launched on 21st August 2017. Andrew is also working with Dan Greenpeace on Promo Only - a book of hip-hop memorabilia, and is full steam ahead (i.e. he’s created a thus far empty word document for each of them) on Adventures In Rap and The Biographical Dictionary of Hip-Hop.
His new book, Wiggaz With Attitude: My Life as a Failed White Rapper, launched on 21st August 2017. Andrew is also working with Dan Greenpeace on Promo Only - a book of hip-hop memorabilia, and is full steam ahead (i.e. he’s created a thus far empty word document for each of them) on Adventures In Rap and The Biographical Dictionary of Hip-Hop.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 29, 2017
The basic premise of Andrew Emery's new memoir Wiggaz With Attitude isn't particularly earth-shattering. The author chronicles his experiences growing up as a white hip-hop fan in an ethnically vanilla region where his music preferences were met with confusion and occasionally derision from his peers. He also goes into considerable depth on his dabblings as a rapper during his teenage years, which, as the "My Life As a Failed White Rapper" subtitle might suggest, resulted in little more than a few random recordings and performances at sparsely-attended shows. While Emery occasionally lapses into self-indulgence when he deeply examines his old recordings that even he acknowledges often aren't particularly high-quality, his writing chops and clear passion and knowledge for all things hip-hop caused Wiggaz With Attitude to exceed my expectations and made for a quite entertaining read.
Emery grew up in 1980s England and following the music was a dramatically difficult endeavor during its early years. He writes of scrounging for whatever bits of hip-hop he could find on obscure radio stations, immediately befriending the few schoolmates who had an interest in the music, and poring through the pages of Hip-Hop Connection, a British monthly that actually predates The Source as the world's first hip-hop magazine. The music had a huge impact on his worldview and eventually inspired ambitions of rap stardom. Emery began to write rhymes in his early teens and performed in a few local groups. The bulk of Wiggaz with Attitude centers around Emery's limited rap career, detailing his music evolution (Emery cycled through several different hip-hop lyrical personas, including an especially amusing period as an uber-conscious, albeit somewhat hypocritical and misguided, rapper) and attempts at making it big while balancing music with making money and school.
Emery combines wistful nostalgia with reflective embarrassment and is an engaging guide through his rap career, teenage years, and hip-hop music in general from the 1980s through the early 90s. He brings an encyclopedic knowledge on the subject, getting way into the weeds on hip hop arcana and trivia such as the legendary 1981 battle between the Cold Crush Brothers and the Fantastic Romantic Five at Harlem World and his favorite songs about cars in the book's frequent footnotes. My personal highlights while reading Wiggaz were the passages where Emery riffs on random hip-hop minutia or goes off on topics like why live rap is often so underwhelming. He's also a gifted writer, perceptively noting that rappers will often request the crowd to make substantial amounts of noise, preferably of "the 'motherfucking' variety" and taking KRS-One (Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everybody) to task for never specifying the few individuals who are above knowledge over his thirty-plus years as a recording artist. Wiggaz also benefits from the fact that U.K. hip-hop fans are rather underrepresented in the genre's limited literary canon, and it was interesting for me to read about how the music was received and followed in the country.
At times Wiggaz felt like it dwelled too much on Emery's rap career. This isn't a book like Hot Karl's Kanye West Owes Me $300 where he seemed on the precipice of fame and just had a few bad bounces that doomed him to relative obscurity. Outside of a brief flash of interest from Gee Street Records (who released P.M. Dawn's eclectic and critically-acclaimed 1992 album Of the Heart, Of the Soul, of the Cross: The Utopian Experience), Emery's rap groups never came anywhere close to making it big, medium, or small. Which is totally fine, and doesn't detract from his reflections on what the genre meant to him as a white kid growing up in Leeds and small-town England or his sense of wonder at finally traveling to the hip-hop mecca of New York City. And Emery is self-effacing and is always willing for the reader to have a laugh at his teenage rapper self's expense when sharing some of his old lyrics. Still, the book would occasionally drag when Emery would analyze seemingly every song put out by his rap crews. I liked Emery's review of his forays into didactic and super-political hip-hop and his posse cut about drinking tea was clever but a lot of his other songs were kinda bland (a fact that Emery willingly points out) and grew tiresome to read through.
One frustrating aspect of Wiggaz is that there are times it feels like Emery is holding back on the reader. Early on there is a footnote about a time when he punched Woody Harrelson at a party without much further context, and I understand why he didn't elaborate much on that (though as he tells it the True Detective star was in the wrong) in what is ostensibly a memoir about growing up as a hip-hop head. I'm more referring to how the book's narrative arc basically ends after Emery graduates university and gives up his rapping career. This would have been fine and understandable if he became an accountant or something similarly un-hip-hop, but Emery instead worked at the aforementioned Hip-Hop Connection magazine, eventually becoming its contributing editor. He teases the reader by mentioning in passing activities like playing pool with the Beatnuts, a disastrous interview with Method Man, Prodigy falling asleep on him, and conducting a phone interview with Lauryn Hill while she was in the shower. I would have loved for him to have elaborated on at least some of these and share some of his other adventures in hip-hop journalism. We can at least take solace in the fact that this isn't Emery's only book (he previously penned The Book of Hip-Hop Cover Art and is currently working on a book about hip-hop memorabilia.
As part of doing due diligence and adequately performing my duty as a book blogger, I perused Emery's website and found that he does in fact have plans to eventually release a book called Adventures with Rappers, and it's safe to say that I'll being pre-ordering (or better yet requesting a review copy) the first second I can. Wiggaz showcases Emery's wit and deep knowledge about hip-hop and his ability to entertain the reader. It's a funny and reflective paean to hip-hop that refreshingly doesn't take the genre (or Emery's limited contributions to it) all that seriously but does an excellent job at capturing how the music has captivated generations of fans from the Bronx to Bingham, Nottingshire.
8 / 10
Emery grew up in 1980s England and following the music was a dramatically difficult endeavor during its early years. He writes of scrounging for whatever bits of hip-hop he could find on obscure radio stations, immediately befriending the few schoolmates who had an interest in the music, and poring through the pages of Hip-Hop Connection, a British monthly that actually predates The Source as the world's first hip-hop magazine. The music had a huge impact on his worldview and eventually inspired ambitions of rap stardom. Emery began to write rhymes in his early teens and performed in a few local groups. The bulk of Wiggaz with Attitude centers around Emery's limited rap career, detailing his music evolution (Emery cycled through several different hip-hop lyrical personas, including an especially amusing period as an uber-conscious, albeit somewhat hypocritical and misguided, rapper) and attempts at making it big while balancing music with making money and school.
Emery combines wistful nostalgia with reflective embarrassment and is an engaging guide through his rap career, teenage years, and hip-hop music in general from the 1980s through the early 90s. He brings an encyclopedic knowledge on the subject, getting way into the weeds on hip hop arcana and trivia such as the legendary 1981 battle between the Cold Crush Brothers and the Fantastic Romantic Five at Harlem World and his favorite songs about cars in the book's frequent footnotes. My personal highlights while reading Wiggaz were the passages where Emery riffs on random hip-hop minutia or goes off on topics like why live rap is often so underwhelming. He's also a gifted writer, perceptively noting that rappers will often request the crowd to make substantial amounts of noise, preferably of "the 'motherfucking' variety" and taking KRS-One (Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everybody) to task for never specifying the few individuals who are above knowledge over his thirty-plus years as a recording artist. Wiggaz also benefits from the fact that U.K. hip-hop fans are rather underrepresented in the genre's limited literary canon, and it was interesting for me to read about how the music was received and followed in the country.
At times Wiggaz felt like it dwelled too much on Emery's rap career. This isn't a book like Hot Karl's Kanye West Owes Me $300 where he seemed on the precipice of fame and just had a few bad bounces that doomed him to relative obscurity. Outside of a brief flash of interest from Gee Street Records (who released P.M. Dawn's eclectic and critically-acclaimed 1992 album Of the Heart, Of the Soul, of the Cross: The Utopian Experience), Emery's rap groups never came anywhere close to making it big, medium, or small. Which is totally fine, and doesn't detract from his reflections on what the genre meant to him as a white kid growing up in Leeds and small-town England or his sense of wonder at finally traveling to the hip-hop mecca of New York City. And Emery is self-effacing and is always willing for the reader to have a laugh at his teenage rapper self's expense when sharing some of his old lyrics. Still, the book would occasionally drag when Emery would analyze seemingly every song put out by his rap crews. I liked Emery's review of his forays into didactic and super-political hip-hop and his posse cut about drinking tea was clever but a lot of his other songs were kinda bland (a fact that Emery willingly points out) and grew tiresome to read through.
One frustrating aspect of Wiggaz is that there are times it feels like Emery is holding back on the reader. Early on there is a footnote about a time when he punched Woody Harrelson at a party without much further context, and I understand why he didn't elaborate much on that (though as he tells it the True Detective star was in the wrong) in what is ostensibly a memoir about growing up as a hip-hop head. I'm more referring to how the book's narrative arc basically ends after Emery graduates university and gives up his rapping career. This would have been fine and understandable if he became an accountant or something similarly un-hip-hop, but Emery instead worked at the aforementioned Hip-Hop Connection magazine, eventually becoming its contributing editor. He teases the reader by mentioning in passing activities like playing pool with the Beatnuts, a disastrous interview with Method Man, Prodigy falling asleep on him, and conducting a phone interview with Lauryn Hill while she was in the shower. I would have loved for him to have elaborated on at least some of these and share some of his other adventures in hip-hop journalism. We can at least take solace in the fact that this isn't Emery's only book (he previously penned The Book of Hip-Hop Cover Art and is currently working on a book about hip-hop memorabilia.
As part of doing due diligence and adequately performing my duty as a book blogger, I perused Emery's website and found that he does in fact have plans to eventually release a book called Adventures with Rappers, and it's safe to say that I'll being pre-ordering (or better yet requesting a review copy) the first second I can. Wiggaz showcases Emery's wit and deep knowledge about hip-hop and his ability to entertain the reader. It's a funny and reflective paean to hip-hop that refreshingly doesn't take the genre (or Emery's limited contributions to it) all that seriously but does an excellent job at capturing how the music has captivated generations of fans from the Bronx to Bingham, Nottingshire.
8 / 10
July 7, 2017
I was sent a review copy of this through an online book group:
I tend to read factual books about hip-hop history, as there aren't many that take a personal perspective on it. DJ Semtex's Hip-Hop Raised Me was a rare example of one with a personal touch, but it was more about the story and photos and less about the writing. This book can be enjoyed even if you don't like hip-hop - it's just as much about the author's life, 80's and 90's Britain, heavy metal and pop, and it's written with real humour - some of it silly, some of it bittersweet. He's very hard on himself - and he even reprints his worst lyrics - but it builds up into a picture of a person who's really passionate about the music, and wants to sum up what it meant to his generation.
I think he's succeeded. I found some bits really touching, especially the family drama, and the footnotes were observant and full of good jokes. I'm hoping for more books that tell stories about life in hip-hop, and would like to read some US ones too.
I tend to read factual books about hip-hop history, as there aren't many that take a personal perspective on it. DJ Semtex's Hip-Hop Raised Me was a rare example of one with a personal touch, but it was more about the story and photos and less about the writing. This book can be enjoyed even if you don't like hip-hop - it's just as much about the author's life, 80's and 90's Britain, heavy metal and pop, and it's written with real humour - some of it silly, some of it bittersweet. He's very hard on himself - and he even reprints his worst lyrics - but it builds up into a picture of a person who's really passionate about the music, and wants to sum up what it meant to his generation.
I think he's succeeded. I found some bits really touching, especially the family drama, and the footnotes were observant and full of good jokes. I'm hoping for more books that tell stories about life in hip-hop, and would like to read some US ones too.
February 15, 2018
I may be biased in my five stars because this book’s target demographic probably has me right in the centre.
I was born in the same year as Andrew Emery, we grew up in the same city, our experiences of John Peel are exactly the same (though I did learn to enjoy the sounds of Extreme Noise Terror and Napalm Death a few years later), some of my childhood friends are mentioned in the pages, he name checks the pirate radio station I helped set up with three friends in 1988 – an event that changed the course of my life forever – and his two bandmates were people that I had a nodding acquaintance with because our social circles overlapped.
To my knowledge I never met the author, but there’s every chance I snaked a copy of Low Profile’s We’re in this Together LP from Jumbo Records whilst he was waiting patiently behind me to browse that weeks hip hop imports.
The subtitle My Life as a Failed White Rapper is somewhat misleading, this isn’t anything even remotely like Jensen Karp’s Kanye West Owes Me $300, and should be considered a single voice in the vast history of hip hop. Emery does an excellent job of getting across his obsession with hip hop culture whilst trying to figure out exactly where he fits into it; without explicitly stating it – or maybe he does but it’s buried in humour – he manages to keep hip hop centred on black working class experience whilst discussing his adventures in the cultural milieu of the time.
I can’t help but feel a lot of kinship with Emery; he’s a dyed in the wool hip hop head, but has no time for the painfully tedious dismissal other heads have of anything that doesn’t fit in with a very narrow set of parameters (parameters that really only existed for a few years well into hip hop’s development anyway). For Emery the Golden Age of hip hop (roughly 1986-1989 for the author) doesn’t mean it was empirically the best time for hip hop and nothing has touched it since, it just refers to an explosion and convergence of multiple new techniques of music production that ultimately changed entire approaches to song writing and performance across multiple genres.
Recommended reading even if you’re not a northern English white guy in your mid-40s with a partner that sort of tolerates the ever-growing amount of vinyl you have in the spare bedroom.
I was born in the same year as Andrew Emery, we grew up in the same city, our experiences of John Peel are exactly the same (though I did learn to enjoy the sounds of Extreme Noise Terror and Napalm Death a few years later), some of my childhood friends are mentioned in the pages, he name checks the pirate radio station I helped set up with three friends in 1988 – an event that changed the course of my life forever – and his two bandmates were people that I had a nodding acquaintance with because our social circles overlapped.
To my knowledge I never met the author, but there’s every chance I snaked a copy of Low Profile’s We’re in this Together LP from Jumbo Records whilst he was waiting patiently behind me to browse that weeks hip hop imports.
The subtitle My Life as a Failed White Rapper is somewhat misleading, this isn’t anything even remotely like Jensen Karp’s Kanye West Owes Me $300, and should be considered a single voice in the vast history of hip hop. Emery does an excellent job of getting across his obsession with hip hop culture whilst trying to figure out exactly where he fits into it; without explicitly stating it – or maybe he does but it’s buried in humour – he manages to keep hip hop centred on black working class experience whilst discussing his adventures in the cultural milieu of the time.
I can’t help but feel a lot of kinship with Emery; he’s a dyed in the wool hip hop head, but has no time for the painfully tedious dismissal other heads have of anything that doesn’t fit in with a very narrow set of parameters (parameters that really only existed for a few years well into hip hop’s development anyway). For Emery the Golden Age of hip hop (roughly 1986-1989 for the author) doesn’t mean it was empirically the best time for hip hop and nothing has touched it since, it just refers to an explosion and convergence of multiple new techniques of music production that ultimately changed entire approaches to song writing and performance across multiple genres.
Recommended reading even if you’re not a northern English white guy in your mid-40s with a partner that sort of tolerates the ever-growing amount of vinyl you have in the spare bedroom.
July 9, 2019
It's clear how much the writer loves the subject matter and his passion is contagious. I was quite late to hip hop, but I get the impression I'm a similar age to Andrew and could relate throughout, despite not being as involved in the scene as he.
I've dropped a star as the footnotes did interrupt the flow on occasion, but the content was useful - and I imagine someone completely uninitiated would struggle to get through without them.
I've dropped a star as the footnotes did interrupt the flow on occasion, but the content was useful - and I imagine someone completely uninitiated would struggle to get through without them.
July 10, 2017
Some of my favourite autobiographies aren't afraid of choosing places to admit defeat rather than tout success. Unlike the Alan Partridge autobiogaphy - in which the author chooses to end an awful lot of his anecdotes with the phrase 'needless to say, I had the last laugh' - here in the title alone the writer has humanised his life in pursuit of success and acceptance in the hip-hop world. That's what makes Emery's work so relatable, and one of the many reasons I loved it so much.
October 5, 2018
If there's a problem with this book, it's that literally no one needs to know any of this, including this guy's own parents. His entire career in rap, so to speak, didn't consist of anything other than sending a joke recording as a demo submission to legendary UK rap magazine Hip-Hop Connection. Otherwise, though, it's kinda brilliant. Along with the story of the author's failed rap career, which is frequently amusing, it provides some insight into what it was like to be a rap fan in '80s- and '90s-era England, which, who even knew they had rap there back then?
January 21, 2018
Drew's encyclopaedic knowledge of hip hop be it the US or UK scene is wittingly and self-deprecatingly told through his aspirations from young to become a rapper. It's an enjoyable read as well as a detailed insight into the world of hip hop and its history.
The last chapter annoyingly glosses over his encounters with various names, but perhaps that's being saved for another book...
The last chapter annoyingly glosses over his encounters with various names, but perhaps that's being saved for another book...
February 4, 2018
An interesting and addictive read for any hip hop fan. As you follow the journey of the (unsuccesful) rap career it is apparent that Andrew Emery has an outstanding knowledge of the genre and the footnotes along the way make for good reading too. He manages to convey the passion for the music in a way that most hip hop fans can relate to.
February 6, 2018
fantastic, funny and self deprecating, Heard Andrew on the Hip Hop Saved My Life podcast and thought if his book is half as funny as he is, it will be a great read, I wasn't disappointed, so many laugh out loud bits, as a white hip loving kid of the eighties, the longing to find out everything about my transatlantic heroes really resonated with me. Grab a copy as soon as you can.
December 13, 2017
A book about hip-hop, hip-hop*
*sang to Dead Prez's one hit
*sang to Dead Prez's one hit
August 15, 2018
This book was entered in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our readers thought:
Title: Wiggaz With Attitude: My Life as a Failed White Rapper
Author: Andrew Emery
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Readers: 21
Stats
Editing: 9/10
Writing Style: 9/10
Content: 10/10
Cover: 9/10
Of the 21 readers:
21 would read another book by this author.
19 thought the cover was good or excellent.
20 felt it was easy to follow.
21 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
16 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘subject knowledge’.
5 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘writing style’.
21 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
21 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments
‘Excellent mix (pardon the pun) of hip hop and the life of the author in hip hop. Well-written, informative and, best of all, highly entertaining.’ Male reader, age 23
‘I do miss the 80s!!! Wonderful read. Brought me down memory lane.’ Female reader, aged 48
‘This is so original. Anybody interested in the music industry and how it was back in the 80s, will get a lot from this book. From producing a demo to performing live, it’s all there. Wrapped in a fab cover, this is a truly great read.’ Male reader, aged 29
‘The best thing about this book is the way the author can balance life in the industry and a lot of humour. This is candid and amusing too.’ Female reader, aged 55
‘This felt honest, truly honest, and that can be surprisingly hard to do.’ Male reader, aged 62
To Sum It Up:
‘Honest, candid and full of humour. A Bronze Medal Winner and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Title: Wiggaz With Attitude: My Life as a Failed White Rapper
Author: Andrew Emery
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Readers: 21
Stats
Editing: 9/10
Writing Style: 9/10
Content: 10/10
Cover: 9/10
Of the 21 readers:
21 would read another book by this author.
19 thought the cover was good or excellent.
20 felt it was easy to follow.
21 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
16 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘subject knowledge’.
5 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘writing style’.
21 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
21 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments
‘Excellent mix (pardon the pun) of hip hop and the life of the author in hip hop. Well-written, informative and, best of all, highly entertaining.’ Male reader, age 23
‘I do miss the 80s!!! Wonderful read. Brought me down memory lane.’ Female reader, aged 48
‘This is so original. Anybody interested in the music industry and how it was back in the 80s, will get a lot from this book. From producing a demo to performing live, it’s all there. Wrapped in a fab cover, this is a truly great read.’ Male reader, aged 29
‘The best thing about this book is the way the author can balance life in the industry and a lot of humour. This is candid and amusing too.’ Female reader, aged 55
‘This felt honest, truly honest, and that can be surprisingly hard to do.’ Male reader, aged 62
To Sum It Up:
‘Honest, candid and full of humour. A Bronze Medal Winner and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
February 13, 2019
heard andrew emery on romesh ranganathan's podcast "hip hop saved my life" and this book immediately went on a to-read list. as a person that was also obsessed by music not typical for my surroundings when i was a child, it was a book i could relate to. it's funny, it's honest, he is really aware of his shortcomings as an hip hop artist, without getting into self deprications. i really enjoyed this book, even as a little-bit-beyond-casual fan of hip hop. i would definitely pick up a follow up, because i feel he has many more stories to tell from his days as a journalist in hip hop connection.
September 8, 2018
An often hilarious account of growing up with hip hop. The real highlight for me though was chapter 23 - I’ve not read someone articulate why the “hip hop is dead” naysayers are wrong so well. A good read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews