Gangsta Rap

by Benjamin Zephaniah

School, what school?
My name is X-Ray-X
So be careful how you flex
I used to freestyle in me bedroom
But me daddy got me vex
The teacher kicked me out of the classroom
Now I'm rapping in The Rex.

Ray has trouble at home and trouble at school. It's the last straw for everyone when Ray and his friends Prem and Tyrone are permanently suspended. But they know what they want, more than most, perhaps. Their headmaster decides to give them a second chance, a chance to live their dream of forming a rap group. Through a specialized social program, the boys are taught the business of the music industry, what it takes to record an album, and how to lay down a track. Within weeks they have become the Positive Negatives, and within a few months they have signed a record deal and are on their way to the top. But their dream soon becomes a nightmare as violence escalates around them. Suddenly, not only their careers but their very lives are at stake. The Positive Negatives are determined to prove that you don't need to be a gangster to be a great rapper.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

A British-Jamaican writer, dub poet and Rastafari. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.

Reviews

[Kelly (Diva Booknerd)]

I wanted to like it but just couldn't get into it. The trouble Ray has, it's his attitude. He's so abrasive towards both his family and authority and is rewarded for his efforts. I just. Can't.

[Alice-Elizabeth (Prolific Reader Alice) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book I read a while ago, but had to sit back and fully digest my thoughts before sitting down to type up this review. Gangsta Rap had an interesting premise, set in London and following three boys who get excluded from their secondary school, end up forming a collaborative group and get a record deal. Things are going well until the violence that starts to escalate at their gigs, including threats and stabbings. I found the pacing to be quite choppy and I struggled with character connection. I also thought that most of the behaviour present, including Ray's relationship towards his family was often quite uncomfortable to read. I have a couple of other Zephaniah books before, but this one is not a re-read for me!

T/W- Violence, Death

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan 10, 115pm ~~ My second title by this author, Gangsta Rap explores the world of hip-hop music by following fifteen year old Ray, who has extreme challenges with his family and his school. He is an angry young man and his music is the only thing that helps him feel alive. Will he be able to create a new reality for himself through his music or will his dreams fall apart?

This was a gritty and intense story; a peek into a world I am not familiar with other than some name recognition (Tupac Shakur was Ray's idol). The book was surely intended for the young people who feel lost and let down by life. Even though it is set in Great Britain and makes a strong social commentary about the education system of that country, I am sure many teenagers in the United States would be able to identify with Ray and understand all he goes through, as well as the author's overall message.

I appreciated the clever cameo appearance by a character I got to know in Refugee Boy, the BZ book I read just before this one. Nice touch!

Am waiting impatiently for Zephaniah's autobiography to arrive.

[Ringo The Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably the worst book I've read in a long time. Though the themes are contemporary and recognisable it is written in such a superficial style... the characters have no depth, the story just happens without any sort of lead-in, or explanation. A total miss, in my opinion!

[Maja · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this for school and I still can't fathom why our teacher made us read this.
It's terribly written, unrealistic, violent and promotes all the clichés there are about rappers/hip-hop.

Three boys get excluded from school and have trouble at home, they start a rap band, are immediately successful, their first single is a #1 on the charts, they win the MOBO awards, they get in a fight with another rap band, some people get shot/stabbed, it turns out it was just their manager stirring up the fight for publicity, everyone becomes friends as he gets convicted, the end! The characters lack any depth and the story is completely unrealistic and encourages teens to think "fuck school, Imma be a rapper and have a lotta fans and mek a lotta money without any effort yo". The only realistic part is where the boys get away with sexually harassing girls and only get in trouble when they get in a fight with the girls' brothers, which is sad reality.
I could keep ranting but I'll save you the other details that made me hate this book. Just don't read it.

[Carrie-Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've seen Benjamin Zephaniah on talk shows, and he seems like a really great guy, but after reading two of his books, the same can't be said about his writing. First of all the style - there is none. Sentences are clunky and don't flow together, there's no depth or emotion to anything and the story is just a series of things that happen. The strange thing is, he's clearly capable. There's a two page introduction by Zephaniah on why he wrote Gangsta Rap, and honestly, it's the most interesting and well written part of the whole book. Maybe it's just growth as an author, maybe the juvenile approach to writing is a specific choice, or maybe Zephaniah is just better at speaking with his own words, rather than through a fictional character. Either way, his books just don't work for me (at least, the two I've read don't)

This book tells the story of three friends - troublemakers, who compulsively get expelled from schools, back chat their parents and speak to every girl they meet like crap - who have big plans to dominate the UK hip-hop scene.

One of the first problems I had was with the characters themselves. We follow Ray mostly, and he is so unlikeable without any redeeming qualities. I don't mind an unlikeable character, but they need to at least show a sprinkling of doubt, or a pinch of inner emotion. I appreciated the attempt at showing his home life and how he was treated by his Dad, but even that was very surface level. If we had even one scene where he showed any emotion other than angry and petulant - sad, scared, disappointed, confused - his home life would have been more impactful. Instead we got Ray asking for money the day after being expelled, then having the cheek to ask for more because a fiver wasn't enough. Now, maybe I'm projecting just a teeny bit here, but as someone who grew up in a household with not much money, I would never be so selfish and self-absorbed to demand £10 - especially right after a massive argument and expulsion. More than once Ray gets physical with girls, just because they refuse his advances, and although his character does get a bit of wisdom as the story progresses, it's more a 'oh, now I'll talk about other real things in my rap' rather than 'oh, now I'll take these things and bring them to my real life'.

From here on out I'm probably going into spoiler territory, because I have to explain just how unlikely and bizarre this story is.

This book is about three young guys trying to make it in the rap game, and the thing is they do...with absolutely no grind, fight, push or effort whatsoever! They literally get a record deal a day after they record their FIRST song! How can a story be both an exploration of working class youth trying to push through that dirt ceiling to make a better life for themselves and work their way into an extremely competitive industry...while also making it out to be the easiest thing in the world to make it big and become famous household names?! These guys make one song, get a record deal, make an album, play ONE live show and win three MOBO awards, top the charts and play on Top of the Pops?!?!?! It's so unrealistic that it isn't in any way inspiring for young folk actually trying to do this. I know that 'big break' is something that happens (very, very rarely) but every part of the music side of this book screams 'I don't know anything about this industry'. The band have their second album recorded before they even play their second live show!!! And then on their first tour they play a TWO AND A HALF HOURS set!!! With four encores!! With only two albums under their belt?!? This book is so far from reality!

Moving on, after they get big there's a rivalry with another group from the opposite end of town. Violence, injuries and even death ensues, but because of the lacklustre writing style, none of it has any impact. Someone dies - oh well. I don't care about any character, so inevitably, I don't care when any character s hurt. I know gangs and street crime happens in England, but this book feels very Americanised. Maybe if this book was written a few years later and told of kids trying to make it in the Grime scene I would have felt some sort of way about it.

Another thing that this book falls short on - and similarly Teacher's Dead also does - is the extremely abrupt, big-reveal-then-rectify-in-the-space-of-a-few-pages ending. This book is based in reality (even though every part of it is unrealistic) then for some reason there's a big twist that's so unlikely, it turns this (attempt at a) gritty book into a whodunnit, twisty moustache mystery. It's such a strange choice. It's also like a speeding truck of an allegory that big record company bad, rich man at the top evil which I somewhat agree with, but the way it is portrayed in here is almost laughable in it's absurdity.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to review as it's aimed at younger readers so the language and plot were quite basic and I ended up skim reading most of it. But I disliked the instant success element of the book, it's unrealistic and ignores the years of work most artists have to put in before getting even a supporting slot on a bill.

[Dani Dányi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nagyon pozitív olvasói élmény volt ez nekem, amit kevés ilyen pamfletszerű, moralizáló ifjúsági könyvről mondhatok el. A szerző igen hiteles figura, mint repper, költő és író, Benjamin Zephaniah tudja, hogy miről és hogyan beszél. A könyv nyelvezete autentikus ám kifejezetten egyszerű, szlenges ám nagyon is érthető, a londoni multikulti gettó-fiatalságot elég meggyőzően adja.
Sok sztereotíp figura kerül elő a történetben: a terhelt családi hátterű tehetség, rossz szülők, jó szülők, jó és rossz zsaruk, többnyire jó tanárok, normálisan kommunikáló, inkább többé, mint kevésbé nyitott felnőttek, egy rakás jó üzenet és emberséges fordulat egy bonyodalmas fiúcsapat-sztoriba csomagolva. Vannak súlyos és komoly részek (nem szpoilerezek), bemutatkozik egy alternatív oktatási megközelítés, és elég tárgyilagos, hiteles meglátások a zeneiparról és a lemezkiadókról, pozitív szerepmodellek, életszagú újságcikk-betétek, abszolút vállalható társadalmi kritika. Ja, meg rapszövegek. Jól össze van ez rakva.
Kissé idillikus de még épphogy nem szirupos a mese habbal, a helyi nyolcker mélyéről. Iskolakerülőkből kreatív önerők, kritizált gondozottakból kritikus gondolkodók. Ha ilyen egy naív és didaktikus tinikönyv, akkor nagy szükség volna még néhányra.

[Hay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book :)

[Aiana.G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much violence, unrealistic ending and the entire book was just too boring and childish. Would not recommend.

[Nyasha Tarlia · Rating 2 out of 5]

When reading please acknowledge my grammar is not the best as I am dyslexic.

I’m not the biggest fan of the writing. The speech seems kind of scripted, as in it just doesn’t sound like something people really say, it just feels very forced at times.

Honestly i struggled to like Ray, I understand his dad isn’t the best person but Ray is just out right rude and disrespectful I just don’t like his character. The way he treats people for example the girl in the park, it’s just disrespectful, he was rewarded for being an ass. I feel the author should have shown more character growth.

I get what the author was trying to achieve, But I still found a book boring. There was nothing that had me at the edge of my seat, nothing surprise me, Nothing shocked me. I thought as the book progressed I would get ropped in, but I was still just as Bored in the end as I was in the beginning.

[christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book that I have finished reading is a novel called Gangsta Rap, a story by Benjamin Zephaiah Benjamin’s main theme of this in Gangsta Rap is that maturity and responsibility is in the traits of being a man and stick to your family though tough times.
Gangsta Rap is based on a problem teenager name Ray that can’t seem to stay out of trouble. It seems as if music is the only thing that matters to him, like he would take a bullet for music (Hip-Hop) specifically. Ray is the oldest out of him an his younger sister Kory that is 12 years old and Ray is 14 years old that he lives with. Ray also lives with his mother and his father, Ray is on good terms with his mother but not good terms with his father do to some altercations in the past. Ray tries to focus himself by striving for him two buddies to make a real rap group.
I honestly think that this book was okay .personally I think it could have been better in terms on the setting which is in LONDON…for Christ sake!!! I maybe would have liked it better if it took place in the United States like a “Hood” for ex-sample…just my personally thought on how I feel about this book. In my mind I have right to believe Ray and friends are a bit posers because it takes place in London an friends is Asian and his other friend is Indian and u don’t usually so that in Rap.
I would recommend this book to anybody that likes drama/family problems type of stories. Also that takes place over sea like Europe or else where that involve something that people don’t value as much as they do in the United States. If you like stories like The Wanted you would enjoy this novel.
I think anybody can enjoy this novel depending on there personality or life style. I would like my next book to have something to do with drama still but leaning away from rap. I also would want my next book 2 be much more serious then this book I completed

[Carmelo Guevara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book that I have finished reading is a novel called Gangsta Rap, a story by Benjamin Zephaiah.
Gangsta Rap is based on a problem teenager name Ray that can’t seem to stay out of trouble. It seems as if music is the only thing that matters to him. Ray is the oldest out of the famiy and his younger sister Kory that is 12 years old and Ray is 14 years old. Ray also lives with his mother and his father, Ray is on good conditions with his mother but not good in good conditions with his father due to some problems in the past. Ray tries to focus motivating two buddies to make a real rap group.
I honestly think that this book was okay. I think the book could of have a better setting and not London…I maybe would have liked it better if it took place in the United States like a “Hood” Chi-town for ex-sample… I would recommend this book to anybody that likes drama/family problems type of stories. Also that takes place over sea like Europe or else where that involves something that people don’t value as much as they do in the United States. If you like stories like The Wanted you would enjoy this novel.

[Kyle X. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a book usually read by teens. "Gansta rap" as a catchy title for the story really caught my attention, after I read the blurb and first few pages I got really hooked to the book. This book is about a very intresting group of kids who gets expelled from school for being bad. Hanging out in tbe streets, moving out of home doing bad things there life suddenly changes. They were finally giving a chance to do what they do best at and get there education, and that was rapping but at the same time as doing a good job at it, it started changing again in a negative way. Thats when there was hate going on in there music and they were blaimed for starting a war against the west and east side music. People even had gotten killed in there concert, but at the same time their music were really hip and nice with killer beats.
This book is one of the top books i ever read, especially if your a teen this book has lot of action/drama in it so i would recomend it to all the young adult readers out there.

[MARGE.]

I haven't finished reading this book yet but so far it is about a boy called ray who has problems at home and school but knows exactly what he wants, to rap his feelings to people. When he gets permanently excluded from school, he is now like his friends and they just roam around the streets together, getting in to trouble. When he tells his parents about his exclusion, things for him start to get tougher for him as his parents decide weather he should leave home as well. Even though i didn't give this book 5 stars, i still think that he is really good at getting you to imagine what's going on. I also like it because it makes you think about life today for people like ray and his friends. this is a really good book and i would recomend this book to anyone above the age of 12.

[Keivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gangsta Rap is about a man named x-ray-x that droped out of school. He is trying to find a purferd futer into Rap. I think the one them for this book is confused. i say confused because x-Ray himself is confused in this book. I think what im saying is, he is trying to balence education {school} and Rap. for him thats not workin out. one question i had trough out the book was " if x-ray never droped out of school and solved everything in a positive way, how would it all turn out???. i qouted that because i was just visulizing if everthing went diffrent, and i see a sucsseful man. I would recamend this book to readers who would like a book that is a little confusing but fun at the same time. i would not recamend this book to readers that like realistic fiction because in this book,everything that happend may have happend or could have happend, that is me book review

[Sheniece · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very entertaining it kept me hooked from page to page. The main Character Ray was a teen that didn’t really take life seriously. Until his rap group got their big brake and he saw how violent the rap game could get. The book was full of deception and suspense. I would keep you wanting to know more. I recommend this book to everyone.

[YAR · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Gangsta Rap in the holidays and I have to say it's become one of my favourite books. Somehow I find that I can relate with Ray and his mates and their frustration with their parents and authority. This book is unputdownable and I have re-read it over 3 times. I would defiantly recommend this book for teenagers (boys and girls) Peace ✌

[SallyandBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched a program about this author and that led to me reading this. Its not something I would have normally picked up to read.
If you like to read book that are fast paced and topicall then this is for you.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was incredibly poorly written. I couldn't bring myself to read very much of it. Maybe it's because the author is British, but I couldn't stand the dialog - it just didn't ring true to me at all. And the one "rap" that I read was BAD - it didn't scan well at all.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book it was good read, with intesting chracters espically ray. I also enjoyed the plot and how the writer kept you guessing. However the story failed to grab me or get me addicted as I read it over long period of time.

[Kireth]

Brilliant book, brilliant rhyming.

[Alyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gangsta Rap was an alright book to read, could be better as it didn't really have you hooked on every page. (:

[Sterling Brown]

is ight so far

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read but not one I was totally gripped by either. I picked it up as we had lots of copies for World Book Day 18 and I wanted to see what it was like as I do like Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry and it had a warning that it was not for younger readers. Ray, Prem and Tyrone are 3 friends who want to be rappers and don’t care about school. Once Ray is kicked out for his behaviour, the three of them are put in a special unit by the very understanding headmaster and allowed to follow their dream by learning about hip-hop and school simultaneously. They have a lot of success very quickly in the music business and it seems a tad unrealistic.
I didn’t really like the character of Ray because his attitude was awful for most of the story although he did improve a bit! I would have preferred more character development of Prem and Tyrone as it doesn’t feel like we really get to know them and they seem to be nicer people! It seems a bit stereotypical of the image portrayed of rappers with gang fights, shootings and murders featuring but I suppose it is topical of the time it was written. I did like that they were trying to promote a message of peace in comparison to the picture that the media was trying to paint of them. It was also odd and quite a change reading something where mobiles, streaming and the Internet are not mentioned much - it made me nostalgic for CDs!
All in all a good read with a twist, which I always enjoy, but I had a bit of a break in the middle.

[Charly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh... where to start?!

Having read the whole book, I can't tell you anything about the personalities or redeeming features of the three main characters, other than 'angry'. Talk about lack of character depth.

The way women are talked about in the book makes my blood boil. Even the beloved girlfriend is only valuable for what the lead character can take from her to put into his rap songs. I doubt this book would have been published post #metoo.

Finally, the entire premise is unbelievable - teens who record music go to #1 immediately and never make a mistake in a single gig, even their first. THAT'S NOT HOW LIFE WORKS! Realism score 0/10.

I could go on, but I'm trying to rant without spoilers!

[Andrya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book slowly over a couple of months has held Benjamin Zephaniah in mind. Which made it all the sadder when he died last week. An inspirational man with an eye for injustice and the spellbinding words to conjure an understanding of other people’s lives and experiences.

This is a story of young black men finding their centre through a storm of adolescence, family binds, education. Navigating a career and commitments to each other.

[Alice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oof, not good. Absurd plot, stilted dialogue, sometimes-awkward prose and sloppy proofreading. I might not have been so disappointed had the publisher not elected to describe the book as 'groundbreaking' on the back cover.

[Lisa Munoz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really bad. The writing is incredibly weak (it goes down to he did this, he did that, this happened and then that happened) with no real psyche into any of the characters, who are extremely unlikable and not at all well developed.

[Alice Visser]

A re-read as I'm thinking about it for a KS4 book club. Rage, hip-hop, defiance, inspiration, against the odds success, peace & violence -- and a gripping narrative. Zephaniah brilliantly explains motivations & themes in his intro.