Why Hip-Hop Heads Love Donald Goines - African American author - Brief Article - Critical Essay

Black Issues Book Review, Sept, 2001 by Tracy Grant

Tupac Shakur's "Thug Life" and Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'" are the descendants of the ghetto pulp fiction of the `60s and `70s.

The landscapes and character of Donald Goines's stories are not a far cry from the living reality of many of today's black youth. In the poorest sections of large cities where the population is largely African American, employment and quality education are still in short supply, so crime is the economy of the streets. And drugs drive this economy. African Americans surely have more options today, but social problems still plague our neighborhoods.

The Cadillac has given way to Mercedes Benz, BMW and Lexus. Just a Donald Goines's Eldorado Red opens with two women making pickups for Red at numbers houses, customers in today's black neighborhoods wait in long lines to purchase their lottery,tickets, hoping to win financial relief.

In Inner City Hoodlum, Goines describes a young black man's frame of mind when he decides to become a criminal: "Johnny had quit school, realizing that with the constant shootings and chaotic happenings, he would never learn anything valuable that would allow him to survive. At sixteen years of age, Johnny had realized that only by making it on the streets would he be able to survive in the jungle of the ghetto." The scenario is just as familiar today as when Goines wrote it.

King David in Never Die Alone amasses a fortune dealing drugs in Los Angeles and returns to New York City, only to be gunned down by a rival. Found in the gutter, his last request is to be moved to his car: "Help me to my car, mister. Don't want to die layin' in no gutter ... don't mind payin', just don't want to die alone in the street."

This scene conveys the pride that runs through each of Goines's lead characters, even when they've lost everything else. This same pride can be found in rap artists, who define themselves unlike any other recording artists. Hip-hop culture borrows heavily from the many aspects of street culture in Goines's books. When the black detective in Inner City Hoodlum talks to the mother of a murdered black kid, she is reluctant to cooperate. "She don't want the other ones to get in trouble with the law," he tells his partner. "She thinks she's protecting them." We see this same attitude today with respect to African Americans and the police.

The best hip-hop artists--Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z and DMX--share Donald Goines's work ethic: He wrote sixteen books in five years. Like Goines, Tupac Shakur spent time in prison. His work appeals to the rap community because they see themselves in his work and in his life. Rap music was born out of a reaction to certain social conditions among inner-city kids, who created a new form of expression. The lifestyles among Goines's characters would be called "ghetto fabulous" today.

Goines's greatest strength is his authenticity. Having lived among them and witnessed their lives, he captured every dimension of pimps, dealers, fiends and thieves--their highs and lows, and more importantly, the price they paid for their lifestyles. There is a purity in his work that every writer hopes to achieve. Goines stayed with street themes for all his books, but incorporated different settings as he saw them in Los Angeles, New York, and of course, Detroit.

Were he alive today, Donald Goines would probably be welcomed at a hip-hop summit. His gift for addressing his peers, as well as the younger generation, would make him relevant to the growth of today's rap community. He would certainly speak to current drug sentencing policies and the racism written into the American judicial system, as he did in his preface to White Man's Justice, Black Man's Grief, noting that "there's big money in the bail-bond business, and most of it is being made at the expense of poor blacks."

Do we see the same harsh truths in current black fiction? (See "The New Sons of Iceberg Slim," page 56.) Donald Goines has been gone almost thirty years, but the social conditions he knew are still here. Today's African-American writers are doing great work, but hopefully, some creative force in the hip-hop generation will pick up where Goines left off.

Tracy Grant is the author of Hellified and the forthcoming novel Chocolate Thai. A freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Today's Black Woman, Black Men, Mosaic, Africana.com, Vibe, XXL, and Stress magazines. Grant received a Master of Arts in English from Georgetown University. This fall he will speak at a number of schools on the social dynamics among African American college students. He is also contributing to two fiction anthologies due in 2002. A New York City resident and self-proclaimed hip-hop head, Grant reflects on the appeal of that prolific urban novelist gunned down in 1974, Donald Goines. Understand why Goines's themes are perpetually fascinating to new readers; see page 53.