The New Sons Of Iceburg Slim - Syndicated Media Group

Black Issues Book Review, Sept, 2001 by Anthony C. Davis

Financed by actor/entrepreneur Wesley Snipes, Syndicated Media Group is publishing a new generation of writers of urban pulp fiction and some black folks aren't happy about it at all.

On one side, you have African American leaders like the Reverend Dr. Calvin Butts, Professor Manning Marable and the Reverend Al Sharpton--all who have spoken out about the explicit violence and extreme misogyny they perceive in the urban pulp fiction material being published by the now one-year-old Syndicate Media Group. On the other side, you have actor/investor Wesley Snipes and publisher/ president Marc Gerald, who contend that their Syndicate Media Group's high-action dramas are a good way to get young black men more interested in reading. Sides were drawn late last year, pointing out the positive and negative aspects of Street Sweeper (November 2000, $16.98, ISBN 1-930306-00-8), the first in a series of books and accompanying compact discs, released by Syndicate, the publishing company co-owned by Snipes.

"I got behind the Syndicate because I wanted to provide a forum for talented young writers and to provide a production studio for movies based on their books," explained Snipes.

Gerald, who is white, is no stranger to African American tastes in reading. He is the former president of W.W. Norton's Old School Series, which specialized in the reissue of African American suspense novels. Some call these pulp fiction stories of the 1960s and '70s classics, while others call them blaxploitation novels.

Adding fuel to the fire is a marketing strategy that targets the books not only at young black and Latino men, but also at young men who are incarcerated. Syndicate actually has a prison sales coordinator.

"Too many young black men are behind bars," said Gerald in an exclusive interview with BIBR. "If you can't read while you are behind bars, your life is that much worse. We want our books to be a gateway for other reading. People criticize us for bringing our books into prisons. It's not like we're bringing drugs inside. It's not like we're selling violent books to choirboys. What happens if nobody introduces books to these readers?"

Snipes's reaction: "I take all critics seriously, but we believe in what we're doing and we look forward to showing people our complete plan as it unfolds," he adds. "It's a publishing company where we give some of these hot young writers the opportunity to write some novels with a gritty edge; a Donald Goines type of thing (see page 53). Those that are good, can come get down with us, and we can do some films and make some money."

Concerns from Black Community Pillars

Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, the president/ founder of African Images Press looks at the situation completely differently. "We have a lot of people who don't and can't read. Almost twenty percent of our race are illiterate. That's one challenge to overcome. The second challenge is to get something really constructive into the hands of those who actually can read. I'm not in favor of this series at all. Those brothers who are in prison need much, much more than these types of books."

The inaugural novella, a gritty piece written by Ronnin Ro titled Street Sweeper tells the story of a hit man who accidentally kills a little girl, then decides to turn his life around. The question is, will young brothers get the message of redemption that is buried among the novel's liquor, sex, high fashion and guns? Other books in the series include XXL Money by Roland S. Jefferson, The Perpetrators by Gary Phillips, Anything that Moves by Joel Rose, and Platinum by Michael Gonzales.

Parents may have a problem with the series, but don't most of us belong to the generation that made the Iceberg Slim novels big sellers? Many of us read the gunslinging, double-crossing, strong-armed tales of Chester B. Himes, John A. Williams, and Sam Greenlee. We supported blaxploitation movies in the 1970s like Superfly and The Mack.

Gerald thinks that people are overreacting. "I understand why there are complaints about the violence and language in our books. They aren't for everybody. They come with a parental advisory warning sticker. Why say that everything young people like is wrong? Why rule out the entire hip-hop culture?"

Kunjufu counters, "Chester Himes's books were written in a different era. We still had intact families then. We didn't have the distraction of 120 channels to choose from, crack was not an epidemic, and we didn't have two thirds of our children living with just their mothers. We still had the village to balance out anything considered negative. We no longer have that balance, so we have to be careful about what reaches our young readers."

Forerunners of Syndicate Heroes

If you are old enough to remember the album "Hustler's Convention" by Lightnin' Rod of the Last Poets in the early `70s, then you know the ideas of this series are nothing new. "Hustler's Convention" was accompanied by a booklet with a script and illustrated storyboards. It told the story of a fast-living hustler named Sport and his recently sprung-from-jail protege Spoon. The two plan to use all of their knowledge of cardsharking, pool shooting, and rolling dice at an unprecedented worldwide gathering of hustlers. Like "Hustler's Convention," Street Sweeper is the literary cross between a gangsta rap video and a pulp-fiction novel.