Is TOURE a recommended writer?

d_word

Is "Never Drank The Kool-Aid" a good book?"The collection includes impressions of Tupac???s legendary 1995 circus-like sexual assault trial and Jam-Master Jay???s funeral, a night of thousand-dollar poker with Jay-Z, a talk with Eminem about the children he loves, a near-death experience with DMX, an exploration of the mysterious demise of Lauryn Hill, a trip through the south of France with Beyonce, shopping for an iced-out chain with Kanye, playing basketball with Prince, playing basketball with Wynton Marsalis, playing tennis with Jennifer Capriati"I think I read his "exploration of the mysterious demise of Lauryn Hill" after it appeared in one of the popular music magazines and it was alright.Previously I read two short stories from "Portable Promised Land" but then I gave up. This new book looks better cause it has some interesting content.I do know that he is often a talking head on tv (I haven't seen him) and has looked at Beyonce with a strange face.RECOMMENDED?

funky16corners

I love his work on 'My Name Is Earl'....

faux_rillz

Is "Never Drank The Kool-Aid" a good book?

No. Avoid.

Toure is one of the worst writers ever. In any field of written endeavor. I am at a loss for adjectives--he is that bad.

batmon

drewnice

I'm in the middle of "Soul City," given to me by an ex-girlfriend (not in spite or punishment!) It's actually fairly entertaining, in the respect that it's like a soulful cartoon city where there's an election being held and the person in office determins the soundtrack of the city and people drive cars like the CurtisMayfiledmobile that only plays Curtis songs and all sorts of other imaginative stuff. It's decent. But I almost put the book down when he spent a whole chapter (well, they're short) on a character named Unicorn Jackson who has the largest penis in the world. I mean it is seriously questionable how much he gets into it, ugh.



I can take the fiction, but have great doubts that I'd be able to get through his actual personal, opinion pieces.

mannybolone

Toure has the reputation of being one of the more prominent "hip-hop writers" of the last ten years, namely thanks to his stints at Vibe and the Rolling Stone. I do have to say - I admire the dude's hustle. He's been very smart about parlaying his visibility into even bigger things: writing this book, writing fiction, doing book tours and speaking engagements, etc. There's something to be learned in how skillfully he self-promotes (and I'm not remotely being sarcastic).

That said: I don't know a single writer - older or newer - who think he's a good writer. Toure - fair or not - has become associated with the kind of pandering, facile celeb-rapper interview that's been the norm in rap journalism since the mid-to-late-90s. There's an old joke about, "oh yeah, I read that story. It was some 'I was smoking blunts in the back of the limo with Method Man' shit" and for some reason, everyone associates that scenario - i.e. a writer talking about smoking weed with Meth in a limo - with Toure even though, at this point, I think the story might be entirely apocryphal. Regardless, dude isn't really taken seriously as a serious writer on the level of a Greg Tate or even Nelson George.

faux_rillz

...and for some reason, everyone associates that scenario - i.e. a writer talking about smoking weed with Meth in a limo - with Toure even though, at this point, I think the story might be entirely apocryphal.

I think most people associate Toure more with popping-pills-with-Mary J. Blige-in-the-back-of-a-limo type scenarios.

mannybolone

...and for some reason, everyone associates that scenario - i.e. a writer talking about smoking weed with Meth in a limo - with Toure even though, at this point, I think the story might be entirely apocryphal.

I think most people associate Toure more with popping-pills-with-Mary J. Blige-in-the-back-of-a-limo type scenarios.

Better that than smokin' crack with Whitney in the back of the bathroom.

Young_Phonics

Toure has the reputation of being one of the more prominent "hip-hop writers" of the last ten years, namely thanks to his stints at Vibe and the Rolling Stone. I do have to say - I admire the dude's hustle. He's been very smart about parlaying his visibility into even bigger things: writing this book, writing fiction, doing book tours and speaking engagements, etc. There's something to be learned in how skillfully he self-promotes (and I'm not remotely being sarcastic).

That said: I don't know a single writer - older or newer - who think he's a good writer. Toure - fair or not - has become associated with the kind of pandering, facile celeb-rapper interview that's been the norm in rap journalism since the mid-to-late-90s. There's an old joke about, "oh yeah, I read that story. It was some 'I was smoking blunts in the back of the limo with Method Man' shit" and for some reason, everyone associates that scenario - i.e. a writer talking about smoking weed with Meth in a limo - with Toure even though, at this point, I think the story might be entirely apocryphal. Regardless, dude isn't really taken seriously as a serious writer on the level of a Greg Tate or even Nelson George.

[reynaldo]you sound mad b/w "don't knock the hustle"[/reynaldo]