This week’s Good Read is ‘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.