Who's writing Daddy Cool II?

November 15, 2006 7:48 AM

Who's the new Donald Goines?

I just finished re-reading Daddy Cool, and was wondering, is there a contemporary author who's filling his (and Iceberg Slim's) shoes with any degree of success? I know that there are some white authors who write crime fiction about the ghetto (Richard Price, Will Beall), and some mainstream mystery authors who are black (Walter Mosely), and of course there's the gangsta non-ficition of Sanyika Shakur's Monster. But is there a ghetto author writing good crime fiction today? Or would the new Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim just become rappers?

posted by Bookhouse to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: The person who's doing the best job of filling Goines/Slim's role is Zane. She's huge among black audiences and virtually unknown among white ones. She started out self-publishing, bypassing most of the traditional gatekeepers, and now she's huge. She mostly writes about sex, not crime, though.

I'm not really clear on what you mean by 'good,' but, in any case, there are plenty of African-American authors writing crime fiction.

Off the top of my head, check out Nikki Grimes, Teri Woods, Mister Mann Frisby and George Pelecanos. That last one's white, but he's one of the best crime writers working today. None of the first three are 'good,' exactly, in a lit-crit kind of way, but then again, neither were Goines and Slim.

Snoop Dogg just published Doggy Tales (with a ghostwriter, natch)--you might give that a shot.

(As you may already know, Goines and Slim aren't the only authors who mined that particular vein--Chester Himes and Roland S. Jefferson are, to my mind, much better writers who explored much of the same territory.)

Speaking of gangsta nonfiction--check out Queens Reigns Supreme.
posted by box at 8:11 AM on November 15, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks, Box. I agree with you on Pellecanos, Himes and Queens Reigns ... all excellent. I'll check out some of those others, though.

Is Zane like Noire? I've picked her up at the bookstore.

And, by "good" I mean "fun and not awful," not lit-crit good. In a lot of ways, Goines was a horrible author, but I like to read his books.
posted by Bookhouse at 8:42 AM on November 15, 2006

Or would the new Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim just become rappers?

I'd say pretty much.

Nas/Slick Rick come to mind as the rappers with the greatest ghetto crime stories and the rappers who probably would've written books if hip hop was never invented.
posted by milarepa at 9:35 AM on November 15, 2006

Yeah, Zane and Noire are very similar. If you search for 'urban lit,' or 'hood lit,' you'll find lots of stuff--it's a regular literary boomlet these days. Unfortunately, not all of it is particularly good.

(Also, if you'd like to talk about rappers with the greatest ghetto crime stories, well, I could go on all day. Among others, I'm a fan of Big L, especially 'The Heist.')
posted by box at 11:18 AM on November 15, 2006

You might like David Simon, creator of The Wire. He's written two books about Baltimore, in addition to The Corner miniseries.
posted by electroboy at 12:45 PM on November 15, 2006