J.PERIOD recently dropped Rage is Back, a mixtape inspired by bestselling author Adam Mansbach’s novel of the same title. You might recall that the two took part in a PopRally event last month about narrative constructions and its connection to graffiti. Rage Is Back, J.Period’s hip-hop storybook, features rhymes from the Root’s Black Thought, Common, the Kid Daytona, Blu, Homeboy Sandman, and Shad–among others.
New York Times bestselling author Adam Mansbach (Go the F**k to Sleep) is back with a new novel called Rage Is Back, which will be available this Thursday. In it, an infamous graffiti artist devises a plot to resurrect New York City’s gritty 1980s street culture.
Here’s a synopsis of the book:
Kilroy Dondi Vance is an eighteen-year-old mixed-race Brooklynite who deals pot and goes to prep school on scholarship, all while growing up in the shadow of his absentee father, Billy Rage, a legendary graffiti writer who disappeared from New York City in 1989 following a public feud with MTA police chief Anastacio Bracken.
Now it’s 2005. Bracken is running for mayor of New York City. And who should Dondi discover on a rooftop in Brooklyn but his father, newly returned to the city and ready to settle the score. The return of Rage and the mayoral race of Bracken prompt a reunion of every graffiti writer who mattered in the 1980s in order to thwart Bracken with the greatest graffiti stunt New York City has ever seen. (via Penguin)
Sounds interesting. Who’s adding this to their reading list?
PopRally will present a panel discussion about narrative constructions and its connection to literature and graffiti at MoMA next week. Radio host and culture critic Jay Smooth will moderate the talk. The panel will include GZA of the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan; New York graffiti artist Alan Ket; Adam Mansbach, New York Times bestselling author of the upcoming graffiti novel Rage is Back as well as Brooklyn-based artist José Parlá. Hip-Hop producer and DJ J.Period will also be in attendance to spin a few records for the event.
The Beauty In The Dark 