of white police officers.


Esther, the main character, is happy in


her butterfly costume, thinking to herself that ‘she was a beauty and she could float and she felt high’ (118) while dancing to the music; it is just at this moment that the band’s leader comments, ‘It’s a fucking police Carnival’ (118). Dhondy was writing in an era when many young poets, including Linton Kwesi Johnson, Accabre Huntley, and Valerie Bloom were first performing and publishing their poems, often with reference to reggae or even—in the case of Linton Kwesi Johnson—with a reggae beat supporting their lyrics. For these authors, music was not just a symbol, not just a metaphor of the goodness or badness of a character, but a part of the politics. Therefore, Accabre Huntley can write in ‘Blackman Brotherman’ (At School Today, Bogle L’Ouverture 1976), that the ‘dread’ boys in rasta- striped hats ‘want Peace’ (31), using the language of reggae in poems that claim a space for Black Britons.


Another of 2018’s book prize winners uses the language of hip-hop for his debut book. Karl Nova is a known on the London hip-hop scene and has been giving workshops in schools for a number of years. In the CLiPPA award-winning Rhythm and Poetry, Nova chooses, in his own words, ‘to reflect on childhood through the lens of Hip Hop...viewing rap as the poetry of today’.


“You will find me on rhythm and poetry street where lyricism, poetic lines and the spoken word meet the lines are blurry here it’s hard to trace but for me it is home a familiar street” Nova (10)


In ‘My Address’, Nova puns on ‘address’ and opens up a connection between his speech and his sense of belonging. These are themes taken up by Breis (pronounced ‘Breeze’) in his book Brilliant Rappers Educate Intelligent Students (2011). The poem ‘Wahala’ is offered in ‘pidgin English’ with ‘Interpretation’ on the opposite page.


“Plan one thing, na another thing selè, You never plan for that one télè, télè Kíló selé? The stress, palaver Everyone I know has to deal with wàhálà”


“Plan one thing, and another thing happens You never planned for that before What’s the matter? The stress, palaver Everyone I know has to deal with trouble” (22-23)


Both Karl Nova and Breis lived in London and Nigeria during their childhood and explore in their writing how both places shaped


them. Far from being imitative of hip-hop from the USA, their writing demonstrates a personal engagement with the spirit of hip-hop in drawing from diverse sources in order to create something original; by way of example, Breis writes of learning from Lauryn Hill, Roald Dahl and Ben Okri.


Two of the most highly rated rappers in Britain have provided words for picture books aimed at younger readers by illustrator Sav Akyüz. Akala’s rhymes feature in Hip and Hop: You Can Do Anything (2017) and Ben Bailey Smith (also known as Doc Brown) provides words for I Am Bear (2016). The latter has a link to a music video on the cover. Brilliant Rappers Educate Intelligent Students is also available as an audiobook and Hip Hop Speaks to Children comes with a CD with performances of most of the poems and songs. This is a neat reversal of thirty years ago - when hip hop albums often included lyric sheets - and suggests that publishers are starting to recognise the value of words penned by MCs.


On The Come Up (2019), Angie Thomas, Walker. Gangsta Rap (2004) Benjamin Zephaniah Rhythm and Poetry (2017) Karl Nova, Caboodle. Brilliant Rappers Educate Intelligent Students (2011), Breis, Student of Life.


When The Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop (2013) Laban Carrick Hill Illustrated by Theodore Taylor III. Roaring Brook.


I Am Bear (2016) Ben Bailey Smith and Sav Akyüz. Walker Hip And Hop: You Can Do Anything (2017) Akala, Illustrated by Sav Akyüz. OUP


Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat, (2008) Nikki Giovanni (ed). Jabberwocky.


Karen Sands-O’Connor is professor of English at SUNY Buffalo State in New York. She has, as Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Newcastle University, worked with Seven Stories, the National Centre for the Children’s Book, and has recently published Children’s Publishing and Black Britain 1965-2015 (Palgrave Macmillan 2017).


Darren Chetty is a teacher, doctoral researcher and writer with research interests in education, philosophy, racism, children’s literature and hip hop culture. He is a contributor to The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla and published by Unbound, and tweets at @rapclassroom


Books for Keeps No.234 January 2019 17


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