Psalms of My People: A Story of Black Liberation as Told Through Hip-Hop

Activist and media producer duncan (Dear Church) weaves prose with poetry in this provocative if scattershot “attempt to create a Black sacred cultural artifact” at the intersection of hip-hop and history. Noting that accounts of Black people in America have frequently been “policed, destroyed, and written by our oppressors,” duncan aims instead to render a “poetic liberation narrative history of Black america” through “our prophets: hip-hop artists.” Genre legends such as DJ Kool Herc, Lauryn Hill, and the Roots provide the springboard for duncan’s perceptive cultural critique (“N.W.A. artfully transmitted a visceral experience, gripping the nation by its throat and forcing it to bear witness to the experience of Black peoples in this country in real time”). Other insights are earnest and intimate (“The Roots were the first time hip-hop respected/someone/like me”). Elsewhere, duncan follows a 22-page list of the names Black people killed by U.S. law enforcement since 2000 with a gut-punch question: “How many names did you skip over just now?” Unfortunately, the work is marred by verse that underwhelms (“One of two plants, most likely male and/ unable to make/ buds. I wish me and my dad were better buds”) or detracts from its worthy message by telling rather than showing (“What will white america do/when no longer it is just HISstory?”). The result is a mixed bag. (Jan.)