The "Street Lit" Book Craze

I admit that sometimes I'm slow to the game, but now I know the name of the genre of books that celebrate the degradation of the urban culture. It's called "Street Lit" according to an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The article profiles, Khalil Robinson, the self described, "Philly Man", who peddles the books in downtown Philadelphia. The books, whose covers typically display scantily clad women, veer to the core of the hip hop culture in content. The genre, also has become a very lucrative profession for black authors who choose to go the self publishing route, and become their own distributors of the books. According to Robinson, "It's become a million dollar business".

Philly native, Teri Woods, reportedly sold more than a million of her "Street Lit" themed books before signing a multi-book deal with Warner Books, and this weeks her new release "True To The Game III" debuted at number 14 on the New York Times best seller list.

The genre has come under attack recently, by none other than one of it's godfathers, Omar Tyree. Tyree laments the audiences acceptance of "denigration over progression".

I really hate to knock any author's hustle. If there is an audience for these books, which there obviously is, more power to them for having an outlet for their creativity. If record labels and hip hop artists can become rich from music that often denigrates, why can't book authors? There's no need to choose what forms of denigration are acceptable.

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