Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur

Holler If You Hear Me was one of the first serious intellectual studies of Tupac Shakur. Its author, Michael Eric Dyson (born 1958), is a university professor and an ordained Baptist minister who had already published widely discussed books on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. When this one came out, he was teaching at DePaul University in Chicago. The book is in English; there is no German translation.

The facts

What it’s about

Dyson does not write a conventional life story. He asks why Tupac looms larger in death than he did in life. The book is divided into four parts covering childhood, adolescence, the artist, and finally the body, gender and faith. It deals with Tupac’s roots in the Black Panther movement, with Afeni Shakur and her addiction, with what Tupac read and who shaped his thinking, with sexism, violence and his running argument with God.

According to an announcement from his university at the time, Dyson spoke with more than 60 people, among them Afeni Shakur, Quincy Jones, Toni Morrison, Stanley Crouch, Mos Def, John Singleton, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tupac’s early manager Leila Steinberg. He also draws on previously unreleased video footage, including material from Tupac’s school days and an interview recorded in prison.

Verdict

A serious, essayistic work of non-fiction written from a cultural-studies angle. Kirkus Reviews found it perceptive, informative and timely, if “a tad hagiographic”Dyson calls Tupac a “ghetto saint”. Publishers Weekly expected it to reach readers well beyond the music-biography shelf. If you are after dates and events, a biography will serve you better; if you want to understand what Tupac stands for, this is one of the key books. More titles: Books.