Finally: Street Lit a mother could love!
In my ongoing crusade to end the world of urban literature/hip-hop lit/street lit/complete bullshit through sheer public humiliation, I bring you this sordid development: There is a company putting out a young adult line of shitty urban books.

The pro here is that suggesting Young Diamond Books - the publisher that has charged itself with the lofty goal of putting stories about hustlers and their ridiculously stupid girlfriends into the hands of already emotionally and ethically suspect youth - with putting out a "line" of ignorant-ass titles is overly-generous. They've only put one book out, Ride Wit' Me, and it came out in 2006. Guess the ground-breakign genre shift didn't take.

It is this book that is the case in point, and where I'd like to start the groin kicking.

The book looks like other shit lit books that litter the shelves - a half-naked and headless woman on the cover, standing in front of the flavor of the year car that's all the rage in nightclub parking lots the world over, itself situated before a non-specific urban skyline.* A couple of ringing endorsements from other shit lit authors later, and we're into it proper.

After reading this thesis statement from the Young Diamond Books website:

Young Diamonds Books is the premiere urban publishing company targeted to young adults. It is the first publishing house that will introduce street literature or “hip-hop” lit as it has been dubbed by the media, with no explicit language, violence or graphic sexual content. This has been called a groundbreaking product for our youth by educators, clergy and parents.

...imagine my surprise upon finding a sex scene in which the narrator - Mercedes - loses her virginity to her wannabe-hustler boyfriend, Dalvin. And I don't mean some kind of After-School Special sex scene that's implied by some heavy necking and then a commercial break; I mean a scene laced with the phrase "popped my cherry" and, as I recall, "moistened his manhood." You know, as he penetrates her on a bed of rose petals by candlelight.

The fuck?!

I read the passage aloud to my co-workers and everyone was astonished that we had that shelved under "young Adult". Sure, the company called it that, but it was clear that no one in purchasing bothered to determine if that were applicable beyond the book cover. To its credit, there are no curse words, not even nigga/er, but come on. Fortunately, we had six copies of this in the system and thanks to theft we're down to one. Natural selection will rid us of this fart of good intentions soon enough.



* - See, a CITY is "urban". A race of people are not. 

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EDIT 5/9/08:  The offending passage.  As far as sex scenes go, it's not the raciest thing any of us have ever read, particularly by Shit Lit standards.  I would implore you to remember the context: that this is in a book intended to attract 11 and 12 year olds.  Judge as you will:


After slipping on the lingerie, I opened the door and Dalvin had lit all the candles and scattered rose pedals (sic!) from the bathroom leading to the bed.  My feet felt like they were floating as I made my way towards him.  He was sitting on the edge of the King sized bed with only his silk boxer shorts on.  The luminous light seemed to highlight every muscle in his arms, chest and abs.

"I poured you a glass of champagne, although I'm not even sure you drink."

"I'm a virgin, Dalvin, not a saint."  We both laughed.

"Let's make a toast."  He handed me my champagne and we held up our glasses.  "To our love and nothin' comin' between it.  And to no matter what, you'll ride wit me."

We clinked our glasses, and by the time I had my last swallow, I was dying to have Dalvin inside of me.  He laid me down on the bed and hypnotized me with his eyes before tenderly sprinkling my body with kisses.  My back arched as he made his way further down my stomach.  He paused for a moment.

"Baby, don't stop, you feel so good."  He continued until he reached the gates to heaven.

With the first stroke of his tongue, my entire body shivered.  He continued, leaving me yearning for more.  Before I could even catch my breath, I felt the tip of his head gently make its way inside me.  I moaned in pain, but it was an intoxicating pain.

"Mercedes, am I hurting you, do you want me to stop?"

"No, please don't."  Dalvin continued as I grasped my nails tightly into his back and buried my face in his chest, getting through the pain of him popping my cherry.

"Oh, Mercedes," he moaned, as he went further inside of me.

My juices saturated his manhood, and although I didn't think it was possible, at that moment I fell in even deeper in love with him.  He rocked inside of me and we kissed fervently for what seemed like a lifetime.