Bomb the Suburbs: Graffiti, Race, Freight-Hopping and the Search for Hip Hops Moral Center by William Upski Wimsatt

Bomb the Suburbs: Graffiti, Race, Freight-Hopping and the Search for Hip Hops Moral Center Reviews

• 
  ػᶈᶏϾӗ

  This is the book on race that I always hoped existed. Wimsatt's essay "We Use Words Like Mackadocious" was definitely the best thing he's presented in this collection. The interviews and stories are all pretty great, illustrating, though somewhat haphazardly, the development of hip-hop and graffiti in Chicago through the late 80s and early 90s. Some of it seems scatterbrained, however, and if you're looking for some kind of definitive timeline of rap, you won't find it here! Still, yes, the values and the morals gradually come together - much like staring at a piece until you can make out the artist's name. I was only moderately disappointed by Wimsatt's "call to action" as such in the last couple chapters. He's right about needing to create a more proactive culture and take hip-hop back from the corporations that have co-opted it. Although this book could benefit from a little more structure and clarity, and I don't agree with all of Wimsatt's ideas or conclusions, it was nonetheless an important read that I would recommend to anyone even tangentially interested in any of the many topics it covers.
• 
  Kate

  this is definitely a book i can cite as one of my most formative.
  
  so much so that i did some crazy things ... like 411-ed the author William Upski Wimsatt (I think he mentioned he lived in Chicago (?) and i actually called 411) and wrote his number inside the cover and looked at it for a long time and finally actually called his home and a middle-aged woman answered (his mother) and i asked for 'william' and she said 'junior or senior?' and i had no idea so i just said 'junior' and he wasn't home and she wanted to leave a message and i said no that's ok and hung up.
  
  looking back at myself at that time i can laugh ... but at the time it opened up a world to me. i read it many times over, walked down the streets of new york (summer 2001?) brandishing its yellow cover. i felt cool when other "in-the-know" kids saw me reading it and stopped me to say they loved it too.
  
  and the copy i had meant a lot to me. all my little highlights, his silly number inside the cover. someone borrowed it, i can't remember who, and i haven't seen it for years. where are you bomb the suburbs??!
• 
  George

  I don't want this to sound dismissive, but this book was really great when i was 20. I haven't picked it up since, but it was really inspiring at the time and made me feel like i could save the world or that i should at least be trying. It'd be interesting to see how it went over now; it almost feels like a photo from high school or something.
  
• 
  m

  As a fellow philanthropist, Upski really hits home with his progressive politics and focus on the urban hip hop generation. And as a youth worker & organizer in Boston, I find his words are captivating and engaging for young people. This is not your typical book. But that's why it's so good.
• 
  Teresa

  upski shows how books should be done: personal, messy, fearless.
• 
  Andre Pope

  This book was a great segue into my young adult life. A gift from an older friend, I found this book to be a view into a world that I wasn't yet familiar with, but wanted to know more.
• 
  Lauren

  I was really excited to read this book after seeing it referenced frequently in "Why the white kids love hip-hop." Sadly, it didn't live up to the hype. While Wimsatt occasionally veers into Tim Wise territory when he talks about race and his white privilege, he spends far too much time trying to earn street cred by recalling his time as a graffiti artist. We get it - you're white but you're down - and that's why you named your book bomb the suburbs. Your problem is that your writing rambles and you don't have an overarching point. Skip this well-intentioned mess and pick up "White like me" instead.
• 
  Kony

  Putting this back on the shelf for now because, despite being about interesting things, it's written in a critical voice that oozes contempt for all things mainstream and borders on whiney.
  
  Right now, I'd rather read something constructively uplifting. Maybe I'll come back to this when/if I find myself in the mood to read smart-alecky disaffected social criticism. Or maybe I'll trade it in for cash at Half Price Books. We'll see.
• 
  Harper

  This book was really influential when I read it, my freshman year of college. There's a whole chapter on how to deal with being a class priveleged radical. It prompted me to begin thinking about how to use the privelege I've grown up with, instead of living in denial about it.
• 
  James Tracy

  I'm interested in re-reading this to see if it holds up a few years later.
• 
  Skyler

  “Read not for the facts but for the angles of thinking.”
• 
  Vampire Who Baked

  This was a fun-serious read-- intensely personal and mostly honest (and transparent) about where the author is speaking from. Books about any subculture work best from the perspective of either fans/afficionados or actual practitioners, and Upski is sort of both. Having dabbled in graffiti, rap, journalism writing, activism and pretty much everything else, he has a first hand view (even if a rather specific perspective) of everything he writes about. And he has a fun voice-- the book is very entertaining, from start to finish.
  
  As for the rest, this review sums up my thoughts perfectly:
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...?
• 
  Dave Cazeau

  Was ok, nothing really hit in reading this for me...
• 
  Sheehan

  Loved this book at the time I read it, have purchased and given multiple copies of this book out to young ones coming up behind me. It is accessible, honest and definitely down for hip-hop culture.
• 
  Northpapers

  Sabbath Book number 9 for 2018
  
  Wimsatt was only 22 when this ferocious underground book was published, which means he was writing the essays it contains when he was either in his teens or very early twenties. It is remarkable for its audacity, energy, and the author's fearless embodiment of the values he espouses. That energy also made it unmistakably the work of a kid.
  
  It functions like a zine, careening from topic to topic, interspersing interviews, essays, opinions, poetry, and photography. The whole thing revolves around the hip-hop culture, which involves writing, rapping, spinning, and breaking. The titular topic is the question of where graffiti writers should focus their energy, if organization is even possible.
  
  Among things to be admired in this book are the author's willingness to bluntly examine his own whiteness, question his right to participate in spaces created by and for people of color, offer suggestions for constructive transgression, and participate in the culture he examines.
  
  His narratives about hitchhiking and exploring the graffiti scene in a new city reminded me of what I thought was cool when I was in my early twenties, and his explorations of racially charged spaces are relevant to my life right now.
  
  There was little in this book to inform my own engagement with the political and cultural world of 2018, but it was refreshing and enjoyable to watch a restless, energetic mind encounter an interesting space and converse with it.
• 
  Riegs

  True story: I'm an ex-suburbanite happily living in Chicago - or as I like to think of it, a "rehabbed" suburbanite. I mean that quite literally: moving out of the suburbs was like attending rehab, in that I had to detoxify myself of ugly suburban ignorance tied to classism and white privilege. So when I saw a book entitled "Bomb the Suburbs", I was all about that shit: "YES, PLEASE.[fistpump]" Alas, fellow Chicagoan William "Upski" Wimsatt was really referring to bombing as in graffiti-bombing.
  
  Okay, cool, I thought, but who is Upski? Turns out he's a DIY journalist and political activist from my hometown, which means I immediately have love for him. But, he also happens to be white. I approached this book with some hesitation because of this: how can a white person write about hip-hop? (That, and I really do know absolutely nothing about hip-hop itself.) Upski never hides his whiteness though - he remains an unapologetic and respectful observer of urban culture. He also uses his unique position to make some very solid observations about how graffiti and hip-hop become diluted and propagated by suburbanites. He certainly describes well how white privilege has infiltrated and corporatized something owned and created DIY by urban communities.
  
  But why only three stars? Merely describing just wasn't enough for me. I felt he could've done more. But I could see a lot of inklings of good observations and ideas that weren't followed through upon. Perhaps at the time of publication, Upski wasn't yet mature enough to tackle the topics he brings up. Or maybe I didn't get it. Maybe I'm the wrong audience for this book - even though I'm a librarian in a Chicago public school, 100% African American and low-income. I could see how there's a lapse in experience and knowledge for me to fully appreciate this book. But still, I want to peruse more of his work, to see how these ideas are delved into.
• 
  Dave

  This reads more like a zine than a book, which made me love it even more. Upski's got the urge to chronicle a lot art, in this case 80s and 90s Chicago hip-hop in the same way as one of my favorite writers, Aaron Cometbus does for punk rock in the Bay Area. Some of this info you can't get anywhere else besides hanging out with the people that were really there doing graffiti in Chicago at the time.
  
  Much is made of how Chicago is largely ignored in the world of hip-hop while the West Coast/East Coast stuff gets all of the attention. I don't follow hip-hop as much as I used to, but this still seems to be the case. Kayne West is huge, obviously, and usually seen as a "conscious" rapper, but in the end he likes to just rap about money. Something tells me that Upski won't like representing his city. But what else is there coming out of Chi-town? Common acts more than he raps these days.
  
  When Upski writes about Chicago, it just makes me want to go back a third time. I can't seem to get enough of that city. And his prediction about the area between the Chinatown stop on the blue line to downtown becoming gentrified is right on, although it's still in the works and feels mostly like a ghost town near those new condos.
• 
  Ted

  2008/09/06: About halfway through it, but sat it aside recently to read "
  In Search of Captain Zero" first.
  Some pretty insightful/important conclusions/observances mixed in with some silly/inaccurate/useless/misdirected b.s.
  Ranges from funny/interesting/entertaining to dry/boring.
  
  2008/10/29 Picked it back up yesterday and finished it. It was sometimes fun, usually interesting, though sometimes neither.
  Is it important to read? I don't know.
  I suppose that if nothing else, it is important in the respect that it gets you thinking about some issues that Upski discusses, even if what he's saying about the issues is kinda nonsensical and/or pointless.
  Note: though there is plenty that Upski says that does make sense and/or have a point, some of his stuff seemingly has neither.
• 
  Erhardt Graeff

  Fascinating walk through the history of Chicago's hip-hop scene by the simultaneous outsider and insider, Billy Wimsatt. Billy is the White kid who was "down" with all the Black hip-hop pioneers in Chicago and developed into an accomplished Graffiti writer and later organizer. His book is a collection of his published essays on hip-hop, alongside sociological and historical snapshots in the form of personal tours and intimate interviews. It's a unique book in its construction and fascinating in its subtly growing political agenda. The provocative title is meant to draw you in but also call you to action; Billy wants to start a revolution built on the principles that he sees hip-hop stand for, principles that are about social change and social justice. Fun and inspiring.
• 
  Samantha

  I remember really liking this when I read it. I didn't entirely trust the author though. It seems to me quite likely that WUW is really, really annoying in real life. Still, it thrilled me at the time because it was energetic and hopeful and decidedly NOT theory. It demonstrates resistance as action -- and action is not the once a year participation in a protest, but the choices you make on a daily level. It's about community and creativity and integrity... that is, if I'm remembering correctly.
• 
  Justin

  This book was published in 2001? I could swear I read it before that, but maybe I'm wrong. This isn't the kind of book you would be likely to use for reference. It's very opinionated and doesn't really rely on anything other than the views of the author. That said, it's very entertaining and I suspect in the long run might be considered a valuable sample of millennial American urban culture. As the title implies the book relies somewhat on stereotypes, suggesting that the enlightened urban mixing pot needs to 'bomb' the bland, whitebread suburbs with knowledge.
• 
  Amy

  i liked this book. i read it because i thought it would focus on graffiti, which i'm really into right now. but graffiti was just a small part of the discussion. the book was really about the hip hop culture and movement in the early 90s. i like that wimsatt wrote the book for a hip hop audience (which doesn't include me). even still, i think i'm a little too old to be inspired by wimsatt's idealism. i should have read this book 10 years ago.
• 
  Dave Analog

  I absolutely loved this book, and having lived in Chicago my whole life and been a graf writer in my younger days i cant totally relate to this book. Especially when he names certain spots that dont even exist anymore. This book totally made me want to go out bombing again. It really gives you a great understanding of the whole graf culture, for those that dont know it and just think its about being a delinquent.
• 
  Shenanitims

  This book opened my mind to a lot of ideas. Such as the idea of how to be successful while still remaining true to yourself. So that when my college guidance counselor told me I could either take a bunch of easy classes to finish out my credit requirement, or complete a Minor, I chose a Minor. One that I had no desire to learn: Business. But I figured the world could use a(nother) social liberal who understands how (big) money works.
• 
  Patrick Quinn

  I actually met upski in 93- 94 at my friends store in Pittsburgh, he was hitchhiking and wanted to see the worst ghetto. We told him to go to Homewood thinking we were smartasses. I didn't read the book then but twenty years later I really wish I did. A lot of the race stuff was interesting and the future of hop- hop sucking has come true. At least the current state of rap. His graffiti stories are what I wish id've read then.