May 25 - May 30, 2011

Monster: The Autobiography of an LA Gang Member
Sanyika Shakur aka Monster Kody Scott
Non-Fiction/Biography
Published
1993
383 pages

9/10

  Sanyika Shakur aka Monster Kody Scott invites us to follow him from his initiation into the uber notorious Crips of South Central as a preteen, his rise through the ranks to claim the title of Ghetto Star for his acts of violence and depravity, up to his time in prison for (some of) said acts where he conducted a remarkable about face to become a revolutionary activist in the New Afrikan Independence Movement.

  I live in a small town (technically it's a city, but only something akin to four square blocks worth of city, otherwise we're surrounded by town) full of farmland, horses, and lifetime residents.  When they ask where I went to school (because they figure I went to school with SOMEONE they know) and I say, "Just off Hastings in East Van," I'm met with admiration for my inborn street cred and legitimacy.  This guy, this guy though... he is Too Legit.  Some might say...

  Monster Kody Scott was a huge driving force in the South Central Crips and spent years in correctional facilities; somehow, instead of letting these influences work against him in a negative manner, he used them to harden himself into a revolutionary and helped inspire others to end black-on-black violence.   Sure, he turned his focus from rival gangs to... well... whitey, but whitey is pretty much the man who's keeping him and his brother down.  And while I can't say I can identify with the type of extreme persecution he (and others like him) face, I certainly can acknowledge it and understand his reasoning.  I also appreciate how prison doesn't make him do an about face of personality *like finding Jesus, cough cough, claiming a healing of the soul, cough cough, early parole, cough cough* but instead just helps him focus his rage from people in his community (rival bangers)  to those trying to oppress his community (the Man).  He's still a Monster, but the good kind - like Frankenstein, or Wolverine.
  The amount of violence he experiences is phenomenal.  In retaliation for a kidnapping, rape, and stabbing of a fellow gangster's family member, he cuts off a guy's arms at the elbows and carries one around for a trophy for Christ's sake!  And that was during his late teens.  You know what I was doing in my late teens?  Telemarketing and trick-or-treating.
  I was definitely riveted, and just pored through the book.  The wording was slightly confusing, and it got a little heavy for me towards the end, but if anyone has the right to an advanced style of vocabulary and musings over life lessons learned, it's this guy.
I highly recommend this book, and while you're reading it, work on your c-walking, suckas.