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speculativebecky 's review for:
I was really intrigued by the premise of Rap Dad, Juan Vidal's memoir about fatherhood and a generation of parents, like himself, who grew up enmeshed in hip-hop culture. Unfortunately for me it fell a little short.
The memoir begins with Vidal's childhood, and explores his relationship/lack thereof with his own father. As he grows up he becomes involved in a missionary driven rap group, and travels the world. I wished that his feelings on Christianity were discussed in greater length, because though he becomes involved in the church it's not clear what place religion has in his life. I also wanted more about his wife and their relationship, it's clear she's so important to him but she was very absent from his narrative.
Eventually fatherhood arrives, and the story turns more towards where I'd expected. Yet the focus seems often on how he decided to write this book. I was disinterested in this, and wanted to actually read the book instead of about why he wanted to write the book. Even as the story develops more it seemed he wrote more about how he was conducting research and learning about “rap dads” rather than actually sharing what he learned.
I think there is some really interesting stuff being explored with this book, but wish it went deeper. Since it wasn't able to springboard me forward into relating to my own life I didn't come away with as rich an experience as I think a reader with more history with rap and/or fatherhood probably would.
The memoir begins with Vidal's childhood, and explores his relationship/lack thereof with his own father. As he grows up he becomes involved in a missionary driven rap group, and travels the world. I wished that his feelings on Christianity were discussed in greater length, because though he becomes involved in the church it's not clear what place religion has in his life. I also wanted more about his wife and their relationship, it's clear she's so important to him but she was very absent from his narrative.
Eventually fatherhood arrives, and the story turns more towards where I'd expected. Yet the focus seems often on how he decided to write this book. I was disinterested in this, and wanted to actually read the book instead of about why he wanted to write the book. Even as the story develops more it seemed he wrote more about how he was conducting research and learning about “rap dads” rather than actually sharing what he learned.
I think there is some really interesting stuff being explored with this book, but wish it went deeper. Since it wasn't able to springboard me forward into relating to my own life I didn't come away with as rich an experience as I think a reader with more history with rap and/or fatherhood probably would.