You cannot understand modern "Street Lit" (Sistah Souljah, Zane, K’wan) without the Blaxploitation paperback. You cannot understand the lyrics of Ice Cube, the Notorious B.I.G., or Jay-Z without them. Rappers have been sampling the covers and the attitude of these books for thirty years.
: A formerly incarcerated author who wrote 16 novels in five years, such as Black Gangster Ernest Tidyman : A journalist whose novel Blaxploitation Paperbacks
When most people hear the word "Blaxploitation," their minds flash immediately to the grainy 35mm frames of the 1970s: Shaft striding through Times Square, Foxy Brown unloading a revolver, or Coffy working her way through a drug ring. But before the popcorn was popped and the reels rolled, a parallel—and arguably more explosive—revolution was happening on the newsstands of America. This was the era of the . You cannot understand modern "Street Lit" (Sistah Souljah,
While Holloway House dominated the market (publishing series like The Velvet Soul and House of Bondage ), they were not alone. and Midwood-Tower produced the "Eclipse" series, which often blended hard-boiled detective tropes with romance. There were also the "Saber" books, which leaned heavily into the "vigilante" aspect—think Death Wish set in Harlem. : A formerly incarcerated author who wrote 16
