Words For My Comrades is a book aimed at addressing “the complexity of Tupac’s politics” through a political history of Tupac Shakur and his mother Afeni, who was a member of the Black Panther Party.
WORDS FOR MY COMRADES: A Political History of Tupac Shakur is released this week in American bookshops and on June 19th in Ireland, UK and Europe on Doubleday.
Van Nguyen previously wrote a book about Ghostface Killah, and was a guest on our MF DOOM Podcast.
Here’s a synopsis of the book.
Before his murder at age twenty-five, Tupac Shakur rose to staggering artistic heights as the preeminent storyteller of the 1990s, building, in the process, one of the most iconic public personas of the last half century. He recorded no fewer than ten platinum albums, starred in major films, and became an activist and political hero known the world over. In this cultural history, journalist Van Nguyen reckons with Tupac’s coming of age, fame, and cultural capital, and how the political machinations that shaped him as a boy have since buoyed his legacy as a revolutionary following the George Floyd uprisings. Words for My Comrades engages—crucially—with the influence of Tupac’s mother, Afeni, whose role in the Black Panther Party and dedication to dismantling American imperialism and combating police brutality informed Tupac’s art. Tupac’s childhood as a son of the Panthers, coupled with the influence of his stepfather’s Marxist beliefs, informed his own riveting code of ethics that helped audiences grapple with America’s inherent injustices.
Using oral histories from conversations with the people who directly witnessed Tupac’s life and career, many of whom were interviewed for the first time here—from Panther elder Aaron Dixon, to music video director Stephen Ashley Blake, to friends and contemporaries of Tupac’s mother—Van Nguyen demonstrates how Tupac became one of the most enduring musical legends in hip-hop history, and how intimately his name is threaded with the legacy of Black Panther politics.
Van Nguyen reveals how Tupac and Afeni each championed the disenfranchised in distinct ways, and how their mother-son bond charts a narrative of the last fifty years of revolutionary Black American politics. Words for My Comrades is the story of how the energy of the Black political movement was subsumed by culture, and how America produced two of its most iconic, enduring revolutionaries.See Less
This is the book for readers of expansive histories of pivotal social justice figures such as Les and Tamara Payne’s THE DEAD ARE ARISING: The Life of Malcolm X and Jonathan Eig’s ALI: A Life; political and cultural texts like Hanif Abdurraqib’s THEY CAN’T KILL US UNTIL THEY KILL US; rap devotees and readers of books like Jeff Chang’s CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP and Dan Charnas’s THE BIG PAYBACK; readers of in-depth history regarding the civil rights movement; and readers of expansive celebrity memoirs.
“Words for My Comrades is elegant, incisive, and deeply considered. With Tupac’s political history as the focus, Dean Van Nguyen properly humanizes a man who reached mythical status long ago. An astounding achievement.” —Marcus J. Moore, author of High and Rising (A Book About De La Soul)
“In a time in which having a rich relationship with the truth is especially vital, here comes Dean Van Nguyen. History is either a tool of the state or an outside screaming for freedom. Words for My Comrades is about freedom—it is freedom at work.” —Saeed Jones, award-winning author of How We Fight For Our Lives
“In Words For My Comrades, Dean Van Nguyen deftly ties Tupac’s brilliant career with his anti-capitalist upbringing. A richly researched biography that honors his subject’s bold, deeply textured life and art.” —Walter Thompson-Hernández, author of The Compton Cowboys
“Moves confidently…Fresh interpretations of a foundational hip-hop narrative.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Music journalist Dean Van Nguyen paints a comprehensive portrait of Tupac Shakur—not just as the legendary rapper, but also as an artist existentially shaped by radical politics….As this bold biography makes evident, Shakur’s political conscience naturally informed the way he approached his art.” —Harper’s Bazaar
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
