It’s not often I read. In fact I’ll only ever read a book if it has something to do with music. Slash, Tommyland and The Dirt to name a few.
When I saw Scroobius Pip (one half of UK Hip-Hop duo dan le sac VS. Scroobius Pip) had a book out, I was interested. I wasn’t really entirely sure what to expect. The title “Poetry in (e)Motion” gave the idea it was solely another poetry book. I was right on that, but I thought I’d give it a whirl. At £7.99 in Forbidden Planet in London, this book was an absolute bargain.
With a foreword written by Nick Frost (Ed from Shaun Of The Dead) in the style of a poem, the book gets off to a good start. In the introduction, Pip explains he hasn’t always enjoyed poetry, he doesn’t enjoy reading it much and has to hear it aloud at open mic nights and so when the idea arose for him to release a book of his own poetry he thought it arrogant if he made people read his poetry when he didn’t like his own. Instead, he got artists and illustrators to contact him via his MySpace page who would draw out the poems in a kind of…comic book form.
Sounds like a strange idea, but when reading the poems and following the story within that poem with the pictures, the poems hit harder. Before each poem, Pip explains when he wrote it and why he wrote it as well as the story behind it. He also gives credit to the illustrators and artists with a short side piece written by the artists themselves.
Most of the poems were eventually turned in to songs for dan le sac VS. Scroobius Pip’s debut album “Angles.” while a couple have appeared on Pip’s own spoken word album “No Commercial Breaks.” Each of the illustrations are different from the previous poem yet all are stunningly drawn, even that of Rat Race which is simple stick people drawings.
There isn’t much I can say about this book. It’s amazing. I’m not a fan of poetry. I hated the anthology given to me in secondary school but this book is a hell of a lot different.
I recommend it to anyone and everyone. Everyone can easily find something they like or love about this book and at £7.49 on Play.com, it’s a bargain.
Favourite Poem: Ode To A B-Boy. A hard hitting poem about a friend of Pip’s who died.
