Music, Gangs, Violence, and Murder - The Tale of an American City

Music, Gangs, Violence, and Murder – The Tale of an American City

Dec 24, 2017 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

Book: To Funk and Die in LA: A D Hunter Mystery
Author: Nelson George
Critic: Dr Glenville Ashby

Nelson George delivers a vividly dramatic and artful work. It is hauntingly real and captures a nihilistic, lugubrious and self-destructive side of man.
George’s characters intrigue and mesmerise, none more so than Dr Funk, a nomadic, chronically homeless and troubled soul; a paradoxical recluse whose dance with drugs only adds to his eccentricity but somehow fails to efface his prodigious musical abilities. He is warned that he risks calamity if he fails to honour the gifts he is bestowed. But “drugs, debauchery, lawsuits…and mental illness have all plagued him over the last few decades. [Still], Dr. Funk looms large as a profound influence on all musicians who’ve followed in his path.”
And there is Red Dawg, a calumnious, terrifying figure, a parolee, a ticking time bomb thirsty for revenge after the mysterious murder of his friend and patron, Big Danny. Who would kill a seemingly harmless senior, a business and putative pillar of the community? But is Big Danny really untainted? Red Dawg appears to have all the answers.
Equally interesting is the more measured, astute and congenial bodyguard, D Hunter, who returns to LA for the funeral of his grandfather, Big Danny.
D, we learn has “been around death a lot as a child, dealing with the murders of his three older brothers. Each had been a profound tragedy.”
D Hunter scours LA neighbourhoods, leaving no stones unturned. The killer must be brought to justice. For sure, all that is hidden will be eventually revealed.
To Funk and Die in LA details a murderous, decadent culture.
Life is cheap, dispensable. Rappers recite their sordid reality but there is little in the way of a solution. Ghetto life destroys the spirit, the very soul. It is a dungeon where brothers lose their mind “with no future but incarceration or an early death.”
It is where Bloods and Crips and other notorious gangs, such as the 18th Street Gang of El Salvadorian origin and the Mexican Mafia thrive on intimidation, blood and violence.
Rumours swirl that blacks and Latinos kids are in constant strife. It gets worse: “The Mexican gangs have been pushing black folks out of the neighbourhood…They try to scare folks into selling cheap,” D is told.
And relations between blacks and Koreans are unsettling, at best. And if that were not enough, human trafficking is a very threatening problem. Teenage girls and women are sexually exploited and abused by an underground Korean network. It is here we are introduced to Serene, a more than able avenger determined to end this evil.
And throughout, east and west coast rappers jockey for dominance with stinging lyrics and guns in tow. Those who don’t die by the sword are gobbled up by addiction. And for a teenager Walli, Hunter’s cousin, the die is cast. Not even school is safe from murderous gangbangers. He is desirous of jumping ship, his eyes set on college.
“I want to go to college out of state, hopefully to the University of Washington or some place else up north. I felt that way even before what happened to Granddad.”
But can he really reverse fate.
George presents a socio-cultural tapestry that covers eras – from classical funk to gangsta rap and the contemporary message of Black Lives Matter. Social tension, though, is constant. There is a wretchedness that never abates.
George’s deft use of colour, tone and driving cadence captivates, and his delicate use of graphic language is testament to his literary mastery. It is an undertaking written with passion and imagination. The reader is taken to a world that not many experience and a world where only few are left to tell their tale.
Admittedly, though, there is a moment of levity when a conversation between Dr Funk and Big Danny is captured on tape. Their running discourse on musicians past and present proves refreshing.
Throughout, D is haunted by his Granddad’s murder. But other responsibilities are in the making – he must find Dr Funk for more reasons than one, while keeping an eye on Night, a talented rapper prone to falling off the wagon.
Without doubt, in this American city there is an unending trail of paranoia and uncertainty. “Wherever you go and whoever you meet there is a hustle. The question is who’s being hustled and who is the hustler.”
In this foreboding setting, the black family is decimated. We are told that “Hispanics and Asians are moving in [and] fifty percent of LA County’s homeless are black.”
Given the change in demographics, it isn’t surprising that one church in the eighties which boasted of over a thousand members is barely surviving with a paltry membership of seventy.
George speaks to our conscience, our humanity, and begs the rhetorical questions: Are we victims of our own creation? And, in times when fear and distrust overcome reason, can we as a people ever coexist?
Feedback: glenvilleashby@ gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
To Funk and Die in LA: A D Hunter Mystery by George Nelson (c) 2017
Publisher: Akashic Books, Brooklyn, New York
ISBN: 13: 968-1-61775-586-6
Available at Amazon
Rating: Essential