May 192013
Hiding in Hip Hop: On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry–from Music to Hollywood
Now in paperback, MTV insider Terrance Dean presents an explosive memoir about the down low culture of Hollywood and hip hop, where seemingly straight male celebrities find themselves in intimate relationships with other men.Featured on the Wendy Williams show and given a month-long special presentation on Gawker, Hiding in Hip Hop hit the shelves by storm. Terrance Dean was celebrated across the blogosphere and in publications such as Time, Newsweek, and New York magazine. Now in paperback, the
List Price: $ 15.00
Price: $ 7.92
Emotional Purging,
Hiding in Hip Hop: Confessions of a Down Low Brother in the Entertainment Industry by Terrance Dean is an intimate account of the author’s experience as an undercover brother. As a child, Dean was forced to cope with issues surrounding drugs, abandonment, AIDS, and molestation. As an adult, those issues still plagued him, but he was able to add sexuality to his list of problems. His fulfillment in having sex with other men would not have been so huge had he not been a part of the entertainment business. But because he was flooded with images of masculinity and saw how the rich and famous treated those who were openly gay, he contrived an artificial existence as a heterosexual man ultimately hiding in Hip Hop.
Dean was not the typical down-low guy though. In actuality, he loathed the way some down-low men lied to their women. He also was not too keen on playing second fiddle to men who wanted to have their cake and eat it too. Dean wanted much more. He wanted real love. And he wanted to know how he could attain that love and still be accepted in a business that was all about images and facades. Through his desires to love freely, dealing with his estranged family, and attempting to find a way to overcome his conflict with his sexual preference, Dean started Men’s Empowerment where he invited his peers to discuss the stressors that came with celebrity and/or power. Men’s Empowerment became a seed flourishing into other groups that helped communities in New York and ultimately helped Dean do some serious soul searching.
Hiding is Hip Hop was a decent read. It garnered so much attention that by the time I read it, I was so intrigued by the celebrities Dean was not naming and almost missed the point of his book. He did an excellent job of protecting the innocent, as I was unable to positively identify anyone he described, but I had tons of fun trying to figure them out. Because he used fictitious names, and so many of them, I often lost track of who was who and why they mattered. There were a few name glitches complete with misspellings and the timeline was a bit off. Sometimes, I could not tell what time period he was speaking of, but it may have been to protect celebrity’s anonymity. Overall, Hiding in Hip Hop is an entertaining read if you enjoy playing guessing games. Readers who like memoirs and stories that delve into the struggles of human nature would also find this story fulfilling.
Reviewed by Darnetta Frazier
APOOO BookClub
Was this review helpful to you?
|This Hot and Cold Hip Hop Life,
Whew!! Just finished the book. I loved it and hated it–just like Terrance felt about the gay or down-low life. On one page he can’t wait to get his hands on a guy, and on the next page he’s self loathing in agony. One moment he’s praising God and attending church, and on the next page he’s drinking and doing drugs like there’s no tomorrow. In one chapter he can’t stand his mother and resents her, and then when she dies he’s devastated. I couldn’t keep up with him. An emotional roller coaster, if such was even the case. I think this book was written to be dramatical. I’ve never read about a guy that would supposedly get sick to his stomach when going into a gay bar–but then half an hour later was taking the best looking guy in the place home with him. Fortunately, he FINALLY in the last pages comes to terms with his homosexuality, admits it, and goes happily into the sunset.
He also makes it seem like the music industry and in particular the hip hop world is FULL of down-low men, which could be true, I do not know. There seems to be a lot of stepping over the sexual boundaries these days. I don’t see how he got any work done, but I also don’t see how all these supposed down-low guys were able to stay so down-low if they were always going to parties. Wouldn’t somebody talk or spill the beans somewhere along the way?? I think he told it all the way he wanted to tell it. Which is more than anyone else has done—so I really did like the book. It excited me with all his conquests, just wished it had been a little bit meatier. But then they all wouldn’t be down-low. And with all that sex, he never once mentioned getting a STD which you know HAD to have happened. Terrance never did say whether he enjoyed it all, but I think he did. His will power was pretty non existant, bless his heart.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Glad there were no names,
I am glad Terrance Dean didn’t name names. At first I thought that it was a ploy to sell books or for legal reasons. Once reading I realize that if he would have named names then he would have been a sell-out. It would have been out of character for someone in his situation.
The book detailed the struggles of a bisexual African American man working in a highly publicized industry. I was shocked at most of what I read about the “down low brothers” but not entirely surprised considering the nature of the book.
The riddles are not entirely easy to figure out. I think I immediately knew who one of the people, Ella (I think that was her psuedo-name), was. Otherwise I think the descriptions hides the identities of the people involved very well. And really…I DON’T want to know who everyone is. T.M.I. for sure.
This book was a fast read. Not something I would reread but definitely sheds some light on a sensitive situation.
Was this review helpful to you?
|