Barnaby Legg, Jim McCarthy and Flameboy

Paperback 96 pages (October 2005)
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 1844497275

Synopsis: From the creators of Godspeed: The Kurt Cobain Graphic and Eminem: In My Skin comes an explosive new graphic novel, tracing the events leading up to the death of one of modern music's most charismatic performers.

Death Rap chronicles the triumphs and tragedies of the notorious hip-hop superstar Tupac Shakur, the figurehead of a musical movement that came to define black culture in America and beyond. Exploring the recesses of a racist, damaged country, the book takes the reader on a self-destructive ride through the violence and corruption and greed of Los Angeles.

The marriage of Barnaby Legg and Jim McCarthy's incendiary writing with Flameboy's potent, gritty visuals produces a new perspective on the controversial events surrounding the rise of Death Row Records, the brutality of street gang warfare and murder.

From the hazy skies of Los Angeles to the back streets of New York, this tells the story of a unique talent cut down at just 25 years of age.

PURCHASE Death Rap/Tupac Shakur: A Life from all good book stores, and from Amazon.co.uk by using the link below:

Or visit www.musicsales.com

Feedback: If you've read Tupac:
Death Rap, please let me have your feedback.
info@flameboycomics.co.uk

Welcome to Flameboy Comics' special page devoted to the graphic novel:
‘Death Rap - Tupac Shakur- A Life’.

>Page 1   Page 2

This is my 3rd piece of work for Omnibus Press. I hope you like the images displayed on these pages and that they will encourage you to give the book a read.

Before I go any further I would like to thank Kevin ‘Iron Man’ (not literally, but in the Marvel sense) Hopgood, for helping me out on the last leg of the book, enabling me to hit my deadline. Also, my thanks go to the ever-patient Susan Currie and Chris Charlesworth.

I can’t say that I’m well versed in the history of hip-hop or rap music. Although I do have a considerable amount of records by the Beastie Boys, Dr Dre, NWA, Public Enemy, Ice-T, Eminem and Tupac, and while I really do love these records, I have to admit that my heart ultimately belongs to the music created by bands such as Nirvana, Queens Of The Stone Age, Deftones, Pixies, White Stripes, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin…well, the list is endless, but essentially – ROCK!

So before I started work on this book I had to do a lot of research. I’m sure that rap purists will find flaws here and there in some of this research, but at the end of the day this is a graphic novel, and sometimes in order to tell a story in a given number of pages, artistic license has to be taken.

Part of this research was to watch over and over again the famous and harrowing video footage of the beating of Rodney King (1991), as well as studying photos, film footage and the writings of Malcolm X (reading his work wasn’t necessary but I was definitely intrigued to know more) and of course listening to lots of Tupac recordings - and really listening to what the man was saying.

Although I may not agree with everything he recorded, in particular the more hardcore gangsta tone of his later recordings, I have to say that when he was telling the way it is to be black, in , dare I say it, “a white man’s world” (at least as far as the USA and UK are concerned) it really made me question my perception of my own actions….

Whilst I believe that living in an age of political correctness has allowed racism to exist and grow with stealth-like maneuvers under a new and ‘improved, cleaner, whiter, less offensive’ banner, I stand by and do nothing because it is not affecting me directly (so, is that compliance?). I do nothing, however small, whether it be in my neighborhood or anywhere, to help rebuild bridges destroyed by a history of white man’s prejudice and fear.

To say that I have respect for and are non-discriminate of my fellow man regardless of colour or religion is one thing, to back that up with actions is something entirely different. I believe I fall far short of the later.

I’m not qualified to, nor am I going to preach about something I have no real experience of (I am white and have never personally suffered ‘racial discrimination’) but I will thank Jim & Barney for writing a script and to Tupac Shakur for his recorded and written words that encouraged me to look a little harder at myself and what I feel I need to change.

Flameboy

Go to: Page 2

>Page 1   Page 2

Click images to enlarge

Click images to enlarge

>Page 1   Page 2

All images displayed on these pages are taken from ,’Death Rap - Tupac Shakur: A Life, published by Omnibus Press, written by Barnaby Legg & James McCarthy.