[Vanita]

Kiese Laymon showed us a great writing technique. In the essay “Da Art of Storytellin’ The Prequel” he told us a lot of stories in the order of them happening in his life. He started of with the story of his summer vacation at his grandmother’s house, then his college life, hearing the music albums for the first time, and then going back to his grandmother’s house. I watched a movie during my teen years. It was a foreign movie where the main character had 4 sons and 1 adoptive son. His actual sons only liked his money. When he ran out of money his kids didn’t care about him anymore. They even separated the parents because they claimed they can’t take care of them as a pair due to low funds. The father and mother was treated badly at their own children’s home. The father started writing a book about his life. He made new friends and they helped him get on the right path to publish his book. Since his biological were extremely disrespectful his adoptive son treated him like god. They would always make their parents cry which a child should never do to a parent. After seeing how hurtful that can be I completely changed the way I treated my parents and my attitude towards them. The moral of the story was to never ill-treat your parents because they go through a lot of hardship to take care of you and bring you into this world. So the next time you don’t what you want don’t throw a tantrum just think about yourself in their shoes. Don’t yell at them for not letting you go out because they’re concerned about your safety. I’ve learned that the hard way because I do regret yelling or being disrespectful to my parents.

-Vanita

[James Guity]

In The essay “Da Art of Storytellin’ The Prequel” by Kiese Laymon brilliantly describes his mindset as a young black man from the south by using his experiences from living with his grandmother and listening to southern rap music. Normally reading essays that are longer than 2 pages bore me. I tend to put the essay down and focus on something else then come back to it later. While reading “Da Art of Storytellin’ The Prequel” not only was i able to read it swiftly, i was able to analyze it in many ways. Im familiar with Outkast because ive grown up listening to some of their music, so reading about it interested me completely.
Similar to Laymon’s experience from when he first heard the album ATLiens, listening or reading something you’re familiar with can captivate you. Just like Laymon identified with the music, i identified with essay which made me truly understand it. Something i think 99% of people who’ve read this easy wont know is the significance of Andre said at the Source Awards in 1995. A person obsessed with Rap history, such as myself, would know that the 95 Source Awards was a pivotal day in Rap history that was entirely about the dispute between east coast rappers and west coast rappers. In between all the commotion in one instance Andre 300 says “the south has something to say”. This alluded to Laymon’s fact that one doesn’t have to conform to a certain society, that theres always a way express ones true identity

[JieRu Lin]

In the essay “Da Art of Storytellin,” by kiese Laymon. The essay was written from the point of a southern black boy, he uses his unique way of essay format to show the readers how Outkast inspired him to become a writer. He uses many little stories in his essay, the format, style were very different from any essay that I’ve ever read before, which I felt it was hard to read at first.
One song that I can definitely identify myself with is “A Brighter Future” by the band beyond, it is an old Cantonese song, and it is still famous today. It inspires people to fight for their dreams, never give up even if you fail, you must give it a try. I like to listen this song whenever I encounter something difficult, like the song has a magical power, it helps me to fix every problem.

[Ulices Miranda]

To me Kiese Laymon’s “Da Art of Storytellin’ (The Prequel)” is precisely what it’s title ensues. A storytelling story.(Captain Obvious here) . Thanks to the seed that Laymon’s grandmother planted inside him unknowingly.

The story has its roots, its trunk, its branches and the leaves that grew beautifully thanks to the power of life experiences. But the best part is; that Laymon has a unique set of skills to captivate you and engulf you through his writing. And that’s the magic of storytelling. A reader has to feel like he/she is taking part of the story that is been told. As I read the story, certain emotions began to reappear. When Layman mentions first hearing OUTKAST’s “Wheelz of Steel” he had already heard OUTKAST previous work before, but this particular song made him remember a great deal of his childhood.

Similarly, I grew close to Daft Punk and the music genre of French House. Beforehand, I had listened to disco, early work of EDM and similar music. But nothing had attracted me to house and french house like Daft Dunk. Even though their work was over a decade(s) old, modern pop music couldn’t, and can’t, appeal to me like Daft Punk did.