an excerpt from 50 cent‘s new YA novel, playground. artists express themselves in so many ways. neat to see him try his hand at writing (even though rapping itself is very lyrical, very much a form of poetry).

personally, i loved jay-z‘s decoded and eminem‘s the way i am. one difference is that playground is YA, while decoded and the way i am are definitely not, though all three are written with an autobiographical slant (playground is supposed to be only partially so).

there’s film, too. 8 mile was only partially autobiographical as well, though eminem has stated it’s very close to his own experiences. loved him in this, wish he would do more movies. and this is not 50 cent’s first time experimenting beyond rap. crazy weight loss for art, anyone?

interested in how playground will do. i hope it does great. and i do think it’ll get more boys of a certain age group to read more. which gives publishers more money to sign even more authors, especially debut authors who want to write more YA books from a boy’s point of view. win win!