Juan Vidal shares his own story of growing up, finding his way, and becoming a family man in his book Rap Dad. What makes this book different is that his story is framed by his relationship to hip-hop music and culture, and his love of Rap music.
Vidal doesn’t try to make his story universal. He shares his own personal development as a Colombian man, and he never pontificates on what it means to be a parent, a Christian, or an artist. He is willing to get personal, but never uses his own experiences as the model or the standard. There is no sense that Vidal knows any more than the rest of us, he just shares what he’s learned in the hopes that someone else might relate.
If I’m being honest, I didn’t always relate. I’m not a dad, a writer, a Christian, a Colombian, a man, or any of the other labels you might throw on Mr. Vidal. We do share a love of hip-hop music, but even there our tastes differ. Vidal fills the spaces between us with a humanity that I could connect with. I wanted to know Vidal and hear his story. His moral compass and compassion come shining through in Rap Dad, even if I didn’t always share his experiences.
When we talked about Rap Dad on The Stacks with actor Josh Segarra, I got to hear from someone who could identify with Vidal’s experiences and it made me appreciate the book more. I could learn from Segarra’s take-aways. It was a great reminder that not every book is for every person, and that is the beauty of art, that our experiences inform our understandings.
In Rap Dad, Juan Vidal uses his slang to tell his story, which lends the book a sense that you’re hearing from an old friend. As a lover of hip-hop I appreciated his authenticity. He talks to and about artists and songs I know and love, and introduced me to so many rappers I wasn’t familiar with. The book has an entire track list of all the songs he references (which is begging for a Spotify playlist). You get a sense for who Mr. Vidal is through his writing and his taste in music.
The structure of this book felt disjointed. I didn’t always follow Vidal’s points and often felt unfocused in reading the book. While everything on its own (Vidal himself, the stories, the conversations with hip-hop folks, etc.) were great on their own, it didn’t come together cohesively.
Rap Dad is worth your time. The content is different from most anything I’ve read. Vidal is a unique thinker, a fluid writer, and his lack of pretense is beyond refreshing. He is talking about a subculture, hip-hop heads, we so often ignore, especially in the context of parenting.
Don’t forget to listen to the The Stacks with Josh Segarra discussing Rap Dad
Hear The Short Stacks conversation with author, Juan Vidal
- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Atria Books (September 25, 2018)
- 3/5 stars
- Buy on Rap Dad Amazon
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