An experimental and humorous modern satire about Leonard Swanson, a
hip-hop visionary from the north-west of England, as he works in
factories and tries to make the greatest rap album of all time.
Unfortunately making the greatest rap album of all time was to be put
on hold as the insidious Job Centre advisors had finally had enough of
my shit. I would be forced to sign up to one of the town's two
recruitment agencies, or I would be starved of weed money.
Leonard Swanson lives in an obscure north-western town -- the kind that
has a knack for swallowing you whole. He is supposed to be making the
greatest rap album of all time, Swan Songs, but instead is forced to
work in one of the town's factories, picking things up and putting them
down for twelve hours in a giant white room.
Swan Songs follows Leonard as he works, quits, signs on, and travels
the country, playing in small capacity venues for even smaller capacity
audiences, for which he gets paid in booze, drugs and a night on a bed
bug-ridden mattress somebody dragged in from the street, all the while
making the album he thinks will change hip-hop forever.
Part Alan Sillitoe and part William Burroughs, UK rapper Lee Scott's
debut novel, partially based on his own experiences of becoming a rapper
in Runcorn, is an experimental and humorous modern satire about the
perils of being a hip-hop visionary far from the beaten track...
