I made some literary battle raps today with people on Twitter... I rapped them over It Ain't Hard to Tell very quickly in the foyer of my gym. Here is the result.

Literary Battle Raps

I read a lot of books and I wish I was still a rapper. This is the first of an occasional series of rapped book reviews. Apologies to Drake - this is the instrumental of All of Me. And this is my thoughts and a spoiler-lite review of the new book, 'The Circle' by Dave Eggers.

'The Circle' by Dave Eggers - a rapped book review

I rapped about my books of the year 2013 over the instrumental to Danny Brown's Grown Up. Excuse the sound quality, I'm not a rapper, I'm a rap fan. Still, I thought it was funny. Shout out James Smythe, Julian Barnes, Evie Wyld, Mohsin Hamid, NoViolet Bulawayo, Sam Lipsyte, George Saunders, Stephen Collins and Dave Eggers for writing my books of the year.

Books Of The Year 2013

Me and my friends Nurul and U'Mau once rapped a love song and thought we were well clever for doing it in iambic pentameter. I still like it.

Nuclear Sonnets Feat. U'Mau

Years ago, like 2007, Marc Lee Brown and I made this when I was feeling down a lot. I still like it a lot. 

Won't Let It Go To My Head (feat. Marc Lee Brown)

Vox: Nikesh Shukla
Beat: Vee Kay
Backing vox: Sir Loin, Phil A. Mignon, Chuck Steakson

'Meatspace' by Nikesh Shukla (The Friday Project) is out 3rd July 2014.

It's about Facebook stalking, the disconnect between who we say we are and the profiles we erect...

Meatspace Rap

A short story I wrote and read for BBC Radio 4 in 2011 about grief in a social media age.

Confirm/Ignore

Nikesh Shukla's debut novel 'Coconut Unlimited' released on Quartet Books in October 2010
Pre-order it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coconut-Unlimited-Nikesh-Shukla/dp/0704372045/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283330468&sr=8-1
---

It's about the most legendary hip hop crew to emerge from the Harrow rap scene in the mid-nineties, Coconut Unlimited. This is their mixtape.

Described as ‘A unique, bittersweet, tragi-geek celebration of beats, rhymes, and growing up' by Riz Ahmed (Four Lions), and ‘Charming, funny and connects to the wannabe gangster in all of us’ by Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine, this novel by rising star Shukla is energetic, honest and funny.

Coconut Unlimited Mix vol. 15 1

Ahhh memories. Here's a track I done about 5 years with Goonda-Raj (Nurul Kabir) on production boards, U'Mau on backing vocals and Dr Jyotsna Srikanth on violin...

From the Yam Boy archives... Nuclear Sonnets... enjoy.

Nuclear Sonnets

Won't Let It Go To My Head

Nikesh Shukla is a writer of fiction and television.

His new novel, Meatspace , will be released by The Friday Project on 3rdJuly 2014.

His debut novel, Coconut Unlimited was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2010 and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2011. Metro described it as '…a riot of cringeworthy moments made real by Shukla’s beautifully observed characters and talent for teen banter.' In 2011, Nikesh co-wrote a non-fiction essay about the riots with Kieran Yates called Generation Vexed: What the Riots Don't Tell Us About Our Nation's Youth.  In 2013, he released a novella about food, called The Time Machine , donating all his proceeds to Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

His short stories have been featured in the following places: Best British Short Stories 2013, Five Dials, The Moth Magazine, Pen Pusher, The Sunday Times, Book Slam, BBC Radio 4, First City Magazine and Teller Magazine. He has written for the Guardian, Esquire and BBC 2. He has, in the past, been writer in residence for BBC Asian Network and Royal Festival Hall.

His Channel 4 Comedy Lab Kabadasses aired on E4 and Channel 4 in 2011 and starred Shazad Latif, Jack Doolan and Josie Long.

He hosts The Subaltern podcast, the anti-panel discussion featuring conversations with writers about writing. Guests have included Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, James Salter, George Saunders, Jennifer Egan, Evie Wyld, Sam Bain, Alex Preston, Colson Whitehead and more. He also co-hosts a nerdier podcast with sci-fi writer James Smythe, called Meat Up, Hulk Out.

He likes Spider-man comics. A lot.

Popular tracks by Nikesh Shukla