13: G'Ra Asim on Race, Gender, and Class in the Punk Music Scene, in Life and in His Book, 'Boyz in the Void: A Mixtape to My Brother' featuring Guest Cohost, JK Hobson

In this interview, I was joined by writer, musician, and professor, G’Ra Asim, the author of Boyz in The Void: a mixtape to my brother. His nonfiction book reflects on his own identity while navigating Blackness, and I’m taking this from the descriptions of the book, while blending music and cultural criticism and personal essay to explore race, gender, class, and sexuality as they pertain to punk rock and straight edge culture. Using totemic punk rock songs on a mixtape to anchor each chapter, the book documents an intergenerational conversation between a Millennial in his 30s and his Generation Z teenage brother.” Some bands used as totems and or cultural references include but are not limited to: Against Me, Bad Brains, Propagandhi, Aye Nako, Bad Cop Bad Cop, Fefe Dobson and Run DMC.

I’m also joined by guest host, Jwyanza JK Hobson, a standup comedian, showeruner for Asia Out Loud, and a musician. A New Yorker who's been living in Saigon, Vietnam since 2016, JK and I used to play a lot of shows together with our respective bands when we both lived in Los Angeles. Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s in New York City, JK’s no stranger to the Metal and Punk scenes, and a fun fact I learned, he once ended up in a mosh-pit with Jam Master J.

G’Ra’s book was particularly impactful for me because there isn’t a ton of literature, at least that I know of, that dive into what it’s like being Black and existing in punk rock and punk rock adjacent spaces. If you know some, please send it my way! He also adds so much nuance to what those scenes mean and represent, not only through race, class, and gender, but also transcending these categories. From my perspective, G’Ra not only carves a space for his identity throughout the book, he also carves out a map for how people to just be themselves.

(This paragraph is not in the podcast introduction) Some things that stood out to me that we covered were leftist orthodoxy, avoiding binaries, Code Queering instead of Code Switching, Otherness, America as a Composit Culture (not something else), politics that punks espouse, Subsumptive Analogy, and ways that Black people can be underimagined. AGAINST ME, BRAND NEW, PROP

G'Ra Asim Website: https://graasim.com/ and link to his band Baby Got Back Talk: https://www.babygotbacktalk.com/

A playlist with songs and bands referenced in Boyz in the Void: a mixtape to my brother: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/10cgOOA4yc290fGMdoS1qB?si=b30de79a06f146bd

JK Hobson: https://www.instagram.com/jkhobson/