Los Angeles-based author and journalist Ural Garrett tackles the desolate genre of Black Horror in his first book, Black Macabre: Thanking Evil. Pulling inspiration from the ’90s thriller series Goosebumps and the urban film classic Tales from the Hood, Ural references black horror, rap and social commentary in his book.
On a recent episode of Unique Access, Soren Baker sits down with Garrett to discuss Black Macabre: Thanking Evil. With Rap playing a prominent role in both Black Macabre and in Ural’s life, the art form is examined and critiqued in the book.
“I don’t look at it as me being critical of the rappers,” Garrett says. “I guess it’s me being critical of the circumstances that create the rappers. Part of it is me going into (Black Macabre character) Hollow Point background and the situation that actually created him. It’s in line with what Thanking Evil is really about because his lifestyle led to him getting a better life.”
The most striking aspect of the book is Garrett’s interesting interweaving of social commentary, racism and hood deterioration crammed into Horror story form.
“I thought the idea of Tales from the Hood was really dope,” he says. “Then as I got older, I thought the social commentary that had was phenomenal in its own right. From the first story with the civil rights leader that gets killed and comes back, it’s like, ‘Oh shit, police brutality. Civil rights leader being assassinated.’ Or even the last one, which is kind of like a hood version of Clockwork Orange. I always found that compelling as I got older, as opposed to when you’re a kid. So that’s what I tried to do with the book, which is weave social commentary with absurd situations.”
Identifying characters with their anti-hero traits can be the most crucial thing when writing a compelling story. Garrett explains his quirky process of finding a name for his main character.
“I just needed a cool name, a unique identifiable name,” Garrett says. “I needed something as identifiable as his characteristics. The anti-hero, I actually found the name on a Russian website. Technically my name is Russian. So, I thought to insert myself in a unique kind of way.”
As the main character goes through his own form of evolution, he reacts helplessly, eventually realizing that if he had waited for something a bit longer his life could have been totally different. Garrett details the reasoning behind bringing this type disappointment to his main character.
“I wanted to show that it can get better,” he says. “I saw this meme on Facebook of two guys underground who are chipping away at something. One dude decides to give up, and the other dude keeps going and sees a patch of diamonds on the other side. I guess that’s what I was trying to go for. I have friends that are like, ‘Maybe it’s time for me to give up on my dreams and get a regular job.’ And they give up on their dream, but if they would have stayed maybe the next day something would have popped off. That was the thing I was going for. This is what happens when you have hopelessness at the worst level.”