His Punch Line Smarts

Bomani Armah heads to an open-mike night at Sankofa Books. When his "Read a Book" parody went over viewers' heads, he found himself in over his. (By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

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Read a book! Read a book! Read a [expletive] book!

So goes the song Bomani Armah recorded more than two years ago, set to a hip-hop version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. It has a hard-charging feel to it, repetitive lyrics, random cursing and one-word exhortations -- what! who! yeah! okay! -- all in an attempt to mock the crunk style of the rapper Lil Jon.

Not a sports page, not a magazine

But a book, nigga, a [expletive] book, nigga

Armah didn't stop at reading. He went on to urge the raising of kids, the drinking of water, the brushing of teeth, the use of deodorant, and other acts of basic self-respect.

Buy some land, buy some land! [Expletive] spinnin' rims!

"I feel like I'm a sergeant out here in the field, showing how ridiculous the culture is," Armah says. He began performing his song around the Washington area and it caught on. He made it available for free download on his MySpace page, and the buzz grew. At some point the "Read a Book" MP3 reached the inbox of Reginald Hudlin, president of entertainment for BET, who passed it on to the network's animation division, which loved it and wanted to create an animated video off the track. Which is where Tyree Dillihay, a Los Angeles-based animation director, comes in.

He took Armah's lyrics and amped up the parody even more. Rappers always brag about getting shot, right? So Dillihay showed a thug loading his Uzi with a book clip and firing books as bullets at unsuspecting victims.

In another scene, someone brings a diaper-clad child and deposits him with a father who is getting his groove on at a nightclub. The video's most controversial image, perhaps, is of a gyrating woman wearing pink sweat pants with the word "book" written on her rear end. Dillihay says that image was intended to make fun of women who wear those designer warm-up suits with words such as "juicy" written on their behinds.

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