Part cultural criticism, part roguish adventure, professor and punk musician G’Ra Asim tackles chronic lovelessness in the post-covid era with heft and humor
In 2004, Jay-Z released “99 Problems” and song became an instant classic. The Grammy Award-winning rapper details the many problems in his life, expect romantic love. Fast forward over 20 years, professor and punk musician G’Ra Asim is facing his own set of problems, except they all focus on modern romance.
Contemplating his singledom and mishaps in dating, Asim takes the reader through a literary, speculative and thoughtful meditation on chronic lovelessness. Using a process he calls “thinkful wishing,” Asim scopes out modern love, romance and ambivalence to manifest a more loving and lovable future. Or at least someone he can list as his emergency contact.
Drawing on literature, history, sports, music, science and more to untangle the riddles of human connection, “99 Problems Finding the 1” offers critique, contemplation and experience as a millennial in search of a partner. Scenes from his life as an early-career Black academic in an overwhelmingly white university environment display the challenge of finding someone to dote on in his dotage. Asim observes that ascendant Black folks rarely reach “cruising altitude”–a professional plateau stable enough to focus one’s overtaxed attention on vetting potential partners. On tour with his band, he ponders the relationship between stage banter and the seedy underbelly of social awkwardness. Along the way, he dishes arresting and acute takes on everything from ’90s hip hop posse cuts to French absurdist theater to the Boltzmann Brain hypothesis. Each chapter invites readers into “discussions for another day.” The book’s bold dissection of modernity serves a central claim: love, admittedly a problematic fave, is nonetheless worthy and capable of reclamation and redemption.
Reflecting on his own capacity to love, Asim argues that we’ll have to abandon the posture of terminal cool and hazard a little earnestness. “99 Problems Finding the 1” is one heart’s dreamwork unfurled as a blueprint for shaping our intimate and broad interpersonal future.
Reviews
“[An] astute essay collection . . . Simultaneously personal and relatable, this deserves a wide readership.” — Publishers Weekly
“’99 Problems Finding the 1′ is a tour de force … a kaleidoscopic descent into love’s endless labyrinths and one of the smartest portraits of loving while Black put to page.” — Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of “This Is How You Lose Her”
“’99 Problems Finding the 1′ is no standard lament of the lovelorn. It’s a trenchantly wise and wisecracking how-to-manual for maintenance of the human heart in the face of bleak indifference and ruthlessly organized hatreds. It’s also a deeply felt, wonder-full affirmation of the unlikely head rush of being alive…” — Chris Lehmann, DC bureau chief of The Nation and contributing editor at The Baffler
About the author
G’Ra Asim is a writer, musician and associate professor of English in WashU Arts & Sciences. His previous book is “Boyz n the Void: a mixtape to my brother” (2021). He has served as a writing director at the African American Policy Forum and a graduate teaching fellow in Columbia University’s Undergraduate Writing Program. His work has appeared in Slate, Salon, Guernica, The Baffler and The New Republic.
When not writing or teaching, Asim sings, plays bass and writes lyrics for DIY pop punk quintet babygotbacktalk, who were named one of Alternative Press’s “17 rising Black alternative bands who are leading the next generation.”