Monty makes megabucks off it but he doesn’t listen to it off-duty.Bling doesn’t examine the tension between creativity and capitalism in hip-hop but then I don’t think it was ever intended to do so. Running a record label is a military operation for the neurotic, pitbullish Jackson.Now Monty is eyeing his ultimate career high; a CEO job with a mammoth corporation. All he needs to do is find a hot R&B singer to bolster a stable of rappers that includes Floss, “the peg legged MC”(Putting the hop into hip-hop) and Sum Wun, “the Asian Eminem”.Enter Mimi Jean, diva-in-waiting whom Monty plucks from small-town obscurity and places on a dizzying conveyor belt to fame and fortune in the Big Apple. Lamont Jackson, big cheese of New York-based Triple Large Entertainment, is the 39-year-old mogul who has generated astronomical wealth from the “rap game” through astute talent spotting and meticulous, cynical image-making. It would make a perfect tattoo for all those “players” and “flyass bitches” kneeling at P Diddy’s altar.
Erica Kennedy’s debut novel is set in a jewel-encrusted music industry (temple) in which the aforesaid protagonists (disciples/slaves) conduct their business (worship the dollar).

All five letters of Bling, the magic word that denotes the luxury accoutrements sported by hip-hop’s top brass, are given a diamond-like sheen against a plain black background. Trusting Mat’s opinion as an established artist, Stephan gave him the only copy of his first manuscript which, Stephan is convinced, he promptly left on his London train. “But it was a crap novel,” he adds.”We’re all moral cowards,” is his final comment “Our situation is the same today. We see what is happening on TV but choose to switch it off and go down the pub and get on with our lives.” No wonder he is reluctant to judge his characters.To order a copy of ‘Amber’ (Sceptre £17.99) for £16.99 (free p&p), call Independent Books Direct on 08700 798 897 or post your order to: Independent Books Direct, PO Box 60, Helston TR13 0TP. The jacket sparkles.

Sacked as a trainee accountant for spending too much time in the toilets reading Jane Austen, he went on to study English and History at Goldsmith’s in 1989 and had “a fabulous time”, hanging around with his brother Mat Collishaw, who was in the same cohort as Damien Hirst. He has first-hand experience of migrant work and is disgusted by British xenophobia concerning European workers. Stephan wrily reminds me of Lord Tebbit’s infamous promotion of cycling. “Why should it be acceptable for the British to go out and look for work, but not for other nationals?”Even Lord Tebbit would have to be impressed by Stephan’s industrious migration from a working-class background, through a spectacularly failed comprehensive education, night school, a degree and planned doctorate before settling to a dual career of writing and teaching. I wondered, given the turbulence of Lithuania’s postwar history (including a bitter partisan war against Stalin in the 1950s), whether last month’s accession to the EU would herald a period of international stability for the country?”Certainly,” Stephan brightened, “and especially for my family, who up until now have been treated on a two-tier system.” His Lithuanian wife had encountered terrible visa difficulties when they had moved briefly to work in Spain before migrating to Stephan’s native Nottingham. “The South African process of truth and reconciliation is a great beacon. At the end of my novels I hesitate to come down in judgement because I cannot see what good it will do.