Shea Serrano

Shea Serrano is a Mexican-American writer, illustrator, and former teacher. He is best known for his work with the sports and pop culture websites, The Ringer and Grantland, as well as his New York Times best-selling book, The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed. Writing about Serrano for GQ, Chris Gayomali said: "If you were to draw a triple Venn diagram of hoops, trunk bangers, and jokes made at the expense of J. Cole, Grantland writer Shea Serrano would be smack-dab in the center, probably wearing a Tim Duncan jersey."^[1] Serrano’s activity and humor on Twitter have earned him referrals from GQ and other publications. He frequently mentions his three sons, known as "Boy A", "Boy B", and "The Baby."

Early life

Serrano was born in San Antonio, Texas and grew up in the neighborhood of Valley Hi.^[2] He graduated from Sam Houston State University,^[2] where he was in Omega Delta Phi.^[3]

Career

Teaching

After graduating from college, Serrano moved to Houston, where he worked in construction before becoming a middle-school science teacher.^[2] He taught 8th grade science at a Title 1 school in Houston for nine years.^[4]

Journalism

Serrano began writing in 2007 as a way to supplement his and his then-pregnant wife’s income. After briefly writing for the Near Northwest Banner, Serrano freelanced for the Houston Press. He predominately wrote about hip-hop after noticing that the majority of the writers only wrote about rock music, despite the fact Houston is a cornerstone of southern rap music.^[1]

Serrano’s first work that drew national attention was his Houston Press piece on rapper Trae tha Truth's ban from a Houston radio station and the rapper’s subsequent lawsuit against the station.^[5][1] This piece allowed him to earn a place at the Houston Press’ sister publication, the LA Weekly. Serrano continued to earn national attention with his pieces about his children and stories about the songs played at his school dance^[6] and birthday party.^[7] While there, he wrote a piece describing having sex with his wife while listening to Drake.^[8] Grantland writer Molly Lambert saw the piece and passed it to her editors, who then invited Serrano to freelance for them. His first piece was about gift shopping with the rapper 2 Chainz. Serrano was hired full-time in July 2015.

In July 2016, Serrano began writing for Bill Simmons' website, The Ringer.^[9]

Serrano has also written for GQ, ESPN, LA Weekly, XXL, Rolling Stone, MTV, and Vice.^[4]

Books

Serrano’s first book, Bun B's Rap Coloring and Activity Book, was published September 17, 2013. The book consists of coloring and activity pages based on popular rappers. The work was a collaboration with Houston rapper Bun B, although Serrano wrote and illustrated the book himself.

Serrano’s second book, The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed, was published October 13, 2015 by Abrams Image. It soon appeared on New York Times Best Seller List, and reached the #1 Best Seller in Amazon’s Music History and Criticism department, as well as the Rap, Popular and Music sections.^[10] In March 2016, the book was optioned for a documentary series.^[11] In September 2016, the book was listed by Billboard as one of the 100 best music books of all-time.

Serrano's next book Basketball (and Other Things) will be published in October 2017. Illustrator Arturo Torres, Serrano's collaborator on The Rap Year Book, will also illustrate Basketball (and Other Things).^[12]

Social media and other projects

Serrano has an ardent following on his active Twitter feed, where "office hours are almost always open. He holds court daily on matters ranging from basketball to Taco Bell to Young Thug to parenting to the injustices of unpaid content creation...Periodically, Serrano will tweet out his email address so that anyone can ask him for advice on making it as a writer."^[13] The Verge called the community he created this way a "utopia on Twitter";^[13] GOOD Magazine called him "Our New Favorite Internet Hero."^[14]

On March 20, 2016, Serrano announced a weekly newsletter "Basketball (And Other Things)", which comes out every Tuesday, focused on the National Basketball Association. The newsletter features musings from Serrano and illustrations from Torres. The inaugural issue featured NBA players in scenes from popular movies, starting with Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green in a scene from the 1987 movie Over the Top. Within weeks, the newsletter had reached over 30,000 subscribers. The newsletter is published for free, though Serrano and Torres allowed for donations to be made twice. They used the donations to make contributions to charities, including the Genesis Women's Shelter, Kids' Meals, Operation Turkey and more. In total, they've donated approximately $10,000 via newsletter donations.

On March 9, 2017, Serrano and the FOH ARMY, a group of loosely affiliated people on Twitter that formed during the release of Serrano's second book, donated $12,539.87 to Planned Parenthood in recognition of International Women's Day.^[15]

On March 27, 2017, Serrano mobilized the FOH ARMY again, this time to help a former student of his fund a trip to Turkey she was hoping to take to help teach children there English. Her goal she'd set for her Go Fund Me page was $3,700. Serrano and the FOH ARMY put together nearly $4,500 in less than an hour.^[16]

On December 21, 2016, Serrano and the FOH ARMY joined up to give a woman who'd helped Serrano find his car at an airport a $3000 tip.^[17] They playfully referred to it as the Radelle Christmas Miracle on Twitter.^[18]

Personal life

As of April 2016, Serrano lives in Houston, Texas with his wife, Larami Serrano, their three sons (nicknamed Boy A, Boy B, and the Baby), and their French bulldog Younger Jeezy. Serrano and Larami have been partners for seventeen years and were married in a hospital after Larami was hospitalized the day before their wedding.

References