Like, the style was interesting and engaging, so props to the illustrator more than anyone, but this reads like it was written with zero love for its subject. The afterword makes it seem like that wasn't the intention, but the text itself is very unkind to Basquiat in that it fashiones him to be a careless asshole, a womanizer, and first and foremost a junkie. The decision to frame his life story by his overdose feels almost distasteful. Through the constant emphasis on his drug use and portrayed unhinged behaviour and hallucinogenic perception, the moments the book-Basquiat touches on race seem so patronising and make it look like the white people he accuses of racism are savvy businesspeople and he were simply unreasonable. I'm sure his drug use affected his art and relationships and he wasn't kind and wonderful all the time (who is), but this read like an unfavourable one-dimensional caricature of a man caught in so many in-betweens that demand complexity, nuance and care - and I was severely let down. CNs for drug use and addiction (heroine, cocaine, grass, speedballs), mental illness, hallucinations, being unhoused, racism