Gary Phillips "The New LA Noir" June 7, 2005

From the Big Sleep to gangsta rap, Mannix to Rage Against the Machine and Play It as It Lays to the King/Drew morass, L.A. is the sun-washed city of dreams and despair chronicled in books and films and music of varying shades and notes of noir. Downtown becomes a battleground of gentrification, South Central is transformed from black to Latino, and the Valley bristles while property values and tempers spike in once working-class Venice; it's all part of the constantly unfolding plot that mystery writer Gary Phillips -- Bangers, Monkology, etc. -- reflects on in his work and others.