Corporate sharks and minnows Handle Going Corporate: Moving Up how not to screw up while trying to to the experts on this one. One thing I Without Screwing Up move up in the corporate world. do know is Embree and Shapiro give this! Brad Embree and Jared Shapiro Quick hint: It's all about your some advice I'm not comfortable tak- "Corporate Identity." ing. Their advice ranges from being ***** St***. Martin's** Griffin The book does a great job of know- friendly with just about everyone but Har Mar Superstar instructional ing its audience and how to most not befriending anyone, to using com- The Handler effectively get to them. This is proba- pany resources and time to develop Record Collection Jaclyn Rosenson bly because Brad Embree, one of the press kits, or even books like this one. dance editor-in-chief authors, has left the corporate world While I can acknowledge that work- and gone back to school. Drunken ing sucks, even with my limited expe- Julianne Ruocco There are hundreds, maybe even undergraduates surround him all the rience, I think it's wrong to encourage contributing writer thousands of books on how to get into time. Why? He is at Tulane Law, con- the abuses of the system about which Har Mar Superstar's The Handler college and what to do when you get veniently located right next to the Embree and Shapiro talk. has something for everyone. The there. College is supposed to prepare freshman residence halls. On the other hand, there is some album's token rap song "Save the you for the "real world," not the TV But don't let this fool you, Embree really helpful advice I had never Strip" references popular artists P- show but the real thing. That's right, and his co-author, Jared Shapiro, have thought about. Did you know that you Diddy and Eminem, while giving the newest four-letter word you'll canvassed the corporate world so you shouldn't dress casual on casual Tulane "gangstas" their fill of swear cringe to say: work. won't have to. Embree worked for a Fridays? I didn't. You also have to words. "Sugar Pie" is a sweet and Most of us know that psyc 101 and film production company, as an asso- watch out for the "kitchen vulture" mellow tune, perfect for those jazz chemistry and a lot of other things we ciate at an executive search firm, and and the "narc." They tell you what junkies that really did come to New take won't help us once we get into most recently as a development exec- level of participation in out-of-the- Orleans for the great culture (and not the job market. Sure, we have the utive for a company on the Warner office activities is appropriate to not just the drinking that accompanies it). It would be a great track to listen invaluable Career Services Center, Brothers studio lot. Actually, he look like a loser. Then there is some to on your way to the bars on but Going Corporate is written for worked on the award-winning film .' more obvious advice, like shower, Frenchman Street. Perhaps you college students about the basics of The Motorcycle Diaries. Shapiro is an shave and rub the stamp off your hand might pull up next to an Eclipse full how to swim instead of sink in the entertainment writer/reporter at Star from the night before. of club kids blasting the techno tune corporate world. magazine in Manhattan. Overall it's a quick read, it's comi- "Cut Me Up." And who isn't famil- Going C0t7Jorate gives needed les- Going Corporate hit stores about a cal, it speaks to our level and may help iar with the term "D.U.I."? No, that's sons in cell phone etiquette at the month ago, and most reviews applaud you out of a jam, or at least teach you not short for driving under the influ- office and using the company bath- accuracy of its portrayal of the cor- "Conversational Guerilla Warfare". ence, but rather dialing under the room in order to increase your porate world. Since I know nothing influence. Anyone who has to check "Promotion Potential." The whole about the corporate world beyond Bottom Line: A quick, funny read the recent calls list every Sunday morning will appreciate the third book is geared towards teaching you lowly summer internships, I will yield that could help save your future. track. Bottom Line: Do your friends a favor and replace that tired play list on your laptop with The Handler. They are sure to love at least one Striking a good balance song. recently, and with good reason. before, Kweli shouldn't be hated Talib*** Kweli** Their albums, particularly Talib for it, and there are some real The Beautiful Struggle Kweli's new effort The Beautiful standouts on the disc. One is Rawkus Records Struggle, combine underground "Black Girl Pain," featuring ris- Hip-Hop sensibility with mass appealing ing star and female rapper Jean song structure. Grae, which deals with the day- Michael Drohan The Beautiful Struggle is a for- to-day struggle of being a black staff writer mulaic album. There are the girl in the ghetto. straight hip-hop songs, the tracks Only on a Kweli album will Hip-hop artists like Talib Kweli, with the male R&B singer on the you find songs featuring the The Roots, Common and Mos Def hook and the club-bangers. And of megastar Blige next to the rela- will forever be in some undefined course, with the success of the feel tively unknown Grae. This is the space between the underground and good song of 2003, "Get By," there dichotomy that defines him and the mainstream. They all want the has to be a follow up. That track is his music. success, but don't want to sacrifice their integrity in order to achieve ''I Try," featuring Mary J. Blige. platinum sah!s, as groups like the But it doesn't quite live up to the Bottom Line: Kwe/i putsfortlz a Black bycd Peas have arguably standard that "Get By" set. good effort to balance his under- uplwld. However, these rappers However, even if some of the styles ground sensibility wWz his desire have been doing helter numbers on this album have been trodden on to gain a widerfan base. 10.29.04 13 .