99 Problems Finding the 1 : a love story (sort of)

著者名：Asim, G'Ra

Beacon Press（2026/08/04発売）

• 言語：ENG
• ISBN：9780807017784
• eISBN：9780807017777

Description

Professor and punk musician G’Ra Asim claps back at chronic lovelessness in the post-covid era with heft and whimsy—and a template for a more intimate, interpersonal future

In 2004, Jay-Z released his instant classic “99 Problems,” which details the many problems in his life, expect romantic love. Fast forward over 20 years, G’Ra Asim is facing his own set of problems, except they all focus on modern romance.

Contemplating his singledom and mishaps in dating, Asim takes us through a thoughtful meditation on chronic lovelessness. Using a process he calls “thinkful wishing” as an antidote, Asim scopes out modern love, romance, and ambivalence to manifest a more loving and lovable future. Or at least someone he can list as his emergency contact.

99 Problems Finding the 1 offers cultural critique, contemplation, and experience from a millennial in search of a partner. For example, Asim observes how ascendant Black folks rarely reach “cruising altitude”—a professional plateau stable enough to focus one’s overtaxed attention on vetting potential partners. On tour with his band, he ponders the relationship between stage banter and the seedy underbelly of social awkwardness.

His bold dissection of modernity serves a central claim: admittedly a problematic fave, love is worthy and capable of reclamation and redemption. Even as white supremacy gets in the way, Asim argues that we’ll have to abandon the posture of terminal cool and hazard a little earnestness to bring love back.

Table of Contents

Introduction

A Substitution off the Bench

Conduct Detrimental to the Meme

Longing for the Crooked Crown

The Jig Is Up and Down

Putting the Fun in Fungibility

Motion Capture

Screen-Time Report

Shtick Shift

Trickle-Down Exceptionalism

Six Degrees of Derogation

Exercises in (Attachment) Style

More Sugar. Less Meshuggah.

On Having Low Job Satisfaction

Riffs, Ands, or Buts About It

Gluttonous Punishment

Pedagogy of the Compressed

Would You Still Love Me If I Was a [Book] Worm?

Power Shadow and Act

Present Company Accepted

Acknowledgments
Notes