Akala at the bookcase

Akala. Poet, rapper, teacher, and an important cultural voice and mind of current times. I first came across him randomly on You Tube with his track "Bullshit", I was hooked straight away. He is so eloquent, truthful and bold, further from his songs I then listened to him speak on black history and politics. I saw him live a few times and read his book "Natives", which I would recommend to anyone. We have a shared love of books hence the background to this portrait which is a mix of his reading list and mine. Truly an inspiration. This painting was tough, it took me a while, I abandoned my first go and painted over it. I'm pleased with where I got with it. As a little bonus game that comes with the painting, how many of the books on the bookshelf have you read? I've read 34 of them. I'm working on reading the rest of them... Acrylic on canvas 102 cms x 76 cms (40ins x 30ins).