A New York Times–bestselling, in-depth exploration of the most pivotal moments in rap music from 1979 to 2014.Here's what The Rap Year Book does: It takes readers from 1979, widely regarded as the moment rap became recognized as part of the cultural and musical landscape, and comes right up to the present, with Shea Serrano hilariously discussing, debating, and deconstructing the most important rap song year by year. Serrano also examines the most ...

My life’s been a great story / In the ultimate war / Should I ill or do right? / Make peace or go raw?—Ice-T, “Exodus”He’s a hip-hop icon credited with single-handedly creating gangsta rap in the 1980s. Television viewers know him as Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on the top-rated TV drama Law & Order: SVU. But where the hype and the headlines end, the real story of Ice-T—the one few of his millions of fans have ever heard—truly begins.Ice...

Twenty years ago, Marcus "Crush" Casey was the leader of the Vicetown Kings, the most powerful crime syndicate in New York City. Then he was betrayed by his second-in-command and sent to prison.Now he's back on the streets and he has a lot more on his mind than just getting even.He needs to take back everything he lost: Find the friend who betrayed him and killed his only son, keep the cops at bay, and resist the one woman he knows he can't have. His time on the inside gave h...

Rapper and Law & Order: SVU star Ice-T brings his unique knowledge of the streets to a gritty crime thriller, the sequel to Kings of Vice.Marcus "Crush" Casey should have it made. After two long decades in Attica, he's back on top and ruling the streets he left behind. But maintaining control of New York's underworld is harder than he ever imagined.Crush has built an uneasy alliance between most of the gangs in New York, with himself at the ...

"[An] arresting memoir" about one man's life in an L. A. street gang, from age ten in the 1970s to his prison turnaround twenty-five years later ( Publishers Weekly).Colton "C-Loc" Simpson was a Crip. Beginning at the age of ten in the mid-1970s, Simpson's world was defined in terms of war. By the time he quit, Simpson had risen through the ranks to become Stabilizer and, later, General.Simpson was the son of Dick Simpson, a ballplayer for the Califo...

Trick Baby charts the rise of White Folks, a white Negro who uses his colour as a trump card in the tough game of the Con. Blue-eyed, light-haired and white-skinned, White Folks is the most incredible con man the ghetto ever spawned, a hustler in the jungle of Southside Chicago where only the sharpest survive.With his partner Blue, an old hand who teaches him the tricks of the trade, White Folks rises to the top of his profession. The cons he pulls off get more and more lucrative a...

Award-winning actor, rapper, and producer Ice-T unveils a compelling memoir of his early life robbing jewelry stores until he found fame and fortune—while a handful of bad choices sent his former crime partner down an incredibly different path.Ice-T rose to fame in the late 1980s, earning acclaim for his music before going on to enthrall television audiences as Odafin “Fin” Tutuola in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But it could have gone much different...

In Iceberg Slim's first novel, Trick Baby, he told the unforgettable tale of White Folks, a white Negro who uses his colour as his trump card in the tough game of the Con. Blue-eyed, light-haired and fair-skinned, White Folks was to become the most incredible con man the ghetto ever spawned.Long White Con takes up where Trick Baby left off. After the death of his partner and mentor, Blue Howard, White Folks hooks up with the Vicksburg Kid, who completes h...

A Crazed KillerHe dissolved the bodies of some of his victims in acid and poured them down the sewer. He hung grisly souvenirs on nails in his junkyard.La Costra NostraCharles Carneglia was a stone-cold killer who fell in with the bloodthirsty John Gotti crew. As the infamous crime family rose to power with their murderous trail of sex, jealousy, greed, and revenge, Carneglia rose with them.Mafia, Madness And Murder

"A stunning exposé of a crime empire that collapsed under the weight of its own success . . . Shalhoup's true crime debut makes a highly addictive read." — Publishers Weekly ( starred review)In the early 1990s, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother, Terry "Southwest T," rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. After a decade in the dr...

The former Van Halen front man recounts his life, from his childhood to his wild days in rock 'n' roll, in this one-of-a-kind memoir.For almost forty years, Sammy Hagar has been a fixture in rock music. From breaking into the industry with the band Montrose to his multiplatinum solo career to his ride as the front man of Van Halen, Sammy's powerful and unforgettable voice has set the tone for some of the greatest rock anthems ever written—songs like "I Can't Drive 5...

A deeply personal and revealing Hollywood-survival story from beloved child star Corey Feldman."Spares no details." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)"An incredible read." —Richard Donner, Director"People always ask me about life after childhood stardom. What would I say to parents of children in the industry? My only advice, honestly, is to get these kids out of Hollywood and let them lead normal lives." —Corey FeldmanThe New York Times Be...