Search results for ""author ice-t""

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 and dangerous until one day they go too far...

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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 differently. In this “poignant and powerful” (Library Journal, starred review) memoir, Ice-T and Spike, his former crime partner—collaborating with New York Times bestselling author Douglas Century—relate the shocking stories of their shared pasts, and how just a handful of decisions led to their incredibly different lives. Both grew up in violent, gang-controlled Los Angeles neighborhoods and worked together to orchestrate a series of jewelry heists. But while Ice-T was discovered rapping in a club and got his first record deal, Spike was caught for a jewelry robbery and did three years in prison. As his music career began to take off, Ice made the decision to abandon the criminal life; Spike continued to plan increasingly ingenious and risky jewel heists. And in 1992, after one of Spike’s robberies ended tragically, he was sentenced to thirty-five years to life. While he sat behind bars, he watched his former partner rise to fame in music, movies, and television. “Propulsive” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), timely, and thoughtful, two men with two very different lives reveal how their paths might have very well been reversed if they made different choices. All it took was a split decision.

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The Rap Year Book takes readers on a journey that begins in 1979, widely regarded as the moment rap as a genre became recognised as part of music’s landscape and comes right up to the present. Shea Serrano deftly pays homage to the most important song of each year. Serrano also examines the most important moments that surround the history and culture of rap music–from artists’ backgrounds, to issues of race and safety, to the rise of hip-hop and the struggles among its major players–both personal and professional. Covering East Coast and West Coast, famous rapper feuds, chart toppers and show stoppers, The Rap Year Book takes an in-depth look at the last thirty-five years of the most influential genre of music to come out of the last generation. Complete with quizzes, infographics, lyric maps, hilarious and informative footnotes, portraits of the artists, and the occasional rebuttal essay by other prominent music writers, The Rap Year Book is both a narrative and illustrated guide to some of the most iconic and influential songs ever created under the umbrella of rap music. Serrano cites a variety of sources to form his arguments including biographies, magazines and documentaries, as well as his own experiences growing up at a time when hip-hop was becoming a prevalent force in the music industry. With its all-encompassing look at the ups and downs of rap music, and the landmark songs that are its tent-poles, this book will be perfect for anyone who is a fan of the genre.

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