With the culprits still after them and new enemies forming, it seems like a peaceful life is the last thing possible for Saint and Nya. Friendship and family bonds are strained while the pieces from the fatal night are slowly put back together.Tables have turned and the characters find themselves trying to rebuild what was lost.Will Nya step up to the plate and be the woman a gangsta like Saint needs, or will their love become another casualty of the game?

Slow L was marked by death at a young age when his stepfather is murdered and mother shot down in front of him. Eight years passed and still trying to outdistance this tragedy but haunted by it every step of the way. Lack of trust made him jump off the porch a little sooner than most kids. Once he learned the Milwaukee streets had real people that acted in the form of animals and orangutans among the living, he knew then he needed to adapt to the Mil-jungle, or get peeled, or eaten alive. Nobody was to be trusted—not a priest, not the police, not his childhood friends, or closest relatives. They made him a gangsta with no explanation as to why.

This book provides an enlightening, representative account of how rappers talk about God in their lyrics—and why a sense of religion plays an intrinsic role within hip hop culture. Why is the battle between good and evil a recurring theme in rap lyrics? What role does the devil play in hip hop? What exactly does it mean when rappers wear a diamond-encrusted "Jesus" around their necks? Why do rappers acknowledge God during award shows and frequently include prayers in their albums? Rap and Religion: Understanding the Gangsta's God tackles a sensitive and controversial topic: the juxtaposition—and seeming hypocrisy—of references to God within hip hop culture and rap music. This book provides a focused examination of the intersection of God and religion with hip hop and rap music. Author Ebony A. Utley, PhD, references selected rap lyrics and videos that span three decades of mainstream hip hop culture in America, representing the East Coast, the West Coast, and the South in order to account for how and why rappers talk about God. Utley also describes the complex urban environments that birthed rap music and sources interviews, award acceptance speeches, magazine and website content, and liner notes to further explain how God became entrenched in hip hop.

In the late 1980s, gangsta rap music emerged in urban America, giving voice to—and making money for—a social group widely considered to be in crisis: young, poor, black men. From its local origins, gangsta rap went on to flood the mainstream, generating enormous popularity and profits. Yet the highly charged lyrics, public battles, and hard, fast lifestyles that characterize the genre have incited the anger of many public figures and proponents of "family values." Constantly engaging questions of black identity and race relations, poverty and wealth, gangsta rap represents one of the most profound influences on pop culture in the last thirty years. Focusing on the artists Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, the Geto Boys, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, Quinn explores the origins, development, and immense appeal of gangsta rap. Including detailed readings in urban geography, neoconservative politics, subcultural formations, black cultural debates, and music industry conditions, this book explains how and why this music genre emerged. In Nuthin'but a "G" Thang, Quinn argues that gangsta rap both reflected and reinforced the decline in black protest culture and the great rise in individualist and entrepreneurial thinking that took place in the U.S. after the 1970s. Uncovering gangsta rap's deep roots in black working-class expressive culture, she stresses the music's aesthetic pleasures and complexities that have often been ignored in critical accounts.

Eighteen-year-old Makani Hughes is young, intelligent, beautiful, and living a very carefree life. So much so that she lets her carefree life get in the way of her studies, causing her to be expelled from school. Enter Reed Cook: a man sixteen years her senior. He promised to take care of her, but six years and two kids-who don't belong to Makani-later, all those promises are gone out the window. Being bound to her company, Skintastic, and taking care of her stepchildren, Makani starts looking for ways to get out of her emotionally and verbally abusive relationship with Reed. Makani gets the chance and confidence to leave her relationship once she meets the dark and mysterious Gio Mancini.A former kingpin, Horace 'Gio' Mancini has gone from running the streets of New York to running legit businesses in California. Gio has been in an open marriage with his wife, Piper, for a decade, allowing him to quench his dark desires of women obeying his every command as he's being called Master Gio. Entry into Gio's lifestyle wasn't for the easy, weak, or the vanilla, but from the first time he laid eyes on the very naïve Makani, he knew she had to be his.

Gangsta Twist 1 is a modern-day Robin Hood meets Mission: Impossible with a witty urban twist. Taz, the ruthless leader of an elite group of bandits, falls hopelessly in love with Sacha, an up-and-coming lawyer who will stop at nothing to become a partner in her firm. When Cliff, Sacha's ex-boyfriend, hears of her newfound love, all hell breaks loose. Cliff seeks Taz's daughter to get closer to his inner circle. Will Taz be forced to give up his true love in order to save his daughter from the deadly hands of Cliff? Or will Sacha and Taz finally have their happily ever after? Won, the wealthy councilman, knows that the only chance he has at reelection is if there are no competitors. Will Taz, his trusty disciple, and his crew be able to handle the orders given by Won to bring down his peers? Ride with the gang as they travel in search of Won's competitors. Let Gangsta Twist 1 take you on a fast-paced ride full of deceit, fast money, and revenge, where the winner takes all.