State of the hip-hop union -- The meaning of hip-hop -- From a cool complex to complex cool -- Thug life and social death -- The bridge : summary of chapters two and three -- Hip-hop authenticity in black and white -- Parental advisory : explicit lyrics -- The last verse -- Obama as hip-hop icon.

"Explores every aspect of Tupac's career in a diverse selection of interviews, articles, reviews and essays"--Page 4 of cover.

The follow-up to his bestselling memoir "Monster," Shakur's "T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E." is a vicious, heart-wrenching, and true-to-life novel that masterfully captures the violence and depravity of gang life.

What do you do when the system you've sworn to serve and protect marks you for death? Jamal, D-Ball and Andre are back for an EXPLOSIVE spin-off to the A Thug's Redemption series, only this time, one of them is not making it out alive! Jamal was positive that he'd seen the last of corrupt police officers when he took down Kristoff and every dirty cop that was working with him. But a new discovery puts him in even more danger than before. After a bomb is planted in his car nearly killing him and his partner Dante, Jamal is made aware that a hit has been put out on him by none other than his brothers in blue. While trying to protect his partner, Dante runs into another problem when a teenager catches a police shooting of an unarmed Black man on his phone which puts a target on his own back. Dante must choose between being "Detective" Dante the cop or "D-Ball" the no non-sense having thug wit zero fucks to give in order to save this kid as well as his partner. Who will make it out of this drama-filled street novel alive?

Read the book that inspired the movie! Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping novel about one girl's struggle for justice.

From Naptown to Tinseltown—legendary stand-up comedian and actor Mike Epps finally tells all in this outrageous, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir. Before starring in Def Comedy Jam and Showtime at the Apollo—before the sold-out comedy shows, Uncle Buck, and becoming his hero Richard Pryor in a biopic—there was Indianapolis. And not the good part. Mike Epps is one of America’s favorite and funniest people, but the path to fame was paved with opportunities to mess it up. And mess it up he did. Growing up in “Naptown”—what people who live there really call rough-around-the-edges Indianapolis—Epps found himself forced to hustle from an early age. Despite his mother’s best efforts, and the love of his well-behaved brother, “Chaney,” and his beloved sister, Julie, Epps was drawn to a life of crime, but as he quickly discovered, stealing and dealing didn’t really fit his sweet sensibilities. Not to mention he wasn’t very good at it—take, for example, the day he had to call the cops on himself when a dog wouldn’t let him leave a house he was burgling. After several arrests and more than a few months in jail, Epps finally realized that he was an unsuccessful thug, and instead turned to the next most obvious career path: stand-up comedy. Heading first to New York, then all over the country, and finally to Hollywood, Mike Epps carved out a unique place in American comedy, combining hysterical tales of his family and friends with a mordant take on life in the Naptowns of America. Comedy saved Mike Epps, and here he reveals exactly how he finally grew up and got out, barely. And when describing how he survived when so many of his friends didn’t, Epps makes clear what he’s thankful for and sorry about. Unsuccessful Thug is about growing up black in America, facing down racism in Hollywood, and ultimately how it feels to fail at thugdom, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and end up selling out arenas and starring in movies across the country.

From the penitentiary to the streets, it's on and popping. Thug life is more than spitting rhymes or hustling on the corner. Thugs live and die on the streets or end up in the "belly of the beast." Rappers name-drop guns by model number and call out drug dealers by name. Gangsta rap is crack-era nostalgia taken to the extreme. It's a world where rappers emulate their favorite hood stars in videos, celebrate their names in verse, and make ghetto heroes out of gangsters. But what happens when hip-hop and organized crime collide? From the blocks in Queens where Supreme and Murder Inc. held court to the neighborhoods of Los Angeles where Harry-O and Death Row made their names to Rap-A-Lot Records and J Prince in Houston, whenever rap moguls rose the street legends weren't far behind. From Bad Boy Records and Anthony "Wolf" Jones in New York to Gucci Mane and the Black Mafia Family in Atlanta to Too Short and Daryl Reed in the Bay Area, thug life wasn't glamorous. The shit on the street was real. In the game there was a common struggle to get out of the gutter. Cats were trying to get their piece of the American Dream by any means necessary. Drug game equals rap game equals hip-hop hustler. In Thug Life, Seth Ferranti takes you on a journey to a world where gangsterism mixes with hip-hop, a journey of pimps, stick-up kids, numbers men, drug dealers, thugs, players, gangstas, hustlers, and of course the rappers who live dual lives in entertainment and crime. The common denominator? Money, power, and respect.