Authors: Toure, Tourc)
ISBN-13: 9780312425784, ISBN-10: 0312425783
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: February 2006
Edition: First Edition
Touré is the author of the novel Soul City and the story collection The Portable Promised Land. A contributing editor at Rolling Stone, his writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Tennis Magazine, The Best American Essays, and Da Capo Best American Music Writing, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
From the inimitable Toure comes a collection of wickedly amusing essays, delivered from the front lines of taste-making America
In a varied collection of lucid, colorful pieces, journalist Toure, author of the novel Soul City and the story collection The Portable Promised Land, takes readers from the inner sanctum of Prince's Paisley Park to Jennifer Capriati's practice court, Lauryn Hill's Christmas party and beyond. Deftly organized by theme, the book comprises mainly magazine articles dating from 2005 to the mid-'90s, and its title refers to the author's insistence that he never bought into the philosophies of the people he profiled but rather aimed "to understand who they were beyond the image they want us to think they were." He succeeds with meteoric personalities, like Eminem and Al Sharpton, and with people like junior-tennis phenom and eventual professional bust Al Parker Jr. Toure has a knack for putting his subjects at ease, and he blends their intriguing candor with apt observations on the nature of their careers. He describes his own place in events without overshadowing the story itself. He's just interested in bringing us along for the ride, even if that means sitting shotgun while DMX pulls a full-speed 180 in a Cadillac Escalade on Sunset Boulevard. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
1 | I'm Audi | |
It was a wonderful world (Biggie Smalls) | 15 | |
2 | Sensitive thugs | |
The family man (Eminem) | 21 | |
The life of a hunted man (50 Cent) | 34 | |
DMX drives crazy, but he loves you | 44 | |
I'm scared to death, but I gotta live (Biggie Smalls) | 54 | |
The toughest record exec ever (Dick Griffey) | 59 | |
3 | Big Willies | |
Best rapper alive (Puff Daddy) | 75 | |
Hiphop's biggest kid grows up (Russell Simmons) | 80 | |
The power of radio (Andre Harrell) | 93 | |
Al Sharpton has a dream | 96 | |
Ships passing in the night (Barack Obama and Colin Powell) | 111 | |
4 | Icaruses | |
Invincible man (Tupac) | 117 | |
The Ivy League counterfeiter (Cliff Evans) | 125 | |
The greatest tennis player you've never heard of (Al Parker, Jr.) | 136 | |
Inherit the wind (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) | 150 | |
The mystery of Lauryn Hill | 160 | |
5 | Almost famous | |
A woman possessed (Beyonce) | 173 | |
The next queen of soul (Alicia Keys) | 183 | |
Lauryn in love (Lauryn Hill) | 195 | |
D'Angelo is holding your hand | 206 | |
Kurt is my copilot (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) | 216 | |
6 | Get up, get out, and get involved | |
Jay-Z has got guts | 233 | |
Do you like my Jesus piece (Kanye West) | 241 | |
You can call him Prince | 248 | |
Wynton Marsalis wants to kick your ass | 270 | |
Just Jen (Jennifer Capriati) | 283 | |
7 | Microphone fiend | |
"Crack is responsible for hiphop" (Ahmir Thompson, aka ?uestlove) | 297 | |
8 | Strange fruit | |
Condoleeza Rice is a house Negro | 317 | |
Show me the money (Michael Jordan) | 321 | |
The five-mic personality, or why I hate Mary J. Blige | 325 | |
9 | Somehow, there's love in the hiphop nation | |
I live in the hiphop nation | 333 | |
Love your Niggas | 339 | |
Are gay rappers too real for hiphop? (Caushun) | 345 | |
Hiphop familigia (Junior M.A.F.I.A. and the Wu-Tang Clan) | 350 | |
No drinks in '96! (Funkmaster Flex) | 355 | |
10 | Boys will be boys | |
Trainspotting | 361 | |
Night moves | 364 | |
Bling-bling makes the dictionary! | 366 | |
An invitation to carnal Russian roulette or memoirs of a sexual desperado | 368 | |
11 | Who do you think you are? | |
What's inside you, brother? | 377 | |
A funky fresh talented tenth | 386 | |
The blackest tennis club in the world | 389 | |
12 | I can't take it | |
At Jam Master Jay's funeral | 401 |