"Deadest Rapper Alive" makes an eye-opening examination and social diagnosis of the Rap Music icon, Dwayne Carter a.k.a. Lil' Wayne. By studying his image, content, persona, and lyrics, Pastor Johnson makes a dire plea of warning. He proposes that the music of Wayne is actually much more than beats and lyrics, but it is a philosophy that when followed will lead to extremely dangerous consequences in the lives of Urban Youth.

The neighborhoods of Fifth Ward, Fourth Ward, Third Ward, and the Southside of Houston, Texas, gave birth to Houston rap, a vibrant music scene that has produced globally recognized artists such as Geto Boys, DJ Screw, Pimp C and Bun B of UGK, Fat Pat, Big Moe, Z-Ro, Lil’ Troy, and Paul Wall. Lance Scott Walker and photographer Peter Beste spent a decade documenting Houston’s scene, interviewing and photographing the people—rappers, DJs, producers, promoters, record label owners—and places that give rap music from the Bayou City its distinctive character. Their collaboration produced the books Houston Rap and Houston Rap Tapes. This second edition of Houston Rap Tapes amplifies the city’s hip-hop history through new interviews with Scarface, Slim Thug, Lez Moné, B L A C K I E, Lil’ Keke, and Sire Jukebox of the original Ghetto Boys. Walker groups the interviews into sections that track the different eras and movements in Houston rap, with new photographs and album art that reveal the evolution of the scene from the 1970s to today’s hip-hop generation. The interviews range from the specifics of making music to the passions, regrets, memories, and hopes that give it life. While offering a view from some of Houston’s most marginalized areas, these intimate conversations lay out universal struggles and feelings. As Willie D of Geto Boys writes in the foreword, “Houston Rap Tapes flows more like a bunch of fellows who haven’t seen each other for ages, hanging out on the block reminiscing, rather than a calculated literary guide to Houston’s history.”

In the tradition of Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love, an unforgettable account of fame, fandom, and the problem of making art in the twenty-first century In his multi-hyphenate ambitions, the musician who calls himself Juiceboxxx couldn’t be more modern—you might call him a punk rock-rapper-DJ-record executive-energy drink-magnate. Journalist Leon Neyfakh has been something more than a fan of Juiceboxxx’s since he was a teenager, when he booked a show for the artist in a church basement in his hometown of Oak Park, Illinois. Juiceboxxx went on to the tireless, lonely, possibly hopeless pursuit of success on his own terms—no club was too dank, no futon too grubby, if it helped him get to the next, next level. And, for years, Neyfakh remained haunted from afar: was art really worth all the sacrifices? If it was, how did you know you’d made it? And what was the difference, anyway, between a person like Juiceboxxx—who devoted his life to being an artist—and a person like Neyfakh, who elected instead to pursue a stable career and a comfortable, middle-class existence? Much more than a brilliant portrait of a charismatic musician always on the verge of something big, The Next Next Level is a wholly contemporary story of art, obsession, fame, ambition, and friendship—as well as viral videos, rap-rock, and the particulars of life on the margins of culture.

Do rappers sell their souls for fame and fortune? If you want to learn more about the Illuminati, then read my.... Illuminati Secrets Revealed Book Series Starting with Rap Music Exposed, Christian Author Mack C. Moore takes you on a journey to expose the Illuminati and how they control the world. This first book exposes blood sacrifices in hip-hop, replaced rappers, homosexual lyrics, and other things the Illuminati don't want the public to know. This isn't just a book on conspiracy theories, but also a book on spiritual warfare. So Christians it's a must that you learn how the devil is using rap music to poison the minds and spirits of the people who listen to it, including the children. The Illuminati Secrets Revealed series will cover everything the Illuminati has control of: from religion to government to entertainment to sports and so on.

A fun book of ideas for television and cinema that Lynn Tolliver has rescued from his fertile mind.

FANTASY OF A BLIND BOY He is a blind boy from the west coast of America. And he walked upon the road. The rough road like the one in Africa. He smiled like the soldier, toys and the prince of Rome. He is a blind boy from an imaginary city. He came from the state of Lords. He is the blind boy from America. And he battled the mirrors of blindness. He is a soldier and king of the American Island. He is a warrior and ruler. And he is blind upon the brown road of California. He is a blind boy from the west coast of America. And he waved the armours upon his arms like owls, squirrels, the red snakes, cobras and the red sea. It is the king of the dark tomb. It is the red bees. The blind boy laughed to the rumours of a mutter. And he is blind. He is a blind boy from California. He is the prince of a dark city like the wise priest. He is the World greatest king upon the grey road, the murky mountain, the grey pavement and roots. He is a blind boy from the west coast of America. And he is the master of a grey road. He is a king. It is the priest of heavy rings. It is a champion, a superstar, a trap star, a legend and a prince here. And he smiled towards a path of the blind soldier, towards the path of the dead souls and the kings. He is the blind boy upon the city like a grey stool. And it sat on the stool of the Romans. It is crows. The blind boy walked upon the grey road and path.

The book is set in an imaginary empire called Tulku. Here a young girl discovered a large black bear and grew up with it in Tulku. There was a veteran who wrote a letter to the king. The veteran wanted to exile the hunter from Tulku to Turku. In order for the king to save the hunter from returning, the bear must be sacrifice by the priest to the king to give glory to the gods. The bear belongs to a king and the princess of Tulku (the young girl). The bear could not be killed because the princess was from a royal family. You just cant kill the bear because it is a pride and honor to the princess, a king and Tulku.

Resounding the Rhetorical offers an original critical and theoretical examination of composition as a quasi-object. As composition flourishes in multiple media (digital, sonic, visual, etc.), Byron Hawk seeks to connect new materialism with current composition scholarship and critical theory. Using sound and music as his examples, he demonstrates how a quasi-object can and does materialize for communicative and affective expression, and becomes a useful mechanism for the study and execution of composition as a discipline. Through careful readings of Serres, Latour, Deleuze, Heidegger, and others, Hawk reconstructs key concepts in the field including composition, process, research, collaboration, publics, and rhetoric. His work delivers a cutting-edge response to the state of the field, where it is headed, and the possibilities for postprocess and postwriting composition and rhetoric.

Standup comic, actor and fan favorite from HBO's Silicon Valley and the film Crazy Rich Asians shares his memoir of growing up as a Chinese immigrant in California and making it in Hollywood. "I turned down a job in finance to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. My dad thought I was crazy. But I figured it was better to disappoint my parents for a few years than to disappoint myself for the rest of my life. I had to disappoint them in order to pursue what I loved. That was the only way to have my Chinese turnip cake and eat an American apple pie too." Jimmy O. Yang is a standup comedian, film and TV actor and fan favorite as the character Jian Yang from the popular HBO series Silicon Valley. In How to American, he shares his story of growing up as a Chinese immigrant who pursued a Hollywood career against the wishes of his parents: Yang arrived in Los Angeles from Hong Kong at age 13, learned English by watching BET RapCity for three hours a day, and worked as a strip club DJ while pursuing his comedy career. He chronicles a near deportation episode during a college trip Tijuana to finally becoming a proud US citizen ten years later. Featuring those and many other hilarious stories, while sharing some hard-earned lessons, How to American mocks stereotypes while offering tongue in cheek advice on pursuing the American dreams of fame, fortune, and strippers.

A collection of ideas from David Payton and his two sons, Orrin Lynn Tolliver III, and David C. Tolliver. A father and sons' collaboration of poetry, spoken word and other concepts for future books and movies. There are a few words of vulgarity within. For the discriminate reader. Young minds exhaling their inner thoughts, and a very proud father. This is a "rough" so it is not error free. The works are raw, and a compilation of material from over the past two or three years.