Much of the success I have experienced in writing comes from the love, support, and inspiration provided by my parents, Alberta and Stanley Baker. They allowed me to embrace rap and dedicate virtually all of my free time (beginning at age ten) to consuming it, even though the music was foreign to them and had a largely negative rep.
My father, in particular, has been my rock and my foundation throughout my personal and professional life. Among dozens of other things, he drove my friends and me (and waited in a lounge for us) to see my first concert: Public Enemy, Digital Underground, Heavy D & the Boyz, Kid ‘n Play, and Chill Rob G at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, in 1990. My dad also recorded go-go mixes from Washington, D.C., radio stations and mailed the cassettes to me while I was in college so that I could stay connected to the other form of music I loved.
While attending Xavier University in Cincinnati, I began writing professionally. With my father’s encouragement, I began to keep a database of all the articles I have written. At present, the total exceeds 3,500 articles published. I’ve also written more than a thousand other things and millions of words, including the ninety-thousand or so in this book. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for loving me and for supporting me in every step of my life.
Thank you, Grant Baker, for being a great brother, for all of your help with my writing, and for sharing my love of Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Ludacris.
I’ve been blessed to have two phenomenal women in my day-to-day life in my adopted home of Southern California. My daughter, Loren, brings me immeasurable joy every day. Her intelligence and exuberance are two of the major motivating factors that push me. As you know, Loren, I love you infinity times infinity plus infinity infinities. DaVida Smith, thank you for blessing me with your love. You are the best partner anyone could hope for. I love you.
Jorge Hinojosa, after you heard me on KDAY hosting Open Bar Radio with Xzibit, you gave me a call to reconnect and to ask me why I wasn’t writing any of the major rap books hitting the market. Thanks to your belief in me, I am now. Thank you for managing me through this process, pushing me to make the book better, and connecting me to a world I’d been trying to break into. I look forward to our next steps together.
Jorge’s instincts proved correct when he suggested we submit The History Of Gangster Rap proposal to Samantha Weiner, a keen and talented editor at Abrams. Thank you, Samantha, for making this dream of mine come true—to be able to write a book that shows how and why this rap subgenre has been so important and influential. It has been a pleasure working with you and learning from you. I am grateful for this opportunity and am excited about our future collaborations. And a big thank you to the extended Abrams team, Jennifer Bastien, Kimberly Lew, Mary O’Mara, and Devin Grosz.
I am amazed that I now know and am friends with several of the artists I grew up admiring. To have been able to interview so many of them for this book has been a humbling experience. Thank you to all of the artists, executives, businessmen, and personalities who gave me exclusive interviews for this book: Jorge Hinojosa, Hi-Tek, Chris LaSalle, Faisal Ahmed, Yukmouth, MC Eiht, MC Ren, Dave Weiner, Wrekonize, DJ Quik, Snoop Dogg, Dana Dane, Tech N9ne, Masta Ace, Ice-T, Big Boy, the D.O.C., Hen Gee, Paris, Schoolly D, Cormega, Leslie “Big Lez” Segar, Kokane, CJ Mac, Arnold “Bigg A” White, Yo-Yo, the Legendary Traxster, DJ Drama, Murs, Cold 187um, Glasses Malone, Tony Draper, Scarface, Big Tray Deee, Gangsta Boo, RBX, Dee Barnes, Amir Rahimi, and Xzibit. Each one of you has inspired me in a myriad of ways.
To Jay R Jay, Brian Coleman, Richie Abbott, Lisa Barton, Brian Shafton, Chad Kaiser, Giovanna Melchiorre, and Jarrold Taylor, thank you for facilitating some of the interviews featured herein. Your work helped make this book better.
Thank you, Andres Tardio, for the great author photo. Also, Ural Garrett, Leslie “Big Lez” Segar, Dave Weiner, Alisa Childs, Paris, Hen Gee, Evil E, Hi-Tek, Gangsta Boo, and Amir Rahimi, thank you for submitting photos for consideration.
Thank you to my friends who helped make this possible, especially Steven Reissner, Daylan Williams, and Ahmed Sabir-Calloway for helping me get some of these interviews on camera. Victoria Hernandez, thank you for holding me down when I had to make things happen. Thank you, Monika A. Tashman, for your legal guidance.
Billy Johnson Jr., Shawndi Johnson, William “B-Luv” Taylor, Tracii McGregor, Tom Ruge, Aren Rostamian, Vidal Marsh, Slink Johnson, J. Wells, James Kreisberg, Omar Burgess, Maurice Thomas, Valerie Sakmary, and Andre Grant, thank you for your friendship and support.
Thank you to my family for championing me. In particular, Uncle Michael Johnson, thank you for recommending me for my first book deal, and for helping me launch my line of self-published books in 2011. Uncle Dion Baker, thank you for your steady love and support.
Thank you, Jacob Covey, for the brilliant design and everyone at Abrams for making this book an incredible experience. Toshitaka Kondo, thank you for your notes and suggestions on ways to improve the book, which they did.
Finally, thank you to the readers of this book. I appreciate your support.