Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member

I propose to open my mind as wide as possible to allow my readers the first ever glimpse atSouth Central from my side of the gun, street, fence and wall.

After pumping eight blasts from a sawed-off shotgun at a group of rival gang members,twelve-year-old Kody Scott was initiated into the L.A. gang the Crips. He quickly matured intoone of the most formidable Crip combat soldiers, earning the name ‘Monster’ for committingacts of brutality and violence that repulsed even his fellow gang members. When the inevitablejail term confined him to a maximum-security cell, a complete political and personaltransformation followed: from Monster to Sanyika Shakur, Black nationalist, member of theNew Afrikan Independence Movement and crusader against the causes of gangsterism.

In a document that has been compared to The Autobiography of Malcolm X and EldridgeCleaver’s Soul on Ice, Shakur makes palpable the despair and decay of America’s inner citiesand gives eloquent voice to one aspect of the Black experience today.