From Library Journal
Six years after his murder at age 25, Tupac Shakur is a legendary figure in hip hop. Befitting his celebrity are at least a half-dozen books on his life and death, including two "serious" biographies (Armond White's Rebel for the Hell of It and Michael Eric Dyson's Holler If You Hear Me). This latest is more in the vein of bodyguard Frank Alexander's Got Your Back, an intimate memoir by someone who was close to the rapper and knew him outside of his role as a superstar. Today a manager of musical acts, Bastfield met then-newcomer Shakur at the Baltimore School of the Arts in the mid-1980s. Interestingly, the book is written with genuine affection and comes across less as a quick cash-in project than as the author's attempt at personal closure for a lost friend. Glimpses of Shakur's occasional teenage awkwardness are contrasted with his developing talent and charisma, as well as his ability to inspire negative attention, even hatred, among his peers, by virtue of his unique combination of intelligence, sensitivity, and skill. Sure to be a hit among Shakur and hip-hop fans, this is recommended for all public libraries. (Photos not seen.) David Valencia, King Cty. Lib. Syst., Seattle
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Bastfield dedicates his paean to Tupac Shakur, preeminent icon of what Kitwana calls the hip-hop generation, to "Black men who have been an inspiration to the world," such as Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, and Imhotep. Shakur died long before he had become a world-inspirer, which explains why all biographies of him tend to be also about the state of black youth culture since his heyday. Bastfield's book is better than many others on Shakur because he knew Shakur before he was famous. Bastfield relies on his personal memories of Shakur's teen years, the experiences he and Shakur shared, and a fair amount of apparently meaningful, though unreferenced, research. While readable, interesting, and sexually graphic, this probably isn't the definitive assessment of Shakur.
Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
by Tupac Shakur
