The story of one man's painful spiritual journey from violence toward transcendence . . . attests not only to Shakur's journalistic eye for observation, but also to his novelistic skills as a storyteller, an ear for street language that is as perfectly pitched as Richard Price's, a feeling for character and status potentially as rich as Tom Wolfe's. This is a startling and galvanic book.
[An] electrifying life story: an angry, stunningly violent odyssey through gang warfare and prison to redemption.
A compelling and frightening, bizarre, yet insightful insider's look at the society that spawned gangs and the gang's violent retaliation within it.