Ghostface Killah

"The fully-illustrated, anecdote-rich story of the celebrated rapper and the iconic Wu-Tang Clan, told by one of its founding members. With his fellow New Yorker RZA, Dennis Coles--aka Ghostface Killah--established the Wu-Tang Clan, the legendary hip-hop group whose flexible format (originally seven members, growing to ten, it performs in various combinations and also allows its members solo careers), danceable singles and intimate melodic lyrics have kept it at the pinnacle of rap and hip-hop from its founding in the early 1990s to today. Rise of a Killah, Ghost's autobiography, is intense rather than comprehensive, looking back at his childhood in Staten Island, his commitment to his family (including a brother with muscular dystrophy) and lifelong sidekicks, how crime and violence have affected his life, his fellow Wu-Tang members, a formative touring trip to Japan in 1997, and his art. Some of the many evocative and exciting elements in the book are Ghost's lyrics--some printed, some included as pages from drugstore black composition notebooks with his hand-written raps--from the '90s, as well as roughly-designed Xeroxed posters for the Clan's earliest performances and throwdowns, great in-concert photographs, a range of shots of limited-edition shoes and clothing, and a newly-commissioned cartoon of an attack on Ghost by an intruder slinging not bullets but bleach. Rich with both story and imagery, some of it exclusive to this book, Rise Of A Killah is both visual record and a real-feel narrative of a performer's life"--