Product Description

After pumping eight blasts from a sawed-off shotgun at a group of rival gang members, eleven-year-old Kody Scott was initiated into the L.A. gang the Crips. He quickly matured into one of the most formidable Crip combat soldiers, earning the name Monster for committing acts of brutality and violence that repulsed even his fellow gang members. When the inevitable jail term confined him to a maximum-security cell, Scott channeled his aggression and drive into educating himself. A complete political and personal transformation followed: from Monster to Sanyika Shakur, black nationalist, member of the New Afrikan Independence movement, and crusader against the causes of gangsterism. In a document that has been compared to The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, Shakur makes palpable the despair and decay of America’s inner cities and gives eloquent voice to one aspect of the black ghetto experience today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13651 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780802141446
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
This dispatch from a maximum-security prison chronicles Scott's transformation from a "gangbanging ghetto star" to an evangelical proponent of black nationalism.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
"Monster" Kody, today known as Sanyika Sakur, spent 16 years as a "gangbanger" in South Central Los Angeles. His account begins at age 11, when he was inducted into the ranks of the Crips, and ends (hundreds of bodies later) with Scott serving a seven-year prison term for beating a crack dealer. Throughout, he successfully conveys a sense of the siege mentality that prevails every minute of every day, due to the daily barrage of gang-on-gang violence. Names of derivative Crip gangs (e.g., Rollin' Sixties, Hoovers, Grape Street Watts Crips) and gang members (e.g., Li'l Hunchy, Tray Ball, Huckabuck) flit across the pages in a confusing manner, but Scott pushes the narrative forward with scarcely a glance backward, and, ultimately, names and incidents are not important. Unfortunately, Scott was in prison during the violence that followed last year's Rodney King incident and thus sheds little light on the peace treaty forged between the Bloods and Crips. Although unrepentant, Scott today is dedicated to ending gang violence. Recommended for most collections.
- Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
L‚on Bing's study of L.A. gangs, Do or Die (1991) featured on its cover an awesomely muscular African-American male, naked to the waist, wearing sunglasses and wielding an automatic weapon. That man was ``Monster'' Kody Scott, who here tells his electrifying life story: an angry, stunningly violent odyssey through gang warfare and prison to redemption. The acknowledgements page reveals Scott's continued wrath: ``Bullet-proof love is extended to Muhammad Abdullah and the Islamic Liberation Army...Teflon bullets are sent to the sell- outs.'' Scott is still fighting, only now for the New Afrikan Independence Movement, dedicated to creating a separate black nation. But, then, the author has always been at war: Drafted at age 11 into a ``set'' of the ``ghastly gang army'' of the L.A. Crips--an army of ``children gone wild in a concrete jungle''--he shot his first man, a rival Blood, that same year, and for the next 15 years led a life spent defending his set by word, fist, and bullet: ``I liked to see the buckshot eat away their clothing, almost like piranha fish.'' Much of Scott's memoir is a horrifying chronicle of gang combat--shootings, betrayals, retaliations (Scott was shot six times in one ambush)--almost tedious in its unrelenting machismo and bloodshed, made palatable mostly by the author's deep knowledge of gang lore. Eventually, jail stints punctuate the street fighting; finally, in 1983, Scott, behind bars, meets a radical Muslim who teaches him that the real battle is with the white oppressors--a lesson that takes hold in the late 80's in Folsom Prison, where, amid outrageous depravity, Scott renounces ``gangsterism'' to embrace his new struggle. Today, Scott, 29, is back in prison, serving seven years for ``a healthy beating'' he gave to an unrepentant crack dealer. A savage document of the street that gives, and asks, no quarter. Anyone who wants to know why L.A. burned will find the chilling answer here. (First printing of 65,000; first serial rights to Esquire) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Slacked off at work, and ignored my girlfriend to read this
I want to stress that this book is virtually impossible to putdown and thats why it got 5 stars from me. It is powerful, captivating, and well-written. However, unlike most other reviews I have read here I do not feel that Kody is a hero and certainly not a role model, in fact it is unclear just how radical or lasting his departure from the gang lifestyle really was and is. But I do not wish to belabor this point for it is not where the appeal of this book lies. What is great about this book is that if you see it in a bookstore and open it to any page at random and read so much as a sentence or so, I will almost gaurantee that the bookstore in which you are standing will be collecting the price of this book.. Kody's style is also impressive as one wonders where he gained education enough author such a well- written story. Although some of his points may be very clouded logically, the writting is always engrossing and insightful. Kody never sugar coats his tales and more importantly never comes off as if he is bragging. Bottom line, bought it on a wednesday night, 383 pages later it was thursday.

�Children gone wild in a concrete jungle of poverty and rage
.....they are armed and dangerous". These words, written by an LA gang member who found his loyalty and respect on the streets as a Crip at the age of 11 years old. From the moment I started to read this book I felt like I was stepping into a parallel universe. A world where children riding ten speeds carry automatic weapons, and shoot down anyone who has dared to cross the line into their territory. They are Gang-Bangers and they live and die for their "Set" or gang. They come up in the ranks of the prison system like other children are oriented to boarding school and college.

Monster Kody has arrived and he is true to his Set and a leader among men. He has known nothing but his militaristic way of life for as long as he can remember. He knows never to be caught on the streets of South Central without his weapon; to do so could be deadly. He stands point when he enters the supermarket with his mom, and shoots when a rival gang member is spotted in produce. This sounds like insanity, and it is, but that doesn't make it any less real.

By the age of 19 Kody feels like he has aged beyond his years, and rightfully so. He has been at war for almost a decade. He realizes that he has to be a father to his children. He wants more for them, and he wants to break the cycle of New Afrikans killing New Afrikans. It is at this point that he decides to change his name and take on a new direction in life. Shakur is an intelligent individual that has much to offer. I was amazed by his insights and the words flowed along the page with ease. I usually don't care for books written with a lot of dialect, in this case street talk, but he did it in such a way that it enhanced the book. I hope you find your peace Sanyika and spread it among the people. You are surely capable of anything you set your mind out to do. Kelsana 6/25/01

one of our own tells how it really is to live a thugs life.
I grew up in South Central Los Angeles and I heard stories from older homeboys in my hood about the notorious "Monster" Kody from Eight Tray. This book was painfull for me to read as it dug up my own personal memories from when I was living as a gang member in L.A. When I was younger I rolled with 18th street, now a 23 year old survivor and U.S. Marine I appreciate people like Sanyika Shakur. His story is that of thousands of young Black and Chicano males through out L.A. County. Look at life through a true gangbanger's point of view and read this book. I know you'll feel differently the next time you see grafitti or when you roll through the ghetto.