This book represents the Holy Grail of early hip hop journalism, written by the only professional journalist to travel to the South Bronx in the early 1980s to document the origins of the culture. For anyone interested in "first generation," this is the most authentic portrait of hip hop before commercialization took over. Sadly, the hard copy book was published before its time and never saw the distribution or sales it deserved. Copies of the original edition sell for as much as $500. This special e-book version contains never-before-published interviews with some of the main architects of hip hop culture. At some point, an illustrated update with better formatting will likely be released at a much higher price. Meanwhile you can get the original text with bonus interviews right now for under $5.