Tariq Trotter .
But beyond offering the compellingly poetic account of one artist\'s creative and emotional origins, Trotter explores the vital questions we all have to confront about our formative years: How can we see the story of our young lives clearly? How do we use that story to understand who we\'ve become? How do we forgive the people who loved and hurt us? How do we rediscover and honor our first dreams? And finally, what do we take forward, what do we pass on, what do we leave behind? This is the beautifully bluesy story of a boy genius\'s coming of age that illuminates the redemptive power of the upcycle..
In vivid vignettes, he tells the dramatic stories of the four powerful relationships that shaped him--community, friends, art, and family--each a complex weave of love, discovery, trauma, and loss.
In The Upcycled Self, Trotter doesn\'t just narrate a riveting and moving portrait of the artist as a young man, but gives readers a courageous model of what it means to live an examined life.
The years that followed are the story of a life snatched from the flames, forged in fire.
But his story begins with a tragedy: as a child, Trotter burned down his family\'s home. upcycle verb up-cy-cle ˈəp-ˌsī-kəl to recycle (something) in such a way that the resulting product is of a higher value than the original item to create an object of greater value from (a discarded object of lesser value) Today Tariq Trotter--better known as Black Thought--is the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots, and one of the most exhilaratingly skillful and profound rappers the culture has ever produced.
Trotter has refined literary fire from the soulful furnace of pain and suffering.-- The New York Times From one of our generation\'s most powerful artists and incisive storytellers comes a brilliantly crafted work about the art--and war--of Becoming who we are.
Like the Russian novelist, Mr. could be hip-hop\'s Dostoyevsky. . .
Tariq Trotter
