“Ferranti continues to amaze us with the most infamous OGs and their unfathomable street life.”—The Source “Seth Ferranti is one of the most prolific true-crime writers of our era. He knows the street game inside and out. From the streets to the penitentiary, nobody rates better.”—“White Boy Rick” Wershe From the penitentiary to the streets, it’s on and popping. Thug life is more than spitting rhymes or hustling on the corner. Thugs live and die on the streets or end up in the “belly of the beast.” Rappers name-drop guns by model number and call out drug dealers by name. Gangsta rap is crack-era nostalgia taken to the extreme. It’s a world where rappers emulate their favorite hood stars in videos, celebrate their names in verse, and make ghetto heroes out of gangsters. But what happens when hip-hop and organized crime collide? From the blocks in Queens where Supreme and Murder Inc. held court to the neighborhoods of Los Angeles where Harry-O and Death Row made their names to Rap-A-Lot Records and J Prince in Houston, whenever rap moguls rose the street legends weren’t far behind. From Bad Boy Records and Anthony “Wolf” Jones in New York to Gucci Mane and the Black Mafia Family in Atlanta to Too Short and Daryl Reed in the Bay Area, thug life wasn’t glamorous. The shit on the street was real. In the game there was a common struggle to get out of the gutter. Cats were trying to get their piece of the American Dream by any means necessary. Drug game equals rap game equals hip-hop hustler. In Thug Life, Seth Ferranti takes you on a journey to a world where gangsterism mixes with hip-hop, a journey of pimps, stick-up kids, numbers men, drug dealers, thugs, players, gangstas, hustlers, and of course the rappers who live dual lives in entertainment and crime. The common denominator? Money, power, and respect.

Fat Cat and Pappy Mason are the most infamous and legendary figures out of New York's crack era. A time that massively influenced rap culture and led to the ghetto icons becoming mythical figures in hip-hop's lyrical lore. Not only did the street stars inspire rappers like Run DMC, LL Cool J and 50 Cent with their styles, attitudes and swagger, they set the tone for a generation of hustlers, gun thugs and drug barons, who tried to live up to the hype and standard of violence these street legends set, with their vicious and brutal foray into the drug game that transformed the black underworld as Uzi-toting drug thugs in bulletproof vests, Timberlands and BMW's became the norm. This book details Fat Cat and Pappy Mason's story chronicling their rise and fall in the annals of gangster lore. Both drug lords are imprisoned for life, due to their crimes and exploits, but their legends live on in hip-hop and popular culture. Written by noted true crime historian, Seth Ferranti, this is the most concise, prolific and detailed account of Fat Cat and Pappy Mason to date. It explores their lives and impact on hip-hop culture and America in general, as their violent and unconscious tactics ushered in the War on Drugs and mandatory minimum legislation that has affected millions, as the United States has become incarceration nation. Read how the street legends of the Southside of Jamaica Queens influenced hip-hop, the streets and the dope game, changing the course of American judicial policy and sentencing practices, with their blatant disregard for law and order.

To many in his hometown of Washington, D.C., during his 1980s reign as the city's biggest cocaine and crack dealer, Rayful Edmond was public enemy number one. At the height of Dodge City's brutal crack epidemic in 1987, this 22-year-old man was responsible for distributing 60 percent of the cocaine that flooded the city's streets. In the Chocolate City, Rayful was the undisputed king of cocaine. He was street royalty with a certified gangster resume. At his peak Rayful sold 2,000 keys a week, reaped gross profits of $70 million a month and ran an operation with over 150 soldiers to support him. By his early twenties he had established himself as the city's most notorious drug kingpin. In the high profile and glamorous life he led, champagne flowed like water, trips to Las Vegas, New York and Los Angeles were commonplace and $50,000 shopping sprees were the routine. Rayful personified the big city drug lord and his stature epitomized all the accolades that position demanded. To the mainstream media, he encompassed all that was wrong with the city's crack epidemic, but in the streets Rayful was a hero, an inner-city gangster who made it to the top echelons of the drug trade. A Lucky Luciano, Billy the Kid-type figure. But there were consequences to his reign. His volcanic rise coincided with an unprecedented explosion of street violence and drug addiction in the capital city. The era is remembered for murder, mayhem and bloodshed. Historians have blamed the crack storm that seized D.C. on Rayful, but Rayful maintained he was only trying to help his family live a better life and enjoy the finer materialistic trappings of capitalism that were often denied denizens of the ghetto. To the block huggers, four corner hustlers and hood mainstays Rayful was beloved, even worshipped. His appeal crossed boundaries and he was adored by children and adults alike. But to others he was feared, a man who wreaked havoc on his community. Neighborhood people saw the effects of his crack enterprise outside their front doors and it wasn't pretty. A community divided was in essence, a community destroyed. But regardless of what people thought of Rayful, he was an enigma, the president and CEO of what authorities called "the largest network for cocaine street sales in Washington D.C." He was a gangster legend of epic proportions, until he tarnished his legacy by turning snitch.

Guero, a young suburban white kid, is thrust into the feds on a marijuana rap. Facing a lengthy sentence he sets out to make his mark in the penitentiary and get his respect. While growing into his manhood amidst the everpresent chaos and twisted realities of the penitentiary, Guero falls in with a Latino drug smuggling gang and struggles with his evolving identity as a convict and "vato loco." Prison Stories is a real-life look into the life of prisoners confined in the Bureau of Prisons. Short story vignettes interwoven throughout the pages offer readers a vicarious, personal experience of everything prison is...the power-tripping of guards, gangs, prisoners getting turned out, killings and more.