OVERVIEW

Rapper, activist, and hip-hop rebel, Sister Souljah possesses the most passionate and articulate voice to emerge from the projects. Now she uses that voice to deliver what is at once a fiercely candid autobiography and a survival manual for any African American woman determined to keep her heart open and her integrity intact in 1990s America.

“I am an African woman. That means that within my body is the power for me to do 360 degrees worth of anything.” 

REVIEW

This book was a challenging read solely because the series of events were hard to swallow. Sometimes you can’t grasp the reality of a situation unless you’ve lived it, but Souljah’s way with words gradually has you unlacing your shoes and stepping into hers. It is, unfortunately, proper that her experiences and actions had foreseeable and galvanic consequences.

Take a look around you. Are you a product of your environment or is the environment a product of you? Upon nativity, we grow up in a setting out of our control, and everything leaves a scarring and dramatic impression. We come into ourselves as our mothers and fathers, even against all odds. We are a collection of souls encumbered by generational curses and liberated by our ancestors’ prayers brought upon us by a history of mystery, defilement, and ineffable torment.

It is not just, but it is logical the harm to our blood is passed through our lineage and manifests in modern formation: families without fathers, depending on the government, brothers and sisters from different men, single moms – you name it. Souljah’s experience is the raw reality of what it’s like to be a product of the environment the world has created for you.

★★★★

The time for scared, lip-trembling, word-changing
Self-denying, compromising
Knee-shakin’ black people is over
If you have something to say
Speak up with authority and conviction
If not, sit down and shut up
We have to have the power to tell the truth
To say whatever is necessary
To do what needs to be done
Whatever it is, no matter who it may hurt