19 Books Published by Villard on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

A Tribe Called Quest • Beastie Boys • De La Soul • Eric B. & Rakim • The Fugees • KRS-One • Pete Rock & CL Smooth • Public Enemy • The Roots • Run-DMC • Wu-Tang Clan • and twenty-five more hip-hop immortals

It’s a sad fact: hip-hop album liners have always been reduced to a list of producer and sample credits, a publicity photo or two, and some hastily composed shout-outs. That’s a damn shame, because few outside the game know about the true creative forces behind influential masterpieces like PE’s It Takes a Nation of Millions…, De La’s 3 Feet High and Rising, and Wu-Tang’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A longtime scribe for the hip-hop nation, Brian Coleman fills this void, and delivers a thrilling, knockout oral history of the albums that define this dynamic and iconoclastic art form.

The format: One chapter, one artist, one album, blow-by-blow and track-by-track, delivered straight from the original sources. Performers, producers, DJs, and b-boys–including Big Daddy Kane, Muggs and B-Real, Biz Markie, RZA, Ice-T, and Wyclef–step to the mic to talk about the influences, environment, equipment, samples, beats, beefs, and surprises that went into making each classic record. Studio craft and street smarts, sonic inspiration and skate ramps, triumph, tragedy, and take-out food–all played their part in creating these essential albums of the hip-hop canon.

Insightful, raucous, and addictive, Check the Technique transports you back to hip-hop’s golden age with the greatest artists of the ’80s and ’90s. This is the book that belongs on the stacks next to your wax.

“Brian Coleman’s writing is a lot like the albums he covers: direct, uproarious, and more than six-fifths genius.”
–Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

“All producers and hip-hop fans must read this book. It really shows how these albums were made and touches the music fiend in everyone.”
–DJ Evil Dee of Black Moon and Da Beatminerz

“A rarity in mainstream publishing: a truly essential rap history.”
–Ronin Ro, author of Have Gun Will Travel

“Tell anyone who asks that you’re half-black and half-white, just like David Hasselhoff from Knight Rider.”–Angela’s mother

“Love has no color,” insist Angela Nissel’s parents, but does it have a clue? In this candid, funny, and poignant memoir, Angela recounts growing up biracial in Philadelphia–moving back and forth between black inner-city schools and white prep schools–where her racial ambiguity and doomed attempts to blend in dog her teen years. Once in college, Angela experiments with black activism (hoping to find clarity in extremism), capitalizes on her “exotic” look at a strip club, and ends up with a major case of the blues (aka, a racial identity problem). Yet Angela is never down for the count. After moving to Los Angeles, she discovers that being multiracial is anything but simple, especially in terms of dating and romance.
By turns a comedy of errors and a moving coming-of-age chronicle, Mixed traces one woman’s unforgettable journey to self-acceptance and belonging.

Praise for Mixed

“I love Angela Nissel’s writing. Reading Mixed was like getting a letter from a best friend I forgot I had. How ironic that a book written by someone who felt like no one "got" her will surely be one of those rare books everyone gets- black, white, both, neither. Hilarious, sweet, and honest, Mixed is the perfect read if you’ve ever felt like the one standing on the outside— and let’s face it, who hasn’t? - -Jill Soloway, author of Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants

“Nissel is humorous, poignant, and proud yet also empathetic and generous as she recounts her constant struggle to answer the perennial question persons of mixed race seem required to ask of themselves in our society–where do I fit in?…. All readers stand to learn from her account.” — Booklist

“Colorful anecdotes, marvelous dialogue and a thoughtful narrative make this memoir a delight.”–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"If David Sedaris was a straight biracial female, this is the book he’d write. This book is so funny I’ve already started telling people I helped Angela write it." — Bill Lawrence, creator of Scrubs

"Growing up black and white, I always felt I had the best of both worlds. I feel the same way about Mixed. It’s the perfect blend of hilarious comedy and sometimes tragic reality." — Yvette Lee Bowser, creator of Living Single and executive producer of Half and Half
"Mixed is a hilarious must-read for anyone searching for the enchanting path to self-discovery. Angela Nissel’s precise account of living the mixed race experience not only hit home with me, but the journey is deliciously enlightening and heart-rending at the same time. It’s a journey well worth taking." —Halle Berry

Toni Blackman is an international champion of hip-hop culture, known for her irresistible, contagious performances and alluring female presence. She’s all heart, all rhythm, all song, all power—a one-woman revolution of poetry and microphone. Like Ntozake Shange, Blackman and her cool, musical poetry and prose weave a magical spell around you, daring you to break her hypnotic hold. Toni’s themes are: the paradoxes of love; the inspirations and hypocrisies of brothers who rhyme; quiet internal wisdom versus the incessant necessity to have her life saved by a DJ. She explodes at the mic and blooms on the page. In the poem “inner-course,” Toni challenges the crass commercial culture of love and guides us into her version of real love: the love of self. In another poem, called “well … ,” she illuminates the pain of a shallow romance in the face of a world tragedy and tries to find meaning in her heartache. In “Getting Open,” a prose piece, Toni teaches us how to free ourselves from fear—hip-hop style. Toni Blackman is your guide into the heart and soul of her creative—and very human—Inner-course.

Reclaim Your Power! A 30-Day Guide to Hope, Healing, and Inspiration for Men of Color is a compact but powerful book in which community philanthropist Terrance Dean provides men of color with meaningful, spiritual meditations that can be practiced anywhere at any time. Quotations and exercises further build upon the daily lessons in the book. Among them: Listen; Be Still; Can’t No One Stop You but You; Faith; Have Integrity; and Move, Mountain, Get out of My Way!

“It’s no accident that you have this book in your hands,” writes Dean in his Introduction. “You or someone you know has thought enough about you to get you started or help you remember your connection to Spirit. Know that everything is divinely created and that you are meant to be here, right now, at this time, to become aware of your greatness. I encourage you to read this book and be open to its message.”

Reclaim Your Power! is designed to help men discover their own source of healing, hope, and inspiration—one cannot help but feel empowered after reading this book!

New, from the number one bestselling author of Hand-me-down Heartache and Sorority Sisters, a novel about five women on the verge of turning thirty, whose lives are changed forever when they meet through a national radio contest

At first glance, you couldn’t find five women more different.

Catara is a personal shopper in New York who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Embarrassed by her weight, she lets a lack of self-confidence derail her goals. In Atlanta, Lashawnda has gone from a string of bad relationships with men into one with a woman that doesn’t seem much better. Elise is realizing her dream of opening up a gymnastics school in Louisville, Kentucky, but between working and taking care of her grandmother, she can’t find much time to nurture herself. Tanya’s relationship with her boyfriend is at the breaking point. She’s ready to leave Chicago and fast city living to settle down and have a family, but her man isn’t on the same page. Alecia lives in Los Angeles and has been getting by on her looks for a long time, but when her (married) boyfriend makes it clear that his wife comes first, she has to realize that beauty fades and she must prepare for her future.

But these women do have something in commonthey all share the same birthday and are about to turn thirty. When the number one syndicated black radio show in the country sponsors a Night Before Thirty Getaway Weekend, these women meet, and while their time together is brief, the impact they have upon one another’s lives is everlasting.

Nina Lander is a recent college grad, struggling to be independent, who has moved back home with her parents as she tries to start a career in sports broadcasting. But she’s increasingly frustrated with both her father’s treatment of her mother and her mother’s acceptance of her own unhappy life.

Though Nina is wracked with uncertainty, the one thing she thinks she can hold on to is her budding relationship with Maurice, a charming, handsome rookie NBA player. Nina rationalizes his silence as strength and his jealousy as love. When there is evidence of his infidelity, Nina is hurt but not surprised. Her father has cheated on her mother, and her brother has cheated on his girlfriends. All men cheat, Nina believes.

But then Maurice abruptly ends the relationship, sending Nina into an emotional tailspin. After she recovers and is on the brink of falling in love with Leo LJ Love, an up-and-coming rapper who has had a crush on her since high school, Maurice reenters her life, claiming to be a changed man. Will she take him back?

After serving ten years for armed robbery, Jonathan “JC” Cole is about to get out of the joint, and he has one thing on his mind: revenge against the three men—former childhood friends, now powerful crime lords—who betrayed him to save their own skins. Richard “Richkid” Kidman is a Playa with a capital P, at one time controlling a stable of twelve women. Alonzo “Zo” Johnson is one of the richest drug dealers in the Windy City. And Eugene “Lil G” Pierce ranks among the most successful con men on the East Coast.

JC feels that the time has come for him to claim what is rightfully his. His misfortune was his ex-friends’ stepping-stone, and now it is time for them to pay up—in spades. He doesn’t want to kill them, he just wants to take everything away.

He does this with the help of his woman, Champagne; his best friend, Rat; and Rat’s girlfriend, Shaunna. They form a family of sorts, with JC as the leader and Champagne as the fierce mother hen, together embarking on an exciting journey into the underworld of Chicago.

Riding the waves of her national bestseller, Black Coffee, Tracy Price-Thompson keeps the rhythm rolling with this page-turning tale of sexuality and self-identity that puts a startling spin on the bonds of friendship and the devastating consequences of keeping secrets, telling lies, and betraying those you love.

Juanita Lucas is a young woman living in a housing project in Brooklyn. Although she has a very light complexion, she is proud of her blackness, even as she takes a beating from the very sistahs she tries so hard to emulate. Her only friend, Scooter Morrison, is an upwardly mobile brother who also happens to be young, gifted, and … gay. While Juanita spends her time finding ways to fit in with the girls in the ’hood, Scooter’s frustration over his sexuality makes him an easy target, and in his tough inner-city neighborhood he finds himself catching hell coming and going.

A chance encounter with two fine Puerto Rican men changes Juanita’s and Scooter’s lives in ways they could never have imagined. There is Conan, a hardworking man who wrestles with both his love for Juanita and his guilt over his brother’s death, and Jorge, an unscrupulous bad-boy thug who has no problem using what he’s got to get what he wants, until he comes dangerously close to getting scorched by his own flames.

Fast-paced, suspenseful, and unpredictable, Chocolate Sangria explores the hearts of two lovers who get caught in a great cultural divide, and the trials they face when black love and Hispanic love spill across racial boundaries.

Mitchell Stone has had it! No more Mr. Nice Guy. Sick and tired of dates that end with a pat on the back, he’s decided it’s time to even his odds with the ladies and become the type of man they really seem to want: a mysterious, mischievous, deceitful Dog! With the help of his “Player” instructors, Tony and Trey, he’s dipping his toe into a stream of booty calls, baby-mamas, and sexual spin, winning over every woman who crosses his path!

Nikki Coleman has had it, too! The men in her life have been good for one thing: disappointment. There’s her high school sweetheart, Barry, a successful attorney who got someone else pregnant and derailed Nikki’s early hopes of marriage. Then there’s Jomo, a guitarist who’s great in bed—except Nikki’s not the only one he’s great in bed with. There’s Mitchell Stone, an old friend and fellow executive at her record company, who’s handsome but just a little too nice. Last but not least, there’s her father, Gene Coleman, who took a few years to acknowledge that, yeah, she’s his. Now that a case of sexual harassment has Nikki on the verge of losing her job and with it her entire career in the music industry, the lack of a strong man in her life is even more painful. She can survive on her own, but in her heart she wants a Mr. Right to stand by her side and help her ride out the storm.

Meanwhile, Mitchell is well on his way to becoming a real Player. With his handbook of “Dog rules” and a new, swaggering style, he’s attracting women left and right. He’s even got Nikki reconsidering their just-friends status. But has this Dog bitten off more than he can chew? And will Mitchell’s newfound womanizing ways come back to bite him before he and Nikki find true love?

New from the author of the national bestseller Shades of Jade: a story about the tragic loss of a son, the struggle to keep a family together, and the hunt for a murderer who didn’t leave any clues behind

After a bitter divorce, Troy Kirkwood and his five-year-old daughter, Meika, move in with his parents, Nola and Ron. Troy is a devoted father and son. During an outing with his daughter he is called away—and never returns. Nola and Ron know that something must be terribly wrong, and Meika can’t stop asking where her daddy is. Four days later the police discover Troy’s body, with two bullet holes in it.

As soon as Vann, Troy’s older brother, hears the news, he promises to find Troy’s killer and bring him to justice. There’s just one problem—the police have no leads and Troy had almost no enemies. To make matters worse, Troy’s crack-addicted ex-wife has recently resurfaced and is demanding custody of their daughter.

The Kirkwoods are not about to give up Troy’s only child. But as they struggle through family court and Troy’s murder investigation, it takes their combined emotional strength to keep the family intact. And they slowly begin to realize that even if Troy’s murder is solved, the pain of losing a child never really goes away.

New from the author of the national bestseller The Hearts of Men: a novel about one man’s quest to end his cheating ways.Women have flocked to Genesis Styles ever since he was a teenager. He’s a good-looking, smooth-talking former pro-basketball player, but he has a problem: He has never been satisfied with just one woman. Then he meets Terri and everything changes. Sort of.Genesis knows that Terri is perfect for him, and he asks her to marry him. But Genesis just can’t seem to stop cheating on Terri nearly every chance he gets. Genesis’s best friend, Prodigy, constantly warns him that he’s going to mess up the best thing ever to happen to him, but Genesis is not ready to listen.After dealing with a family crisis, Genesis realizes the importance of his relationship with Terri, and he begins to change his cheating ways. He knows that once he says “I do,” everything will fall into place. But it may be too late, because one of his past indiscretions comes back to haunt him, and now Terri may have a few surprises of her own… .

From the author of the national bestseller The Shirt off His Back comes a novel about love, family, and honoring loved ones

Death brings about strange emotions, and people’s true colors start to show. Glynda Naylor discovers this when she gets the call that her father has died suddenly and she must fly from Los Angeles to Baltimore to bury him. Her beloved daddy, Edward Naylor, raised his four young daughters after their mother’s death, and was the perfect father, brother, fiancé, and friend to those who loved him. As friends and family gather to pay tribute to this pillar of the community, Glynda and her sisters begin to search for answers about who the real Edward Naylor was. Their father was a good man, without question, but he also took a secret to his grave. What happens when his secret shows up for the funeral?

A suspenseful coming-of-age story that moves from the halls of a historically black university to the streets of Washington, D.C., with great insight into the joys and perils of discovering what really matters in life

As the Ellis Community Center, a rare bright spot in a low-income Washington, D.C., neighborhood, struggles to keep its doors open, its last hope for survival lies with four Highland University housemates:


Terence Bootstrapper Davidson. Clawing his way out of poverty, he refuses to give in to the streets—while struggling to save Biggie, his defiant little brother, from that very fate.

Larry Smooth Operator Whitaker. Driven and ambitious, he has everything: the Lexus, the superfly girlfriend, and a future edged in gold.

Brandon Choirboy Bailey. A bright premed major who has been dateless for four years, he struggles to maintain his religious faith despite his longing for Monica, a classmate he’s loved from afar.

O. J. Sinister Minister Peters. Unsuccessfully juggling his budding career as a Baptist preacher with a string of empty affairs, he sees his carefully constructed double life threatened when a member of his congregation becomes pregnant.

Their mission to save Ellis Center quickly puts them in harm’s way when Nico Lane, a sophisticated local drug dealer who wants the center shut down, becomes aware of their efforts. When Larry’s campaign for student body president is sabotaged, O.J.’s women suddenly catch on to his act, and Terence is forced to choose between the center and Biggie’s life, the men suspect there is more to the center’s problems than just bad finances.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for developing me into a
beautiful and talented woman.
Thank you for being my protector
and my guide.
And as I make my way along my journey,
bless me with the wisdom to make
intelligent choices.

So begins Sorority Sisters by Tajuana "TJ" Butler, a dazzling new voice in African-American fiction. In this wonderful debut novel, five young women from diverse backgrounds pledge an African-American sorority and learn the true meaning of sisterhood.

CAJEN is a naive freshman whose brief affair with Jason, the campus Romeo, has life-changing repercussions. With hardly a chance to cope with her new circumstances, she finds herself dealing with the stress of pledging while battling feelings of depression and guilt.

TIARA grew up as the oldest of five children raised by a single mother in the projects of Gary, Indiana. Motivated by Rhonda, her mentor through the Big Sisters program, she has worked hard for everything she has achieved. Simply being in college is a victory for her.

CHANCEY is brilliant, with a photographic memory that has allowed her to breeze through school. In fact, she skipped her freshman year entirely and entered college as a sophomore. She has always been made to feel like an outsider because of her intelligence, and the sorority represents an opportunity for her finally to fit in.

STEPHANIE is the spoiled only child of a prominent, wealthy family from Savannah. She is used to getting the best and expects no less. But Stephanie is adopted and harbors a secret about her birth mother that she fears win cause others to think less of her.

MALENA is ambitious, talented, and smart. She knows what she wants and is steadfast when it comes to achieving her goals. Her strength and resolve ultimately benefit the group as a whole.

These five very different young women are thrust together and soon must learn to unite and draw upon one another’s talents. During the course of their pledge process, they struggle to discover and define their futures, finding strength in the group and within themselves.

In Sorority Sisters, Butler writes with sensitivity and authenticity about issues revolving around class, friendship, self-discovery, sexuality, and love. She has created characters who remain with you long after the last page has been turned. A gifted young storyteller, Tajuana "TJ" Butler has a voice we’ll be hearing from for a long time.


From the Hardcover edition.

The lawyer turned on the tape recorder, handed his client a cigarette, and lit it for him. Black drew hard, squinting as the smoke rushed into his lungs.
"Where do you want to start?"the lawyer said, lighting a cigarette of his own.
"I guess there’s only one place to start; at Broad and Erie."

Johnny Podres, a politician whose record against corruption had been propelling him straight to the mayor’s office, is found murdered in a North Philly crack house.

Enter Samuel Jackson, a.k.a. Black, a drug addict who knows better, a man embittered by the fact that he can’t seem to escape from his addiction to crack cocaine or, for that matter, from himself. Though he was once a family man with a wife and son, Black’s only concern these days is getting his next high, that is, until he stumbles across a friend and fellow addict, Leroy, and both become prime suspects in the Podres murder. Black and Leroy hook up with two female pipers: Clarisse, a registered nurse who is slowly losing to crack any semblance of a respectable life, and Pookie, who already has lost it. Soon the hunt is on for all four as they try to stay one step ahead of a police department under tremendous pressure to solve the case—because if a killer isn’t found soon, this could blow up into one of the biggest scandals in Philadelphia history.

Solomon Jones weaves a suspenseful story against the backdrop of corruption in the Philadelphia police department and centers it on a group of drug addicts who, in the process of fleeing the law, come to terms with their own addiction, leading to some devastating consequences.

Terrance. Louis. Wayne. Eric. Marissa had been warned: One of these days you’re gonna mess with the wrong woman’s husband. But she doesn’t care. Aside from an occasional bout of guilt, she feels no shame, because after all, if their wives were doing what they were supposed to, then their husbands would not be seeking her company.

Marissa dates married men - four of them concurrently because it’s easier. She gets all of the trappings of a relationship - love, wining and dining, physical pleasure - without any of the pain - cooking, laundry, and the day-to-day maintenance of a relationship.

But when it appears that one of the wives of the men she is dating is out to get her - wants her dead, in fact - Marissa begins to reexamine the choices she’s made. Her selfishness gives way to vulnerability and fear, and she comes to the conclusion that she deserves a man all her own. But will she survive long enough to find Mr. Right?

Billy: dead. Felicia: missing.

None of the words made sense together, but the doom I’d expected announced itself. I felt iron in my mouth, like I’d gargled with pennies, a taste like blood, a bitter taste that always followed bad news.

The setting is Oakland, 1989; the crack epidemic is at its height and turf wars are brewing. Maceo Redfield, currently on hiatus from college, is walking a fine line between respectability and involvement in Oakland’s drug underworld. As he waits in the neighborhood barbershop, one of his closest childhood friends, Holly Ford, brings him the news of the murder of Billy Crane, the third member of their childhood trio and a successful drug dealer. Felicia, Billy’s girlfriend and Maceo’s true love, is on the run and suspected of setting up the hit. As he searches for Felicia and the answer to the mystery of Billy’s murder, Maceo is drawn deeper into a world in which dealers, players, and interlopers, obeying a code of honor all their own, engage in a deadly game to capture the heart of Oakland. When Maceo uncovers the truth about Billy, the story builds to a terrifying and painful climax.

It’s a Sunday morning, and while most people are thinking about getting the paper and breakfast, Gregory Alston has something other than eggs on his mind. Today he’s going to propose to Adrian Jenkins, his girlfriend of three years. But when he actually does, all hell breaks loose and he gets a lot more than he bargained for. His mother returns from France, where she’s been living as a jazz singer since leaving her family in Texas nearly twenty years ago. His Holy Roller sister, Shreese, complains that Adrian is too "worldly" for him, even though she herself is falling for the shady, charismatic pastor of her church. And his boys—who run the gamut from player to buffoon—react to the news of his engagement with grief and disbelief. And if that’s not enough, he’s got Adrian, who has more skeletons in her closet than a haunted house. What’s a brother to do?
    
When All Hell Breaks Loose is a debut novel about black twenty-somethings that is fast and funny. It’s also a peek into the minds of young black men. The author, Camika Spencer, won’t just have you laughing—she’ll have you looking in the mirror to see if she’s talking about you.

Vibrant, magical, musical, pulsing with the rhythms of Trinidad and Harlem, Kelvin Christopher James’s prose is as striking and bold as his subject matter. It speaks directly to the heart and the senses as it takes us to such exotic places as a lush but lethal garden of earthly delights or depicts a fledgling drug dealer’s grisly revenge. Jumping Ship and Other Stories takes place in Trinidad, the United States, and in between. Part One is set in the Caribbean and gives us lyrical and sensuous tales of growing up and living there: A valiant woman defends her family from a Rastaman who means to frighten them from their home; a pair of tourists invite trouble when they try to photograph an Obeah (witchcraft) rite; a feud between a one-handed butcher and a humpbacked shoemaker reaches its dramatic climax at the full moon. Part Two lets us experience the journey made by those in the Caribbean who would come to the United States. In the title story, two village men jump ship to confront the unimaginable neon, crowds, and noise of the big city. In "The Vagabond’s Genie," a wry fugitive perpetrates a wild ruse at a guardhouse on the border. Part Three consists of moving and sometimes violent and shocking stories set in Harlem: A young man in prison contemplates the death of his older brother in a holdup; the relationship between two young drug dealers goes awry with terrifying results; a homeless woman lashes out to defend her territory. The final story concerns a father taking his young Americanized son home to the Caribbean to meet his grandmother for the first time. Kelvin Christopher James’s Jumping Ship and Other Stories is about good and evil, rich and poor, macho and matriarchy, dislocation and the meaning of "home." It is the exciting beginning of what promises to be a major literary career.