{"product_id":"root-for-the-villain-rap-bullhit-and-a-celebration-of-failure-9780615532271","title":"Root For The Villain: Rap, Bull$hit, and a Celebration of Failure","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRoot For The Villain: Rap, Bull$hit, and a Celebration of Failure\u003c\/strong\u003e by Zone, J. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780615532271.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYawn. Another book from another musician. Lets guess: He rose from the depths of hell with his talent and went big time. He changed the face of music and made millions. Yeah, a few drug addiction, arrest, and STD stories are sporadically sprinkled throughout for excitement and authenticity, but at the end of it all, he finished his ride a musical legend. He finally gave up dressing room groupies and nose candy; he currently resides with his wife and the children that arent illegitimate in Calabasas, CA.[Insert snoring] Who the hell can really relate to that besides other prestigious, millionaire musicians?My name is J-Zone. If you actually know who the hell I am, either you listen to way too much rap music, youre a Tim Dog fan, or you stood outside my distributors warehouse the day my CDs and records were destroyed. I was on the hip-hop come-up, then I came down - hard. Splat. Some critical success, incessant praise from pop stars and hip-hop legends alike, and then...abysmal commercial failure. I did tours on Greyhound buses filled with wide-bodied, Jheri curled women and knife-wielding gang members. I witnessed my life-long passion for music dissolve in 12 hours and my final album sell a whopping 47 copies in its first month for sale. I left my little-known spot in a small, niche quadrant of the hip-hop world and joined my fellow overqualified stiffs with useless college degrees in the world of dead end jobs. For some sick reason, I find all of the above hilarious and have made an omelette out of any egg that wound up on my face.I pin my cross-hairs on everyday bullsh*t just as accurately as I do the dysfunctional ways of the music biz. I ask the public at large questions like “Are men the new women?” and “Is going out on Friday night worth it when youre a socially homeless man in a deceptively segregated New York City?” Chapters dedicated to cassette tapes, defunct record stores, the SP-1200 sampling drum machine, hip-hop recording studios of the 1990s, and overlooked rap artists like The Afros, Mob Style, and No Face all point to my fascination with the obscure. The annoyances of a cell phone-driven society, dating in America, and Facebook are also explored. A collection of memoirs and think pieces written by a curmudgeonly commercial failure who is somehow laughing hysterically at both himself and the stupidity of the world large probably wont become a New York Times best-seller, either. Be honest though, you need something to place drinks on when you have company; at worst, my book is a perfect cocktail coaster.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Not Avail","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45113094373429,"sku":"ByrdShop_0615532276","price":229.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780615532271_341cbc7d-ce97-40f5-8bfd-b046db43ae1e.jpg?v=1781395859","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/root-for-the-villain-rap-bullhit-and-a-celebration-of-failure-9780615532271","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}