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The Upcycled Self

A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are

Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
3 of 3 copies available
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “One of hip-hop’s greatest MCs, unpacking his harrowing, remarkable journey in his own words, with enough insights for two lifetimes.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning songwriter, producer, director, and creator of In the Heights and Hamilton
 
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.


A ROLLING STONE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

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 our culture has ever produced. But his story begins with a tragedy: as a child, Trotter burned down his family’s home. The years that follow are the story of a life snatched from the flames, forged in fire.
In The Upcycled Self, Trotter doesn’t only narrate a riveting and moving portrait of the artist as a young man, he gives readers a courageous model of what it means to live an examined life. In vivid vignettes, he tells the dramatic stories of the four powerful relationships that shaped him—with community, friends, art, and family—each a complex weave of love, discovery, trauma, and loss.
And 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 own 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.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from October 16, 2023
      Grammy winner Trotter, better known as Black Thought from The Roots, debuts with a striking portrait of perseverance and creativity. At six years old, the author accidentally burned down his family’s Philadelphia house, a tragedy that shaped his childhood and indoctrinated him in the meaning of loss: “You sometimes hear stories about people who have ‘lost it all’ and rebuilt their lives, but what I learned at a young age is that sometimes shit is just lost forever.” Further heartache followed, including his older brother Keith’s periodic arrests and, in the author’s teens, his mother Cassandra’s murder after she became addicted to crack cocaine, leaving him convinced that despite his efforts to protect his family, it was “only me.” But he also found salvation in the arts, from taking visual arts classes when he was nine to etching graffiti onto buses and benches, to dreaming up raps in high school, where he met future Roots bandmate Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and found that music “allowed me to transmute my pent-up emotional energy into another essence.” As he charts the Roots’ rise in Philadelphia and beyond, Trotter powerfully gives due to the process of self-reinvention that has defined his life: “What if we... undid the stitches of ourselves that no longer served us, forgave them, and wove new legacies of old scraps?” Candid, visceral, and written with the hard-won wisdom of hindsight, this leaves a mark.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from March 1, 2024

      Hip-hop artist Trotter (better known as Black Thought), cofounder and lead MC of the Roots, pens a fiery and soulful debut memoir. Trotter reads the main text, with shorter sections performed by Allyson Johnson as his mother and Rhett Samuel Price as his deep-voiced uncle. Trotter first describes a pivotal event in his life when, at six years old, he accidentally burned down his childhood home. Reflecting on that moment, he notes that the incident taught him to understand the true meaning of loss. From there, he recounts the struggles and victories that came with growing up in Philadelphia in the '70s and '80s. His life was often unstable as he moved from selling crack to becoming a graffiti artist, then gravitated toward rap and hip-hop. Through it all, art became a savior and a lifeline. Throughout this memoir, Trotter dwells upon the four groups of relationships that shaped his life: community, friends, art, and family. He explores these relationships by sharing childhood memories, some humorous and many heartbreaking and emotional. Trotter's memoir is poetic and deftly written and is made even more powerful by his passionate, heartfelt performance of the audio. VERDICT A portrait of an artist's evolution that should resonate with hip-hop lovers and Roots fans alike. It's short and will leave listeners wanting more.--Erin Cataldi

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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