This memoir, written in Joe’s own intensely compelling voice, moves with the momentum of pulp fiction, but underneath the tragicomedy and riveting tales of the streets and the industry is a thought-provoking story about a generation of survivors raised in warlike conditions—the life-and-death choices they had to make, the friends they lost and mourned, the regrets that haunted them, and the enduring art and glittering lives they created from the ruins. Joe’s memoir explores his identity as a Latino growing up in a majority Black neighborhood, even holding himself accountable for his lifelong use of the n-word. It’s always interesting to see these larger than life performers as real humans that interact with their families, that have struggles and trials and tribulations, but who ultimately, hopefully succeed. From infancy his life is threatened by violence, and by the time he starts middle school, he is faced with the grim choice that defined a generation: to become predator or prey.

And even years later, when I came with “All the Way Up” in 2016, it still wasn't the phenomenon of “Lean Back. The system took my sister, the system stole my nephew’s money, the system has pirated multiple members of my family and my friends.And I said, "This album has to let this guy hear this and feel like he's on the street, like he's part of the story. But as fate would have it, after the VMAs, we didn’t see each other again in person for almost a decade.

It would be extremely dangerous for employees to be eating different food than inmates b/c inmates do not poison their own but they would have no problem contaminating food that was just for COs. Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. I’ve always liked Fatjo, but never knew his story so in depth, he is a real success story and hope that he continues on that path.Soon Joe and his crew dominate the streets, but he finds his true love among the park jams where the Bronx’s wild energy takes musical form.