Award-winning actor, rapper, and producer Ice-T unveils a compelling
memoir of his early life robbing jewelry stores until he found fame and
fortune--while a handful of bad choices sent his former crime partner
down an incredibly different path.
Ice-T rose to fame in the late 1980s, earning acclaim for his music
before going on to enthrall television audiences as Odafin "Fin" Tutuola
in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But it could have gone much
differently.
In this "poignant and powerful" (Library Journal, starred review)
memoir, Ice-T and Spike, his former crime partner--collaborating with
New York Times bestselling author Douglas Century--relate the shocking
stories of their shared pasts, and how just a handful of decisions led
to their incredibly different lives. Both grew up in violent,
gang-controlled Los Angeles neighborhoods and worked together to
orchestrate a series of jewelry heists.
But while Ice-T was discovered rapping in a club and got his first
record deal, Spike was caught for a jewelry robbery and did three years
in prison. As his music career began to take off, Ice made the decision
to abandon the criminal life; Spike continued to plan increasingly
ingenious and risky jewel heists. And in 1992, after one of Spike's
robberies ended tragically, he was sentenced to thirty-five years to
life. While he sat behind bars, he watched his former partner rise to
fame in music, movies, and television.
"Propulsive" (Publishers Weekly, starred review), timely, and
thoughtful, two men with two very different lives reveal how their paths
might have very well been reversed if they made different choices. All
it took was a split decision.
