An impressive and reflective treat for diehard fans of Da Brat and Judy.
A queer rapper and her equally successful wife dispense their secrets to achieving love and happiness.
Female rap artist Da Brat and her wife, Harris-Dupart, aka “DaRealBBJudy,” a multimillionaire beauty entrepreneur, dispense wisdom about relationship navigation and life in general in this dual-authored advice-memoir hybrid. The couple met after the rapper began doing promotional videos for Harris-Dupart’s hair-product company, then fell in love, and were married in Georgia in 2022. While they admit their mutual attraction was an “organic experience,” it was the learning process after the honeymoon phase that created the foundation for their lasting relationship. For two strong-willed, outspoken, high-profile Black women, there were roadblocks and challenges they didn’t foresee, and the authors don’t mince words as they escort readers through their shared lives and how their shared “golden rules” developed as guideposts. For Da Brat, who grew up in a religious household, her queer feelings unmoored her sturdy lifestyle and changed the ways she looked at love and attraction. Once the couple decided to announce their relationship in public, both were free to focus on each other and to work toward making their bond stronger, despite public scrutiny. The book stresses the importance of establishing boundaries, responsibility, accountability, faith, honesty and communication, which, they admit, was initially difficult as both women had different styles of personal expression (and text response times). Da Brat admits that while sexual chemistry is important, “it isn’t everything,” and definitely not the only engine that runs a partnership. Filled with takeaways and wise, self-reflective pearls, the book succeeds in allowing both women to be frank and transparent in sharing their perspective on how the relationship emerged, grew, and continues to evolve, including the birth of a son in 2023. Despite how clichéd these pages of motivational, uplifting, timeworn, and, at times, cautionary aphorisms and platitudes might read to some, it’s advice that continues to be imperative to the success of the authors’ relationship with each other. Sensitive readers be warned: This is a rapper’s book, and the expletives fly as freely as the advice.
An impressive and reflective treat for diehard fans of Da Brat and Judy.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780063349643
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
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. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. 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. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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