Black Thought of the Roots will tell the story of his tragic childhood and his rise to one of hip-hop’s most celebrated MCs in a new memoir, Variety reports.
Penguin Random House imprint One World will publish The Upcycled Self this fall. The press describes the book as “a brilliantly crafted work about the art—and war—of becoming who we are.”
Black Thought was born Tariq Trotter in Philadelphia, and his childhood was marked by loss. Both of his parents were murdered, and he accidentally burned his family home to the ground when he was 6.
In 1987, he formed the Roots with his friend Questlove. The band rose to national prominence in 1999 with the album Things Fall Apart, named after the Chinua Achebe novel, and became the house band on Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night and The Tonight Show.
“In The Upcycled Self, Trotter doesn’t just narrate a riveting and moving portrait of the artist as a young man, but gives readers a courageous model of what it means to live an examined life,” One World says of the book. “In vivid vignettes, he tells the dramatic stories of the four powerful relationships that shaped him—community, friends, art, and family—each a complex weave of love, discovery, trauma, and loss.”
Black Thought announced news of the book on Instagram, writing, “I hope in sharing so much about my upbringing we can find new courage to start the difficult conversations that prompt healing, with ourselves and others. As men. As Black men. As humans.”
The Upcycled Self is scheduled for publication on Nov. 14.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
