Erik Gleiberman in The Washington Post:
Across three decades as philosophical frontman for the Roots, Tariq Trotter (a.k.a. Black Thought) has composed such an expansive catalogue of keen social commentary and gritty introspection that his verse constitutes a biography in itself. With his memoir, “Trotter forgoes the narrative many readers might expect, an inside account of a career leading to what I consider the most visionary and musically rich act in hip-hop history. Though he briefly explores the high school origins of his creative alchemy with co-frontman Ahmir Thompson (a.k.a. Questlove), Trotter does not discuss a single Roots song. Instead, he’s out to reconstruct his “communally built self,” honoring the many family members who strove to nurture a young man with artistic promise, while their own lives often fell prey to the destructive forces that besieged South Philadelphia in the 1980s and ’90s.
More here.