The Upcycled Self_ A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are (Hardcover) - By Tariq Black Thought Trotter - Music and Pop Culture  Biography and Memoir Books  in VERGE Lifestyle Publications Online Bookstore

The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are - By Tariq Black Thought Trotter

$ 26.99
Book cover typeHardcover

The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are

By Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter 

Publisher: Random House Group | One World (2023)

ISBN-13: 9780593446928

Pages: 208

Genre(s): Biography & Memoir, Personal Development, Health & Wellness, Music, Pop Culture

About the Book

From one of our generation’s most powerful artists and incisive storytellers comes a brilliantly crafted work about the art –and war – of becoming who we are.

upcycle verb
up·cy·cle ˈəp-ˌsī-kəl
: to recycle (something) in such a way that the resulting product is of a higher value than the original item 
: to create an object of greater value from (a discarded object of lesser value)

Today Tariq Trotter—better known as Black Thought—is the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots, and one of the most exhilaratingly skillful and profound rappers the culture has ever produced. But his story begins with a tragedy: as a child, Trotter burned down his family’s home. The years that followed are the story of a life snatched from the flames, forged in fire.

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. 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.

But beyond offering the compellingly poetic account of one artist’s creative and emotional origins, Trotter explores the vital questions we all have to confront about our formative years: How can we see the story of our young lives clearly? How do we use that story to understand who we’ve become? How do we forgive the people who loved and hurt us? How do we rediscover and honor our first dreams? And finally, what do we take forward, what do we pass on, what do we leave behind? This is the beautifully bluesy story of a boy genius’s coming of age that illuminates the redemptive power of the upcycle.

5.70 "(W) x 8.50 "(H) x 0.85 "(D)
12 Oz

Tariq Trotter

Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought, is one of the most powerful voices in hip-hop. Winner of three GRAMMY® Awards and three NAACP Image Awards, he has delivered eleven albums with The Roots and leads the house band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

His albums outside of The Roots include the three volumes of Streams of Thought, Cheat Codes (with Danger Mouse), and Glorious Game (with El Michels Affair).

He co-wrote, co-composed, and starred in the Off-Broadway play Black No More and boasts acting credits in The Deuce and Tick, Tick . . . Boom!, among others.

With Questlove, Trotter launched the production company Two One Five Entertainment, home to Hip-Hop: The Songs That Shook America, Descendant, and others.


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The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are - By Tariq Black Thought Trotter

$ 26.99

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