Jeffrey Brown:

Under his stage name, Black Thought, Trotter would write and rap his way to world stages as co-founder of The Roots, a band known for its instrumentation, live performance, and grounding in jazz and other genres.

Now, in “The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are,” he takes us back to the experiences and contradictions of his early years, deep love from family, yet hardness, violence and loss all around, the house he accidentally burned down as a young child, friends and family destroyed amid the crack epidemic of the 1980s, most of all, his mother, lost to addiction and then murdered.

But this is also a story of resilience and triumph that came through art, most of all, the art of hip-hop.