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Have Gun Will Travel |  | Author: Ronin Ro
Publisher: Main Street Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Seller: mckenziebooks
Rating:  37 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0385491352
Dewey Decimal Number: 781
EAN: 9780385491358
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Amazon.com Review
No one more epitomized the world of gangsta rap than Suge Knight, the often brutal CEO of Death Row Records. Author Ronin Ro shows courage in detailing the frightening means used by Knight to corner the market on the most hard-core of urban music. It's a tale that reads like it was written by the bastard offspring of Horatio Alger and Quentin Tarantino. Knight's forceful style and legal entanglements have been the stuff of legend for years. Most music reporters, coming face to face with the thugs who enforced the rules at Death Row, have been afraid to tell the story. With Knight safely behind bars and Death Row in disrepair, Ronin Ro finally has the chance to put this violent soap opera in print.
Product Description
Death Row Records is one of the most successful music labels of all time. From its inception in 1992, it exploded on the rap music scene with sales climbing to the $125 million mark in just four years. Even more noticeable than the label's financial success is the effect it had on American youth culture, making gangsta rap more popular with suburban white youth and MTV viewers than traditional rock groups. But under the guidance of six-foot-four-inch, 300-pound CEO Marion "Suge" Knight, Death Row also became the most controversial record label in history--a place where violence, gang feuds, threats, intimidation, and brushes with death were business as usual.
Have Gun Will Travel details the spectacular rise and violent fall of a music label that had at its heart a ferocious criminal enterprise cloaked behind corporate facades that gave it a guise of legitimacy. With inside access no other writer can claim, Ronin Ro, the country's preeminent rap journalist, exposes the facts everyone else is afraid to divulge--from the initial bankrolling of Death Row by a leader of L.A.'s notorious Bloods gang, to links with New York's Genovese crime family. Have Gun Will Travel lays bare the full story behind this influential label, including the still-unsolved murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., as well as Suge Knight's rise to power, his fight with East Coast rap titans such as Sean "Puffy" Combs, and his eventual imprisonment.
Although it has been all over the news--from The Wall Street Journal to Rolling Stone--this is a timeless story about an empire built on greed, corruption, murder, and exploitation. With exclusive interviews and bloodcurdling eyewitness accounts, Have Gun Will Travel combines the behind-the-scenes fascination of books like Hit Men and Hit and Run with the violence and dramatic sweep of The Godfather, in a brilliant and blistering document of contemporary culture.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
 Violently Entertaining and Informative July 27, 2006
Shamontiel L. Vaughn (Chicago)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Before I start this review, I'd like to defend Ronin Ro for his writing. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the way this book was written: the author carefully weaved in each character who was essential in the Death Row scandal. I saw no editorial mistakes and it was organized sufficiently. If a reader does not like the experiences in the book, that's one thing; but to insult the writer is ridiculous, especially since this was such an interesting and well-researched book.
On to the book:
I'm not quite sure how the topic of Suge Knight came up between a friend and I, but we were both shaking our heads about the man being shot in the leg. With all the rumored hits out on him, we were thinking "How could the shooter have such bad aim?" She told me about this book and I am so glad she did. I knew Suge Knight was an alleged dangerous man, and from an interview I saw of him challenging a journalist on a Tupac documentary, it was pretty obvious that he liked to intimidate people. But I was not expecting it to be this dramatic.
Death Row had everything from gun fights, gangs, rape, holding people out of balconies, locked doors to hear desperate screams, drugs, disgruntled rappers, terrified employees, scared delivery people, Crips, Bloods, women being beaten, boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, boyfriend/boyfriend relationships, East Coast artists being forced into West Coast artists, "thugs" turning into grown men, grown men trying to figure out how to connect to the streets but be peaceful, business conflict, etc. Anything that could possibly go wrong in a business happened at Death Row. I didn't grow up in the safest neighborhood, so about half of this didn't even make me flinch, but when the story got into beating up women; jailhouse rapes; balcony scenes, etc., I was like "Okay, enough is enough."
Although it is commendable that Suge Knight gave back to his community with food and money to the homeless/lower income, it does not justify all of the things he DID do. Honestly, I'm extremely surprised he's alive today, and definitely understand why he rolled with such a thick crew. Had he not, he'd have been dead long ago.
While I was reading this book, I couldn't stop giggling thinking about the "Gangstalicious" episode of the "Boondocks." So much of what I thought was a mocking of 50 Cent seemed more like it related to Tupac, and the guy chasing Gangstalicous reminded me of Suge. Although there were definitely humorous scenes throughout the story (from my own morbid mind) and it was definitely an entertaining read, it was extremely disturbing to see so many grown men acting like teenagers. When is it time to decide to stand on your own two, fight your own battles ALONE, stop killing your own race, and bullying people every time you don't get your way? It's one thing to want to be a grown man; it's another to be a grown bully. I ponder over whether many of these people actually enjoy the lifestyle; or is it just a matter of survival in the ghettoes? I know so many young men who were BEATEN into gangs, and then forced to participate to show their loyalty. But how can you show loyalty to a group that you NEVER wanted to be a part of? Why would someone be so happy to get out of jail, if they were just going to return to the jail lifestyle regardless of the bars?
If anything, this book definitely relates to the streets and brings up excellent questions. It also brings more information to cases that were only browsed over (i.e. how Tupac became a part of Death Row, the REAL relationship between Tupac and Dr. Dre, the murder trial for Snoop Doggy Dogg, Puffy's relationship with Suge Knight, Biggie's murder, Biggie's relationship with Tupac, the incidents of Tupac's being shot, robbed, and killed, etc.) Ro touches on SO many topics that the news glossed over or magazines didn't pay enough attention to.
I was very impressed with this book and think he did a great job for research--and is one brave guy for putting all this information out there. Be safe, Ro!
Real, a must for any rap fan July 13, 1999
PJ@hotmail.com (London, England.)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I first heard about this book last year it was much hyped and anticipated. Then when I got the book last christmas I knew why. Once I had started reading I could not put it down. It goes into much detail about Suge Knight and his role at the label, how he ran it and how he always got what he wanted. Also it tells you about the gang lifestyle Suge and his artists, including Tupac Shakur, seemed to be living daily. A brilliant account of a bad lifestyle.
Ronin Ro rocks the house! January 8, 1999
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have been a fan of Ro's since his days at The Source, when he was the first writer in America to speak with Dre about Death Row, right before Dre formed it. Then he tackled the Death Row issue in his book Gangsta. But nothing he's written compares to this book. It's good to see Ro complete the Death Row story: he goes where no other music writer has gone before, and offers us facts about Death Row no one else in the media could get. Those who speak out against this book must be gangsta rap fans, or upset with Ro's accurate depiction of the life of Tupac Shakur. For anyone interested in the real story, and in reading for the first time anywhere, the secret history of Death Row (when it was called Future Shock Records), this is the book to read. Ro's book Have Gun Will Travel is one you'll never forget. I can't wait to see the movie!
Finally! An unbiased look at the Death Row Empire April 1, 1999
I expected Have Gun Will Travel to be another book which denounces Death Row and Marion "Suge" Knight.I was surprised. Author Ronin Ro made this book an objective look at the label, its roster and its CEO. Author Ro also took me behind the scenes, and showed how, were it not for Suge Knight, Death Row would never have been as successful as it became. According to Ro, Suge Knight was a highly-intelligent, handsome, kind and generous person. Ro also notes that Knight was single-handedly responsible for getting the mainstream media, and Middle America, to accept hard-edged rap music. In this book, Knight is presented as a businessman who is as driven as Trump. Ro also details Suge's remarkable life and career with respect, honesty and admiration. Suge Knight, the book repeatedly points out, is not the villain the mainstream media makes him out to be. To Ro, Suge Knight is a decent man with a dream who was led down the wrong path by advisors, some of his artists and producers and others. Knight, this book points out, was only trying to help people out. In the end, the people he tried to help led to Knight's downfall and imprisonment. For his objectivity, Ro is to be commended.
Extremely Good Read!!! April 1, 1999
I think if you know Rap history then this book will lift the lid on what you thought you knew. The author does repeat sections and the chronigraphical order of events is confusing, other than that its worth getting. Cant wait for the Film!.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
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