Rap and Redemption on Death Row

“A raw, contemplative account of a death-row inmate’s journey toward redemption through faith, family, and rap . . . . An unvarnished look at a life reclaimed deep within the edifice of mass incarceration.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Braxton’s story is one of perseverance and pushing against the constraints of a very limited environment, told in letters to a music professor in a compelling memoir cowritten with Katz. . . . Candid, expressive, and charismatic.”—Booklist

“The tenacity and meticulousness with which Braxton creates his music indicate the stakes he attached to it—namely, hip-hop as advocacy through self-expression. . . . Rap and Redemption on Death Row is an extension of Braxton’s hip-hop activism and a manifestation of his contention that imprisonment, even without hope for release, does not negate humanity or the search for purpose.”—Journal of African American History

“Unless the world be utterly remade, Michael J. 'Alim' Braxton and Dr. Mark Katz were not likely to have ever met. Yet you hold in your hands, despite the machinations of fate and their former slave state, the undeniable proof they did. This means, most of all, Rap and Redemption on Death Row testifies to will of mind, the power before which even molybdenum bars must bend.”— Harry Allen, hip-hop activist and media assassin

“Alim Braxton’s story is a harrowing one—far too common, yet rarely heard from the vantage of the person living it. This book lets readers hear the words directly, in his voice, and humanizes the men on death row with whom he is serving time. Braxton’s book draws us into his worlds and takes us through his transformations. Like The Autobiography of Malcolm X, it reads like a testament to a life of reinvention.”—A. D. Carson, University of Virginia