Rap and Redemption on Death Row: Seeking Justice and Finding Purpose Behind Bars

Abstract

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- PART I -- Dear Mama, I Am a Murderer -- Five Letters -- Hip Hop Is My Life -- Abortion or Adoption -- Bigger Lover -- Being Biracial -- Hymn of H.I.M. (He Is Me) -- Jeannie -- Marriage in Paris -- Alhamdulillah! -- One Who Has Knowledge -- My Creative Process -- It Ain't Just Me -- My Raleigh -- Descent into Crime -- We Had Just Kidnapped a Man -- Why Didn't I Just Leave? -- Oh My God, What Have I Done? -- Meaner, Angrier, Deadlier -- Orientation at Caledonia -- Convict Carnival -- Two Codes -- Owning the Canteen -- The Bible Don't Say Nothing about Pork -- Slave Labor -- Ready 4 War -- I Need a New Shank -- Toxic Masculinity -- I Had to Put Steel in Him -- Mercy on My Soul -- PART II -- Welcome to Death Row -- Death Row Is No Life of Luxury -- Years in Segregation -- Islam and Black Nationalism -- Allahu Akbar! -- Living among the Innocent -- Unbreakable -- My First Recordings -- All about the Money -- Total Loss of Privacy -- Original Gangster -- A Gangster Trying to Be Muslim -- Finding a Producer -- He Doesn't Deserve to Be Here -- One Life -- Dreamville and the Nightmare -- What's the Point in Trying to Do Good? -- Hoops and Obstacles -- Why Rappers Should Listen to Country Music -- My Baby Sister Keisha -- Almost Like She Was in Paradise -- Waking Up in a Different Country -- White Cop -- Welcome Back to Unit One -- Due Process? -- Celebrating in the Hole -- Checking In at Central Prison -- Thirty-Seven Days in the Hole (Excerpt) -- The Alim Team -- Anger Is a Privilege That I Don't Have -- The Zoom Solution -- A Major Milestone -- Jay-Z -- The Best Human Being I've Ever Met -- It Was a Good Day.

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Rap and redemption on death row: seeking justice and finding purpose behind bars

Braxton, Alim; Katz, Mark

Braxton, Alim; Katz, Mark

Abstract

"Imprisoned since age nineteen, Alim Braxton has spent more than a quarter century on North Carolina's death row. During that time, he converted to Islam and dedicated his life to redemption. Braxton, a rapper since the age of thirteen, uses his rhymes as a form of therapy and to advocate for prison reform, particularly by calling attention to the plight of the wrongfully incarcerated. This book, a hip-hop-rich prison memoir, chronicles Braxton's struggles and triumphs as he attempts to record an album while on death row, something no one has done before. Braxton's world is complex: full of reflections on guilt, condemnation, incarceration, religious awakening, and the redemptive power of art. Ultimately, Braxton shows us that even amid the brutality of our prison system there are moments of joy, and on death row joy may be the most powerful form of resistance"--

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