Book excerpt: This collection of essays is a confessional, stylistic account (in the Joan Didion tradition) of coming of age in the Bronx alongside the birth and evolution of hip-hop culture. This collection presents a mosaic of seminal figures in hip-hop, documentary essays exploring the social decay of hip-hop, and a substantial element of memoir, as well as observations on the generational issues of urban America. With a foreword by acclaimed poet Saul Williams, Scars exposes the motivations and aspirations of a culture whose spiritual centre was the Bronx.