Magic City: Trials of a Native Son

Summary

"A vivid story about Miami's countercultural history" Jon Caramanica - NEW YORK TIMES

The self-proclaimed "Mayor of Miami" Trick Daddy exploded onto America's pop culture landscape as one of the pioneers of Dirty South rap. His 2001 album, Thugs Are Us, established him, as one critic wrote, "alongside Ludacris and Mystikal as one of the few nationally championed Dirty South rappers, and catapulted him onto the playlist of every urban radio station in America, not to mention MTV." Widely credited with infusing hip hop with new life, he has been one of the most prolific southern talents since his introduction on Uncle Luke's timeless 1996 dance floor staple, "Scarred".

Magic City: Trials of a Native Son, chronicles Trick Daddy’s story against the backdrop of Miami, the Magic City. Beginning in the McDuffie riots as the city burned with racial tension; it is an extraordinary story, of a childhood marked by poverty, a crime-laden adolescence, an incarceration, a meteoric rise to fame, and a struggle with a potentially fatal medical condition. It's the story of a boy whose father was a pimp; who, left to his own devices, learned to hustle to survive and whose only role model was his brother, the drug dealer he watched playing his trade on the block. But while his story is remarkable, the most astonishing part is that he is not only still alive, but that he got out.

Magic City: Trials of a Native Son is the story of how that potent mixture of extremes, the dazzling beauty and glittering wealth of the Magic City, and the crime, the corruption and the despair playing out in its shadows gave rise to what has now become the most dominant sound in hip hop, in the process revitalizing a stagnant art form. MAGIC CITY, told in Peter Bailey's artful prose, is an ode to the city of Miami, a riveting tale of a paradise lost.