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Jan 16, 2024 By Frank Valish

The Upcycled Self is the new memoir from Roots frontman Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought. The book’s subtitle is “A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are.” To that end, The Upcycled Self finds Trotter recounting his hardscrabble Philadelphia upbringing, ending around the time The Roots began.

Trotter’s youth was peppered with violence, trauma, and loss, and the pain and suffering he faced bleeds through his pages here. Trotter is upfront and honest throughout, pulling no punches in recounting all that he witnessed and lived through. Yet despite it all, Trotter always pushed forward, persevered, and “upcycled” himself toward his ultimate goal.

Certainly, Trotter has found renown as one of the best lyricists in rap, something that he has parlayed into a 30 plus-year career and a catalog that includes masterpiece after masterpiece. One gets the feeling from reading The Upcycled Self that fame and fortune was never Trotter’s ultimate goal. It was to overcome, to learn from his past, and to make himself into a better man, father, husband, and human. It is an inspirational story of how Trotter ultimately became who he is. (www.randomhousebooks.com) (www.tariqtrotterbook.com) (www.theroots.com)

Author rating: 8/10