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Marq Wise is a talented, ambitious young writer with a good life, a gorgeous girlfriend—and the inescapable feeling that something is missing. When he’s offered a job at Fever, his favorite hip-hop magazine, Marq finally realizes just what that is. Now he can uncover the real, gritty stories—unless his older brother Dontay, a one-hit-wonder producer turned crack smoker, ruins everything first. As Marq immerses himself in his beloved hip-hop, his world slowly collides with Dontay’s, and both begin to unravel. And the more Marq discovers about the gangsters and criminals who really run the rap game, the deeper and deadlier the danger.

Black Will Shoot is an inside look at the most impactful and influential American cultural movement of the last 30 years, written by someone who walked through the fire. Many other books have glorified, celebrated or critiqued hip-hop culture. But Washington, drawing on his personal experience working for several hip-hop magazines, is the first to take a hard look at the human consequences of this empowering yet violent, predatory, sexually charged culture. Washington’s inside connections and sophisticated yet street-smart prose makes this remarkable debut the first literary novel to truly capture the flavor, influence and significance of the soundtrack to a generation.