Only God Can Judge Me - by Jeff Pearlman (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Scrutinized in life, mythologized in death, Tupac Shakur remains a subject of ... cultural significance and speculation nearly thirty years after his murder. Despite a multitude of books, documentaries, and even a feature film, much about Tupac's story remains shrouded and misunderstood. Like many icons who died tragically young, Tupac the man has long been obscured--his edges sanded down, his complexity numbed--by the competing agendas that surround his legacy. In [this book], ... Jeff Pearlman tackles his most nuanced subject, telling the definitive story of Tupac Shakur in unprecedented depth. In this ... look at Tupac's life, Pearlman ... recreates West Coast hip hop in all its glory, going inside Death Row Records and on the sets of movies like Juice and Poetic Justice to offer the most clear-eyed rendering to date of the man who still casts a shadow over modern hip hop"--

Book Synopsis

"Jeff Pearlman breaks down Tupac's life like a veteran sportswriter examining a dynasty. This detailed look at his life is the work of a writer who understands the ego of greatness."--Chuck D

"Pearlman delivers rich, engrossing, and fascinating new details about Shakur's life and legacy--not just once or twice--but throughout each lively page...This is the type of needed journalism, reporting, and biography that finally and deservedly provides the definitive historic account on Shakur."--Jonathan Abrams, author of The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop

Scrutinized in life, mythologized in death, Tupac Shakur remains a subject of immense cultural significance and speculation nearly thirty years after his murder. Despite a multitude of books, documentaries, and even a feature film, much about Tupac's story remains shrouded and misunderstood. Like many icons who died tragically young, Tupac the man has long been obscured--his edges sanded down, his complexity numbed--by the competing agendas that surround his legacy.

In Only God Can Judge Me, accomplished biographer and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Pearlman tackles his most nuanced subject, telling the definitive story of Tupac Shakur in unprecedented depth. In this authoritative look at Tupac's life, Pearlman skillfully recreates West Coast hip hop in all its glory, going inside Death Row Records and on the sets of movies like Juice and Poetic Justice to offer the most clear-eyed rendering to date of the man who still casts a shadow over modern hip hop. But more than just a biography of a complicated figure, Only God Can Judge Me also captures the time and place in which Tupac rose, a singular moment in music history when West Coast hip hop became a phenomenon and transformed popular music.

Featuring nearly seven hundred original interviews and never-before-published details from every corner of Tupac's life, the result offers a truly singular portrait of one of modern pop culture's most towering figures. Guided by the voices of those who knew and lived life alongside him, Only God Can Judge Me captures the layers of a man who, even thirty years after his death, remains as elusive as ever.

Review Quotes

"There are books. There are Books. And then there is what Jeff Pearlman, the author of BOOKS, delivers. By now, Tupac Shakur's life has been explored and excavated longer than he lived. Yet, Pearlman delivers rich, engrossing, and fascinating new details about Shakur's life and legacy--not just once or twice--but throughout each lively page. He takes us through the streets Shakur walked in New York, Baltimore, Marin, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas in revealing the brilliant, troubled man and not just a caricature or myth. This is the type of needed journalism, reporting, and biography that finally and deservedly provides the definitive historic account on Shakur." - Jonathan Abrams, author of The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop
"Jeff Pearlman breaks down Tupac's life like a veteran sportswriter examining a dynasty. This detailed look at his life is the work of a writer who understands the ego of greatness." - Chuck D
"Tupac Shakur's life has been explored and excavated longer than he lived. Yet, Pearlman delivers rich, engrossing, and fascinating new details about Shakur's life and legacy--not just once or twice--but throughout each lively page. He takes us through the streets Shakur walked in New York, Baltimore, Marin, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas in revealing the brilliant, troubled man and not just a caricature or myth. This is the type of needed journalism, reporting, and biography that finally and deservedly provides the definitive historic account on Shakur." - Jonathan Abrams, author of The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop
"[An] excellent biography...Pearlman paints a complex, three-dimensional portrait of a passionate artist who could be single-minded and obstinate, who was driven by a nagging need "to fulfill his destiny before it was too late" (which became tragically prescient when he was killed in 1996)...The result is an endlessly captivating portrait of a singular artist." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A rollicking, smoke-filled joyride through the life of one of our generation's greatest street poets. Jeff Pearlman unfurls Tupac's complex, brilliant and troubled story like a Shakespearean drama, with the detail and punch only he could deliver. Along the way, he excavates themes of race, class, social justice and hip hop history. Pearlman's best work yet." - Rick Jervis, Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and author of The Devil Behind the Badge.
"Exhaustive . . . lots of fresh details about the rapper many consider the GOAT." - San Francisco Chronicle
"[A] deep dive into Shakur's brief and tumultuous existence...the book is chock full of details that will surprise even the most ardent Tupac fans." - Rolling Stone
"[Pearlman's] reportorial chops and distance from the hip-hop world are largely an advantage here . . . A thorough accounting of a complex figure." - Kirkus Reviews
"Here is the definitive biography of a star-crossed American genius, Tupac Shakur. It's also Jeff Pearlman at his very best: lively prose full of the stuff you've never heard, all of it underwritten by tireless, unbiased reporting. Everyone talks to Pearlman: family and friends, lovers and haters, artists and inmates, gangbangers and cops. Shakur's brief life was a series of epic contradictions. How did a sensitive drama kid--a big Kate Bush fan with his dog-eared copy of Macbeth--become hip-hop's Jimmy Cagney? Why did he die playing the role of a lifetime? You really want to know? Read this book." - Mark Kriegel, author of Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson