Donnell Alexander grew up sideways in the cramped spaces of Sandusky, Ohio, the son of a devout mother and a dad named Delbert, a protean genius who jacked a thousand identities—from pimpin’ them hoes to preaching the gospel—but skipped out on fatherhood when his son was in diapers. Donnell unwittingly replayed Delbert’s tragedy as farce until he finally wrote himself his own story, becoming a star of California’s freewheeling alternative press, spreading the gospels of punk and hip-hop in print. After finding a career and starting a family of his own, Donnell was drawn to reconnect with the vanished Delbert, and when he did, things fell apart, as they tend to in the grip of ghetto celebrity.

Told in multiple voices, freestyle raps, and a graphic interlude, this is the riotous story of one writer’s mission to find truth in the margins and an engrossing tale about phantom fathers and the sons they leave behind.

Growing up in the ghettos of Sandusky, Ohio, Alexander was tempted by crack cocaine, and once fronted an imploding punk rock band before heading to California and breaking the cycle of con artistry and crime that had befallen his misfit father. In this unconventional memoir told in freestyle raps, graphic comic, and prose, Alexander (now an established journalist who has written for Vibe, and LA Weekly) relates his journey to find his own path in life, and to reconcile himself to the dubious legacy of his father. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Word on the Street . . .

“Ghetto Celebrity is a funny, funky, surprising journey inside the wild mind of a hip-hop generation brother trying to figure out himself and his ghetto world.” —Touré

“To be a son or daughter is to be a detective. This is one poetic whopper, a book for anyone who ever tried to solve that mystery named Dad.” —Sarah Vowell

“If Eazy-E had written Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, it would have been this book. Watch out for Donnell Alexander—this is a great book.” —Neal Pollack

“Like all seminal writing, this book hits every note. It’s a profoundly moving life story, a searing social criticism, an often-hilarious self-satire, and a guidebook to how the media absorbs and de-flavorizes the original mind. And nothing I’ve read before has made the existence of this country’s two parallel universes—one white, one black—more tangible or more intelligible. Flowing seamlessly between the smoothest of textbook English and the coarsest language of the street, Donnell Alexander has probably given us a preview of how most American writing will read twenty years hence. Get a sneak preview.” —Keith Olbermann

“There’s East Side and West Side in the rap and hip-hop world, but Ghetto Celebrity starts on the North Side, then takes you on a ride up the downside of a different kind of American celebrity. Donnell Alexander is a streetdog writer, a gangsta Nelson Algren, an important new voice.” —Dale Maharidge

“Ghetto Celebrity is a memoir that reads like bold, unadulterated fiction, leaving the reader gasping who the f—k is Donnell Alexander? A writer!”

—Jervey Tervalon

“Ghetto Celebrity has been one of my favorite new books ever since I read its first draft a few years back. Alexander, a lyrical but brutally frank writer, is funny, cruel, self-eviscerating, but soft in the right places. Ghetto Celebrity weaves together Alexander’s world and that of his fascinating father in a brilliant and profound way; that he has the courage to admit that he’s more his father’s son than his mother’s child is what’s crucial here. This is an indispensable book.” —Dave Eggers

Vivid, stylish, at times outrageous, "Ghetto Celebrity" traces author Alexander's rollercoaster journey out of small-town obscurity and drug abuse through self-reinvention as a writer, and his rise to underground fame in the West Coast alternative press scene.

Donnell Alexander grew up sideways in the cramped spaces of Sandusky, Ohio, the son of a devout mother and a dad named Delbert, a protean genius who jacked a thousand identities—from pimpin’ them hoes to preaching the gospel—but skipped out on fatherhood when his son was in diapers. Donnell unwittingly replayed Delbert’s tragedy as farce until he finally wrote himself his own story, becoming a star of California’s freewheeling alternative press, spreading the gospels of punk and hip-hop in print. After finding a career and starting a family of his own, Donnell was drawn to reconnect with the vanished Delbert, and when he did, things fell apart, as they tend to in the grip of ghetto celebrity.

Told in multiple voices, freestyle raps, and a graphic interlude, this is the riotous story of one writer’s mission to find truth in the margins and an engrossing tale about phantom fathers and the sons they leave behind.