Suge Knight, the founder of Death Row Records, the man at the center of the gangsta rap and hip-hop explosion, is a singular combination of showman, businessman, and Godfather, and a natural-born storyteller. In American Nightmare American Dream, he delivers the most candid, unflinching, and thoughtful account of his many lives. American Nightmarechronicles the inspirational story of Suge Knight's emergence from the ghetto streets of Compton to become one of the most significant and controversial personalities in the music industry. For the first time, Knight publicly addresses such subjects as the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls; his notorious run-ins with music executives and producers; and countless provocative incidents involving former colleagues and friends, including Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Vanilla Ice, Berry Gordy, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, and Jennifer Lopez. In harrowing detail, he tells of the five years he spent behind bars-the shock and sadness of arriving at a place that he already knew intimately from stories heard since childhood, and the wisdom gained from being cut off from his former life. American Nightmareis also the story of a uniquely self-made man. The success of Death Row Records turned him into a multimillionaire who crossed impossible borders. He counted himself a friend of John F. Kennedy, Jr., and paid with hard time for his alleged association with known felons. His style of doing business-"bringing the ghetto into the boardroom"-has inspired admiration and fear in equal measure. Even as some in the music business profess to be afraid of him, he is hailed as a hero in Compton, for giving back to the community. He has instituted programs for single-parent families and children of incarcerated parents. In American Nightmare, he tells young people how terrible prison is, how important it is to get an education, and that there are more ways to get out of the ghetto than by being an athlete or a rapper. Suge Knight wants them to dream about success and then make it happen. Suge Knight's life story is a contemporary, urban version of the American rags-to-riches saga. It also uniquely illuminates the most important revolution in popular music of the past few decades-the emergence of gangsta rap and hip-hop into the mainstream. With dead-on humor and bracing candor, Suge Knight pays tribute to the hard lessons of his past, and offers a powerful answer to anyone who feels trapped by circumstances beyond their control: the example of a life lived boldly.