Dakota Grand: A Novel

"Dakota Grand is a young music journalist who's left his Southern roots behind and moved to the Big Apple to cover the rough-and-tumble world of rap. He's part of the star-making machinery, spinning the web of interviews, reviews, and "inside stories" that move the CDs off the racks. He's good at this, but all it's gotten him so far is an apartment in deepest Brooklyn, a check-to-check freelancer's existence, and a hit-and-run love life.

When the break of his career comes: the opportunity to interview one of his rap heroes, Mirage, one half of the legendary group Arbor Day, for a cover story for The Magazine. Puffing on a spliff, Mirage spills plenty of beans to Dakota Grand, but he's less than pleased by the resulting article, In fact, he has his boys assault Dakota in a midtown elevator and send him to the hospital.

What ensues is an increasingly tense and violent duel between Mirage and Dakota Grand, with the young writer determined to fight back for his own honor and that of his fellow journalists."--BOOK JACKET.