Back in the Day : My Life and Times with Tupac Shakur (Hardcover)

Author : Darrin Keith Bastfield

Pages : 208p.

Format : Hardcover

Publisher: One World/Ballantine

Publish Data : May 28, 2002

Sales Rank: 285,030

Review :

From Library Journal

Six years after his murder at age 25, Tupac Shakur is a legendary figure in hip hop. Befitting his celebrity are at least a half-dozen books on his life and death, including two "serious" biographies (Armond White's Rebel for the Hell of It and Michael Eric Dyson's Holler If You Hear Me). This latest is more in the vein of bodyguard Frank Alexander's Got Your Back, an intimate memoir by someone who was close to the rapper and knew him outside of his role as a superstar. Today a manager of musical acts, Bastfield met then-newcomer Shakur at the Baltimore School of the Arts in the mid-1980s. Interestingly, the book is written with genuine affection and comes across less as a quick cash-in project than as the author's attempt at personal closure for a lost friend. Glimpses of Shakur's occasional teenage awkwardness are contrasted with his developing talent and charisma, as well as his ability to inspire negative attention, even hatred, among his peers, by virtue of his unique combination of intelligence, sensitivity, and skill. Sure to be a hit among Shakur and hip-hop fans, this is recommended for all public libraries. (Photos not seen.) David Valencia, King Cty. Lib. Syst., Seattle

From Booklist

Bastfield dedicates his paean to Tupac Shakur, preeminent icon of what Kitwana calls the hip-hop generation, to "Black men who have been an inspiration to the world," such as Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, and Imhotep. Shakur died long before he had become a world-inspirer, which explains why all biographies of him tend to be also about the state of black youth culture since his heyday. Bastfield's book is better than many others on Shakur because he knew Shakur before he was famous. Bastfield relies on his personal memories of Shakur's teen years, the experiences he and Shakur shared, and a fair amount of apparently meaningful, though unreferenced, research. While readable, interesting, and sexually graphic, this probably isn't the definitive assessment of Shakur. Mike Tribby

Blender Article :

Tupac Shakur�s tragically brief tale � murdered at 25, in 1996 � reflects the trajectory of a Behind the Music special, minus the upbeat epilogue. Since Tupac�s canonization as one of hip-hop�s most enigmatic MCs, books like Darrin Keith Bastfield�s Back in the Day have sprouted regularly like weeds around a gravestone. Bastfield, a teenage friend of Tupac�s, recounts their Baltimore high-school daze of sex, blunts and 40s in down-and-dirty detail. When they first met, Bastfield admits, Tupac smirked as the author clumsily rapped Run-DMC lyrics � but this kiss-and-tell memoir isn�t always so endearing. Bastfield recalls plenty of dirt about Tupac; whether Tupac would recall Bastfield is anyone�s guess.

Miles Marshall Lewis

THE BEST PART OF A BIG BOOK

The story so far: Tupac Shakur is hot for Kelly, a high-school classmate. Unfortunately for Tupac, she has a boyfriend, Eskiah. Fortunately for Tupac, Eskiah is gay. . . .

Kelly got extremely high, and was loosening up rapidly. . . . But Eskiah continued foiling his ways. So Tupac devised a plan. He pulled Eskiah to the side. �Let me fuck Kelly. And I�ll let you fuck me,� was his proposal. The rest Tupac re-enacted for me at the scene of the crime:

I�m on the bed like this, fuckin the shit outta Kelly. And she kept saying, �My throat, my throat!� [At this point, I began to laugh, and told him I knew for a fact he was telling the truth. Remembering some of the other things she had said, I was like, did she say this? and, did she say that? He replied yes. . . . Man! we laughed.] . . . Eskiah touched the back of my leg, like, �Okay. When�s my turn?� I was like, �Hold up! Hold up! Let me finish first and you get your turn!� smackin his hand off my leg. . . . I told him, �You must be outta your fuckin mind if you think I�m uh let you do something to me.� I told him, �Fuck you. You�re crazy.� He was all like, �You lied to me,� like a ole bitch. . . .

Eskiah had returned to school bitter, and went about spreading the false rumor . . . that he had fucked Tupac. By the time the year ended, the rumor was all around school. But I knew the truth, and Kelly confirmed what Tupac told me.

From the book Back in the Day: My Life and Times With Tupac Shakur. Copyright � 2002 by Darrin Keith Bastfield. Reprinted by arrangement with One World/Ballantine Books, New York, NY.

ILikeMusic.Com : This is an eyewitness account of slain rapper Tupac Shakur's formative years, written by his close friend from high school.

A legend after a bullet killed him at the age of 25, Tupac Shakur was the most riveting rap musician of his day. Far from being the insolent "gangsta" the press put forth, Shakur was fiercely intelligent, fearless and determined to make a mark. D

arrin Bastfield grew up with him in a rough Baltimore neighborhood. In this vivid memoir, Bastfield reveals Tupac Shakur as the teenager he really was: bound for greatness. In tight, edgy prose, Bastfield recalls seven years of friendship. Shakur, new in town, a skinny 13-year-old in shabby clothes, may have looked uncool, but he blew the school away at a talent show, an electrifying performance.

It was at the Baltimore School for the Arts, however, where things really started to happen - an encounter with Salt-N-Pepa, the wild night of the 1988 senior prom. Shakur and Bastfield lived through it together, and in this memoir, it all comes alive again.

Book Synopsis : The rap star Tupac Shakur, who was murdered in 1996, has been the subject of numerous reminiscences from friends and music colleagues. But, in BACK IN THE DAY, Darrin Keith Bastfield remembers the teenage Tupac of the years before fame beckoned, at Baltimore School for the Arts. Recalling the young rapper's remarkable gifts, as well as his outcast status in the community, Bastfield, now a writer and music talent manager, paints an evocative, nuanced picture of life in a black Baltimore neighborhood, its poverty and its drug problems existing side-by-side with families just trying to get by. Tupac emerges as a driven, competitive teenager, constantly striving to produce better material than his competitors--he even, at one point, attempts to better Bastfield's eulogy for his dead girlfriend. Bastfield's masterly rendering of the early years of one of hip-hop's most cherished stars reveals the foundations of Shakur's talent, and vividly demonstrates the future star's energy and sheer charisma.

Summary : The rap star Tupac Shakur, who was murdered in 1996, has been the subject of numerous reminiscences from friends and music colleagues. But, in BACK IN THE DAY, Darrin Keith Bastfield remembers the teenage Tupac of the years before fame beckoned, at Baltimore School for the Arts. Recalling the young rapper's remarkable gifts, as well as his outcast status in the community, Bastfield, now a writer and music talent manager, paints an evocative, nuanced picture of life in a black Baltimore neighborhood, its poverty and its drug problems existing side-by-side with families just trying to get by. Tupac emerges as a driven, competitive teenager, constantly striving to produce better material than his competitors-he even, at one point, attempts to better Bastfield's eulogy for his dead girlfriend. Bastfield's masterly rendering of the early years of one of hip-hop's most cherished stars reveals the foundations of Shakur's talent, and vividly demonstrates the future star's energy and sheer charisma.

Publisher's Notes : In a vivid portrait of Tupac Shakur as a high-school student at the Baltimore School of the Arts, a former classmate and close friend recalls the late musician before he became a music and media celebrity, capturing an intelligent and thoughtful young man struggling to overcome poverty to make something of himself.