Rap and Redemption on Death Row: Seeking Justice and Finding Purpose behind Bars

by Alim Braxton, Mark Katz

Overview

Imprisoned since age nineteen, Alim Braxton has spent more than a quarter century on North Carolina's death row. During that time, he converted to Islam and dedicated his life to redemption. Braxton, a rapper since the age of thirteen, uses his rhymes as a form of therapy and to advocate for prison reform, particularly by calling attention to the plight of the wrongfully incarcerated. This book, a hip-hop-rich prison memoir, chronicles Braxton's struggles and triumphs as he attempts to record an album while on death row, something no one has done before.

Braxton's world is complex: full of reflections on guilt, condemnation, incarceration, religious awakening, and the redemptive power of art. Ultimately, Braxton shows us that even amid the brutality of our prison system there are moments of joy, and on death row joy may be the most powerful form of resistance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469678726
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/05/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Alim Braxton (a.k.a. RRome Alone) is a writer, rapper, and activist living on North Carolina's death row in Raleigh. Mark Katz is the John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of several books, including Build: The Power of Hip Hop Diplomacy in a Divided World.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Unless the world be utterly remade, Michael J. 'Alim' Braxton and Dr. Mark Katz were not likely to have ever met. Yet you hold in your hands, despite the machinations of fate and their former slave state, the undeniable proof they did. This means, most of all, Rap and Redemption on Death Row testifies to will of mind, the power before which even molybdenum bars must bend.”— Harry Allen, hip-hop activist and media assassin

“Alim Braxton’s story is a harrowing one—far too common, yet rarely heard from the vantage of the person living it. This book lets readers hear the words directly, in his voice, and humanizes the men on death row with whom he is serving time. Braxton’s book draws us into his worlds and takes us through his transformations. Like The Autobiography of Malcolm X, it reads like a testament to a life of reinvention.”—A. D. Carson, University of Virginia

Editorial Reviews

“A raw, contemplative account of a death-row inmate’s journey toward redemption through faith, family, and rap . . . . An unvarnished look at a life reclaimed deep within the edifice of mass incarceration.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The tenacity and meticulousness with which Braxton creates his music indicate the stakes he attached to it—namely, hip-hop as advocacy through self-expression. . . . Rap and Redemption on Death Row is an extension of Braxton’s hip-hop activism and a manifestation of his contention that imprisonment, even without hope for release, does not negate humanity or the search for purpose.”—Journal of African American History

“Unless the world be utterly remade, Michael J. 'Alim' Braxton and Dr. Mark Katz were not likely to have ever met. Yet you hold in your hands, despite the machinations of fate and their former slave state, the undeniable proof they did. This means, most of all, Rap and Redemption on Death Row testifies to will of mind, the power before which even molybdenum bars must bend.”— Harry Allen, hip-hop activist and media assassin

“Alim Braxton’s story is a harrowing one—far too common, yet rarely heard from the vantage of the person living it. This book lets readers hear the words directly, in his voice, and humanizes the men on death row with whom he is serving time. Braxton’s book draws us into his worlds and takes us through his transformations. Like The Autobiography of Malcolm X, it reads like a testament to a life of reinvention.”—A. D. Carson, University of Virginia

From the Publisher

2024-02-09
A raw, contemplative account of a death-row inmate’s journey toward redemption through faith, family, and rap.

This unusual memoir, a collaboration between Braxton and Katz, who teaches a course on “Music and Incarceration” at the University of North Carolina, captures wisdom accrued through more than 25 years of incarceration. Braxton contacted Katz in 2019, seeking guidance on how to better record the raps he had been writing. Katz notes that Braxton “accepts his guilt” for three murders he committed as a young man, acknowledging, “I do not want to minimize his crimes or ignore his victims.” He asserts that the detail and originality of Braxton’s writing (many lyrics appear in the book) speak to the potential for personal growth and cultural value despite these crimes, and he casts himself as part of “a self-fashioned ‘Alim team,’ working to share Braxton’s powerful words and music.” Braxton identifies himself as “a prisoner, a writer, and a rapper on North Carolina’s Death Row,” aspiring to both dramatize his rejection of the nihilistic violence of “street” machismo (“I was nineteen years old and fascinated with the idea of being a gangster”) and call attention to the ugly reality of wrongfully convicted individuals sentenced to death. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen 35 people executed and 7 people exonerated because they were innocent,” he wrote in one of his letters. In percussive, short chapters, Braxton vividly presents his own background, including documentation of bleak decades behind bars and feelings of guilt and torment, which dedication to Islam helped him address. “There’s no getting around the darkness in this book,” writes Katz, but there is also “joy, hope, and love.” Though the narrative structure is sometimes too disjointed, Braxton’s story is worth discussing.

An unvarnished look at a life reclaimed deep within the edifice of mass incarceration.

Kirkus Reviews