Jeff Pearlman breaks down Tupacs life like a veteran sportswriter examining a dynasty. This detailed look at his life is the work of a writer who understands the ego of greatness. Chuck D
"Tupac Shakurs life has been explored and excavated longer than he lived. Yet, Pearlman delivers rich, engrossing, and fascinating new details about Shakurs life and legacynot just once or twicebut throughout each lively page. He takes us through the streets Shakur walked in New York, Baltimore, Marin, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas in revealing the brilliant, troubled man and not just a caricature or myth. This is the type of needed journalism, reporting, and biography that finally and deservedly provides the definitive historic account on Shakur." Jonathan Abrams, author of The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop
There are books. There are Books. And then there is what Jeff Pearlman, the author of BOOKS, delivers. By now, Tupac Shakurs life has been explored and excavated longer than he lived. Yet, Pearlman delivers rich, engrossing, and fascinating new details about Shakurs life and legacynot just once or twicebut throughout each lively page. He takes us through the streets Shakur walked in New York, Baltimore, Marin, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas in revealing the brilliant, troubled man and not just a caricature or myth. This is the type of needed journalism, reporting, and biography that finally and deservedly provides the definitive historic account on Shakur. Jonathan Abrams, author of The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop
[ A] deep dive into Shakurs brief and tumultuous existence...the book is chock full of details that will surprise even the most ardent Tupac fans. Rolling Stone
This book is remarkable and unflinching, just like its subject. It will have you talking aloud and saying, No way that happened, but Jeff Pearlman is an annoyingly brilliant, thorough, and exhaustive reportereven Tupac experts like myself will find little moments we knew nothing about. Despite the amazing level of detail, the read is effortless and damn near conversational. Only God Can Judge Me is a phenomenal achievement that will piss some people off but enthrall even more. Cheo Hodari Coker, showrunner of Marvels Luke Cage and author of Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.
Exhaustive . . . lots of fresh details about the rapper many consider the GOAT. San Francisco Chronicle
A rollicking, smoke-filled joyride through the life of one of our generations greatest street poets. Jeff Pearlman unfurls Tupacs complex, brilliant and troubled story like a Shakespearean drama, with the detail and punch only he could deliver. Along the way, he excavates themes of race, class, social justice and hip hop history. Pearlmans best work yet. Rick Jervis, Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and author of The Devil Behind the Badge.
[ An] excellent biography...Pearlman paints a complex, three-dimensional portrait of a passionate artist who could be single-minded and obstinate, who was driven by a nagging need to fulfill his destiny before it was too late (which became tragically prescient when he was killed in 1996)...The result is an endlessly captivating portrait of a singular artist. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Here is the definitive biography of a star-crossed American genius, Tupac Shakur. Its also Jeff Pearlman at his very best: lively prose full of the stuff youve never heard, all of it underwritten by tireless, unbiased reporting. Everyone talks to Pearlman: family and friends, lovers and haters, artists and inmates, gangbangers and cops. Shakurs brief life was a series of epic contradictions. How did a sensitive drama kida big Kate Bush fan with his dog-eared copy of Macbethbecome hip-hops Jimmy Cagney? Why did he die playing the role of a lifetime? You really want to know? Read this book. Mark Kriegel, author of Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson
[ Pearlmans] reportorial chops and distance from the hip-hop world are largely an advantage here . . . A thorough accounting of a complex figure. Kirkus (starred review)
Jeff Pearlman has written an incisive biography that reveals someone infinitely more complicated and contradictory than either the thug he was wont to portray himself as, or the saintly figure of the 2003 documentary Tupac: Resurrectioncompelling reading. The Guardian
Pearlman delivers a suitably complex portrait of a man who has been steadily turned into myth since his still-unresolved 1996 murder. Honest but never condescending, expansive rather than reductive." Boston Globe
Pearlmans storytelling skills combined with his dogged reporting (he even tracked down the baby in the single Brendas Got a Baby about a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl who tossed her newborn down a garbage chute) make this a compelling and captivating read. Minnesota Star Tribune
[ An] excellent biography...Pearlman paints a complex, three-dimensional portrait of a passionate artist who could be single-minded and obstinate, who was driven by a nagging need to fulfill his destiny before it was too late (which became tragically prescient when he was killed in 1996)...The result is an endlessly captivating portrait of a singular artist. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A meticulous demystification of a young artist who since death has transcended into a global icon on par with Bob Marley There are indeed some head-turning finds in Only God Can Judge Me. Los Angeles Times
In the hundreds of books written about the life of slain rapper Tupac Shakur, we usually encounter the same characters...In Only God Can Judge Me, noted sportswriter Jeff Pearlman introduces us to a far wider tapestry of people who played critical roles in the rappers brief life. We meet the friends whose sofas he slept on while his mother was in the throes of addiction and the high school girlfriends who saved his love letters. Pearlman scoured the country and interviewed more than 300 people. The result is a deeply reported portrait. Mother Jones
Jeff Pearlmans new tome deserves to be regarded as the definitive 2Pac book, blending startling levels of fresh research with genuine passion and insight. Tracing his arc from a youth around activist elders to adulthood that took him to the upper echelons of the charts and prison, Only God Can Judge Me presents a fascinating, multi-faceted figure in a refreshing new light. Clash Music
[ Pearlmans] diligence is evident in so many revealing anecdotes and eyewitness testimony, each one pulling back the curtain a little more and lending itself to what is the most comprehensive account of the rapper cum actors troubled lifeRaw and compelling stuff, he writes with the passion of somebody who is obviously a fan of the music. Crucially, though, the reporter in him never shies away from chronicling his subjects wide-ranging crimes and misdemeanors. By the time you read the scenes about his shooting death in Las Vegas in 1996, you may or may not like Shakur, but this work ensures you definitely know him. The very definition of an excellent biography. Irish Examiner
