Root for the Villain
J-Zone built a following as an underground rapper and producer with a sharp sense of humor, then watched the record business he had bet on collapse. This collection of essays is his account of that ride: growing up in Queens, making records that critics loved and stores barely stocked, and the slow, often comic realization that the dream he chased had changed shape entirely. He is blunt about money, failure, and the gap between the fantasy of a rap career and the reality of it. Questlove named it among his favorite books.
What you might want to know about Root for the Villain
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A cult rapper and producer writes a funny, honest memoir about chasing a hip-hop career and watching the music industry fall apart around him.
J-Zone is an American rapper, producer, and writer known in underground hip-hop. Root for the Villain is his memoir about his career and the music industry.
Root for the Villain was written by J-Zone, published in 2011 by Old Maid Entertainment.
Root for the Villain is 256 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Root for the Villain takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Root for the Villain is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.