Ben Westhoff

A remarkable four-year investigation into the dangerous world of synthetic drugs--from black market drug factories in China to users and dealers on the streets of the U.S. to harm reduction activists in Europe--which reveals for the first time the next wave of the opioid epidemic

How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic

Fentanyl, Inc.

"Raw, authoritative, and unflinching ... An elaborately detailed, darkly surprising, definitive history of the LA gangsta rap era."---Kirkus, starred review A monumental, revealing narrative history about the legendary group of artists at the forefront of West Coast hip-hop: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur. Amid rising gang violence, the crack epidemic, and police brutality, a group of unlikely voices cut through the chaos of late 1980s Los Angeles: N.W.A. Led by a drug dealer, a glammed-up producer, and a high school kid, N.W.A gave voice to disenfranchised African Americans across the country. And they quickly redefined pop culture across the world. Their names remain as popular as ever--Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube. Dre soon joined forces with Suge Knight to create the combustible Death Row Records, which in turn transformed Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur into superstars. Ben Westhoff explores how this group of artists shifted the balance of hip-hop from New York to Los Angeles. He shows how N.W.A.'s shocking success lead to rivalries between members, record labels, and eventually a war between East Coast and West Coast factions. In the process, hip-hop burst into mainstream America at a time of immense social change, and became the most dominant musical movement of the last thirty years. At gangsta rap's peak, two of its biggest names--Tupac and Biggie Smalls--were murdered, leaving the surviving artists to forge peace before the genre annihilated itself. Featuring extensive investigative reporting, interviews with the principal players, and dozens of never-before-told stories, Original Gangstas is a groundbreaking addition to the history of popular music.

The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap

Original Gangstas

In the tradition of such intimate, piercing explorations of race and inequality in America as The Other Wes Moore and The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, Little Brother tells the story of investigative journalist Ben Westhoff's relationship with Jorell Cleveland through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in St. Louis, Missouri, and investigates Jorell's tragic unsolved murder at the age of nineteen. In 2005, soon after Ben Westhoff moved to St. Louis, he joined the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and was paired with Jorell Cleveland. Ben was twenty-eight at the time, a white college grad from an affluent family in Minnesota. Jorell was eight, one of nine children from a poor, African-American family living in Ferguson. But the two instantly connected. In the subsequent years, Ben and Jorell formed a bond stronger than nearly any other in their lives. Ben got Jorell his first swimming lessons, took him on his first plane trip, helped him open his first bank account, and showed him how to apply for jobs. When Ben met the woman who'd become his wife, she observed that Ben and Jorell were "a package deal." They were brothers. Then, in the summer of 2016, a shocking crime--Jorell's murder--changed everything. Jorell was shot at point blank range in broad daylight in the middle of the street, yet his murder remained unsolved by police. Westhoff grappled with mourning Jorell's death, but also with a feeling of responsibility. As Jorell's mentor, what could he have done differently? As Westhoff tried to move on with his life, questions nagged at him. As a journalist, he had reported on gang life, interviewed crime kingpins, and even infiltrated drug labs in China. But now, he was investigating the life and death of someone he knew personally, examining what he did and did not know about his friend, and attempting to solve his murder. What is uncovered is a heartbreaking cycle of poverty, poor education, drug trafficking, and violence. Little Brother brilliantly combines a deeply personal history with a true-crime narrative that exposes the realities of life in communities like Ferguson all around the country.

Love, Tragedy, and My Search for the Truth

Little Brother

A TELEGRAPHBOOK OF THE YEAR. An undercover investigation into the synthetic-drug epidemic. A new group of chemicals is radically transforming the recreational-drug landscape. Known as novel psychoactive substances (NPS), they range from so-called 'legal highs' like Spice, to synthetic opioids - most famously, the deadly fentanyl. Designed to replicate the effects of established drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, and heroin, NPS are synthesised in laboratories. They are cheap to produce and easy to transport. They are also extremely potent and often deadly. Originally developed for medicinal purposes, and then hijacked by rogue chemists, who change their molecular structures to stay ahead of the law, these chemicals' effects can be impossible to predict. What we do know is that they have triggered the biggest drug epidemic that America has ever seen, and which is now spreading internationally. In Fentanyl, Inc., award-winning journalist Ben Westhoff goes undercover to investigate the shadowy world of synthetic drugs -- becoming, in the process, the first journalist to infiltrate a Chinese fentanyl lab. He tracks down the drug baron in New Zealand who unintentionally helped to start the synthetic-drug revolution; prowls St. Louis streets with a former fentanyl dealer to understand how the epidemic started; and chronicles the lives of addicts and dealers, families of victims, law enforcement officers, and underground drug-awareness organisers in the US and Europe. Fentanyl, Inc.is essential reading on a global calamity we are only just beginning to understand.

How Rogue Chemists are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic

Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and the Birth of West Coast Rap

In the tradition of such intimate, piercing explorations of race and inequality in America as The Other Wes Moore and The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, Little Brother tells the story of investigative journalist Ben Westhoff's relationship with Jorell Cleveland through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in St. Louis, Missouri, and investigates Jorell's tragic unsolved murder at the age of nineteen. In 2005, soon after Ben Westhoff moved to St. Louis, he joined the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and was paired with Jorell Cleveland. Ben was twenty-eight at the time, a white college grad from an affluent family in Minnesota. Jorell was eight, one of nine children from a poor, African-American family living in Ferguson. But the two instantly connected. In the subsequent years, Ben and Jorell formed a bond stronger than nearly any other in their lives. Ben got Jorell his first swimming lessons, took him on his first plane trip, helped him open his first bank account, and showed him how to apply for jobs. When Ben met the woman who'd become his wife, she observed that Ben and Jorell were "a package deal." They were brothers. Then, in the summer of 2016, a shocking crime—Jorell’s murder—changed everything. Jorell was shot at point blank range in broad daylight in the middle of the street, yet his murder remained unsolved by police. Westhoff grappled with mourning Jorell’s death, but also with a feeling of responsibility. As Jorell’s mentor, what could he have done differently? As Westhoff tried to move on with his life, questions nagged at him. As a journalist, he had reported on gang life, interviewed crime kingpins, and even infiltrated drug labs in China. But now, he was investigating the life and death of someone he knew personally, examining what he did and did not know about his friend, and attempting to solve his murder. What is uncovered is a heartbreaking cycle of poverty, poor education, drug trafficking, and violence. Little Brother brilliantly combines a deeply personal history with a true-crime narrative that exposes the realities of life in communities like Ferguson all around the country.

La création d'un genre sur fond de règlements de compte. Tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir sur le rap West Coast. Fin des années 1980, Los Angeles. Tout commence avec une bande d'amis venue du ghetto de Compton. Eazy-E, Ice Cube et Dr. Dre forment le groupe N.W.A (Niggaz With Attitudes) et définissent les bases d'un genre nouveau : le gangsta rap. Mais cette révolution culturelle s'accompagne d'une face sombre et, en coulisse, musiciens, producteurs, patrons de labels et trafiquants se livrent une guerre ouverte sous l'œil d'une police californienne cynique et violente. C'est cette émulation créative sur fond de règlements de comptes que décrit le journaliste américain Ben Westhoff après cinq ans d'enquête. Une épopée urbaine où la musique, les drogues, la violence ont fusionné pour créer une nouvelle scène, un mouvement qui continue d'étendre son influence sur la jeunesse du monde entier. " Ben Westhoff a pris ce qui est toujours apparu comme un enchevêtrement quasi inextricable d'intrigues et de rebondissements dans le gangsta rap et en a fait un livre solide, sans faille. " Shea Serrano

Original Gangstas - Tupac Shakur, Dr Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube et la naissance du rap West Coast

Rap music from New York and Los Angeles once ruled the charts, but nowadays the southern sound thoroughly dominates the radio, Billboard, and MTV. Coastal artists like Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, and Ice-T call southern rap &“garbage,&” but they're probably just jealous, as artists like Lil Wayne and T.I. still move millions of copies, and OutKast has the bestselling rap album of all time. In Dirty South, author Ben Westhoff investigates the southern rap phenomenon, watching rappers &“make it rain&” in a Houston strip club and partying with the 2 Live Crew's Luke Campbell. Westhoff visits the gritty neighborhoods where T.I. and Lil Wayne grew up, kicks it with Big Boi in Atlanta, and speaks with artists like DJ Smurf and Ms. Peachez, dance-craze originators accused of setting back the black race fifty years. Acting both as investigative journalist and irreverent critic, Westhoff probes the celebrated-but-dark history of Houston label Rap-A-Lot Records, details the lethal rivalry between Atlanta MCs Gucci Mane and Young Jeezy, and gets venerable rapper Scarface to open up about his time in a mental institution. Dirty South features exclusive interviews with the genre's most colorful players. Westhoff has written a journalistic tour de force, the definitive account of the most vital musical culture of our time.

Ben Westhoff

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