The Rap(p)er

by Sofia Quintero

"You know you ain't Rakim or Nas or nobody like that, but you can spit a little. Your last two albums did a'ight, but you've heard rumblings that if the next one doesn't blow up - the last one you owe under your current contract - the label's gonna drop you." And so begins THE RAP(P)ER, a choose-your-own-adventure for adults who like their fiction gritty. Inspired by the Rick Ross rape lyric controversy of April 2013, this is the first in a series of interactive ebooks by the author of EXPLICIT CONTENT, PICTURE ME ROLLIN' and BURN. You just don't read THE RAP(P)ER, you play it. Get in the head of recording artist desperate for a hit, and influence the outcome of the story. Compare and discuss your choices and outcomes with those of your friends. Play it at your next dinner party or study group and let the debate begin! THE RAP(P)ER is also a great tool for educators who like to use or examine hip-hop with their students. It's not only entertaining, it's provocative. Use it to spark conversations about current events, increase critical thinking and demonstrate life skills such as decision-making. The ebook is suitable for upper high school students and older. Determined to write edgy yet intelligent novels for women who love hip hop even when hip-hop fails to love them in return, Sofía Quintero wrote her debut novel EXPLICIT CONTENT under the pen name Black Artemis. Booklist said of her debut, “Fans of Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever will find this debut novel just as tantalizing. . .” Since then Sofia has authored four more novels and almost twice as many short stories and novellas including her award-winning young adult debut EFRAIN’S SECRET (Knopf 2010.) She recently earned an MFA in writing and producing TV at the TV Writers Studio of Long Island University and contributed the children’s anthology WHAT YOU WISH FOR, the proceeds of which go to build libraries for Darfuri children in Chad. Her journalistic writings have been published in Urban Latino, New York Post, Ms., Cosmopolitan for Latinas and El Diario/La Prensa. As an educator, she is a writing mentor at Urban Word NYC, a teaching artist at the National Book Foundation’s reading program BookUpNYC and the co-publisher of the hip-hop feminist curriculum Conscious Women Rock the Page. Sofia was nominated for the Women’s Media Center Social Media Award in 2010 and is completing her next young adult novel SHOW AND PROVE. You can learn more about Sofia at www.sofiaquintero.com or follow her on Twitter at @sofiaquintero

Kindle Edition

First published September 5, 2013

About the author

Sofia Quintero is the author of several novels and short stories that cross genres. Born into a working-class Puerto Rican-Dominican family in the Bronx., the self-proclaimed Ivy League homegirl earned a BA in history-sociology from Columbia University in 1990 and her MPA from the university's School of International and Public Affairs in 1992. After years of working on a range of policy issues from multicultural education to HIV/AIDS, she decided to pursue career that married arts and activism. Under the pen name Black Artemis, she wrote the hip hop novels Explicit Content, Picture Me Rollin and Burn. Sofia is also the author of the novel Divas Dont Yield and contributed novellas to the chica lit anthologies Friday Night Chicas and Names I Call My Sister. As an activist, she co-founded Chica Luna Productions (chicaluna.com), a nonprofit organization that seeks to identify, develop and support women of color who wish to create socially conscious entertainment. She is also a founding creative partner of Sister Outsider Entertainment, a multimedia production company that produces quality entertainment for multicultural audiences. Sofia is presently working on her first young adult novel Efrains Secret which will be published by Knopf in 2009. To learn more about Sofia and her work, visit blackartemis.com, sisteroutsider.biz or myspace.com/sofiaquintero."