Publisher's Synopsis
SuperFly - My Untold Story of Hip-Hop is about Gloria Goldwater, her love for R&B and the burgeoning sound of rap and hip-hop in the mid-eighties that led her to start and successfully publish SuperFly magazine in 1991. Because there were only a few, small publications that featured hip-hop at the time, Gloria had the idea of starting a magazine devoted to this music. It tells of her marriage to John Goldwater, the creator of the Archie Comics empire who launched her into New York's high society. Then without having any real publishing support or personal experience herself, she put together a team of like-minded young people who along with Gloria succeeded in getting interviews for her magazine from various artists. Many of the artists, such as Tupac were already personal friends with members of the publishing team. Due to the magazine's rapid success, SuperFly soon garnered overwhelming support from the recording industry with constant requests for their artists to be interviewed with the hopes that they would be featured in SuperFly. This book chronologues Gloria's rise to success, and the heartbreaking situation that led her to shut down the magazine at the height of its popularity. Rappers who were just starting out back then such as Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Ice T, Ice Cube, MC Hammer, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Dr. Dre, Flavor Flav, Big Daddy Kane, N.W.A. and many others who appeared in the magazine are featured in the book along with rare photos of them that were never published in any book or magazine until now. Most of the artists became personal friends with Gloria and revealed candid information about themselves, which appear in the book. Up and coming pop and r&b stars such as Bobby Brown, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Prince, and the rapper turned actor Will Smith, also gave interviews and appeared in the magazine to broaden the readership base. Rare anecdotes of situations she encountered working in an industry where she totally did not seem to fit, give readers candid accounts about the industry and its relationship with the artists. The magazine rose in popularity to the point of being recognized and requested by international distributors. SuperFly - My Untold Story of Hip-Hop contains dozens of color and black and white photographs (including full bleed) in a separate photo gallery containing photos taken at private social events attended by the celebrities and other one-of-a-kind artist pictures that were never before published. The story is written in first person, told in 9 chapters plus a bonus chapter containing a photo gallery and a concise, reference level Appendix entitled "The History of Hip-Hop" that describes the major influences that resulted in the genre's creation, and tells the story of how hip-hop and rap became mainstream. The book includes free downloadable bonus material (details in the Table of Contents) providing digitized copies of original print SuperFly magazines including the premier issue, an original video from Gloria's cable television show Crashing New York and never before released textual and audio interviews featuring Tupac, Tony!, Toni!, Tone!, N.W.A., Flavor Flav and other artists. The author's website is www.superfly-hiphopuntoldstory.com.
