A Wounded Lion is about the significant poetic messages of rap music. In here are 8 artists who have inspired Andre Mego greatly through their lyrics, quotes, and actions. The 8 artists he wrote about are Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, 50 Cent, The Game, and Tupac. Written inside are many lyrics each one have said and how it changed his life personally and then show the overall impact it could have on anybody and everybody. The message is that rap is not trash, it's an art. Many great messages in rap music are illustrated to show how it has made Andre Mego a better person, from intellectually to emotionally to spiritually. A Wounded Lion shows why each and every artist included is an inspiration and that they deserve respect for what they have accomplished. How remarkable it is that they have come from such hostile and tumultuous environments, yet they still are strong and have great messages in their walks of life that can change all people.
About the Author: Andre Mego fell in love with rap when he was 9 years old. He loved hearing the different perspectives of these artists in various topics. He loved hearing the voices behind the photoshopped gloss of idealized America. Nas, the lyrical genius who is never afraid to speak the truth in his music, raps not about the Big Apple, but the "Rotten Apple" ("The World is Yours"), "Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined/ I think of crime when I'm in a New York state of mind." ("NY State of Mind"), "My people be in projects or jail, never Harvard or Yale." ("Book of Rhymes"). The voices of rap were both lyrical and gritty, rhythmic and harsh, and this, to him, seemed the true poetry of America. But few people see rap this way. When he put on mellow rap while talking to his uncles, his Uncle Miguel said to his Uncle Javier, "My kids will never listen to this trash. Andre's throwing his mind away." His father and uncles are from Peru. They moved to the US to create a better life for their children and achieved success against great odds. His uncles didn't want to hear voices that disrupted their belief that America was the best country in the world. He is not the sort of person to throw his mind away. Hip-hop has made him wiser, more reflective, and more mature. Listening to the lives of rappers who've grown up in America's ghettos made him realize that we must acknowledge and try to empathize with America's unpleasant realities before we can address them. Because he believes hip-hop is central to confronting America's social crisis, He wrote a book called A Wounded Lion. In this book, he reveals hip-hop's poetic truth and beauty to authority figures who see it merely as an angry, obscene glorification of violence and drugs. He encourages the readers to spend time with the lyrics and lives of rappers, to imagine what it's like to fight for survival, to grow up in a neighborhood where one's life is under threat for wearing the wrong color, to witness one's loved ones gunned down as a child, to move from foster home to foster home. These realities wound the soul. Would you expect a wounded lion to be polite? His hope is that the readers will find at least one line that will open their minds to the truth and beauty of rap, which is to say the truth and beauty of America. And maybe, just maybe, that A Wounded Lion will inspire them to address, in some small way, the inequities in their own communities.