Darlene Ortiz was with Ice T for 17 years, beginning with his early days hustlin' on the streets and his subsequent rise to fame. In
Definition of Down: My Life with Ice T & the Birth of Hip Hop
, she tells how hip hop started with intimate glimpses into their daily life with stories about their climb to the top and all the rappers that got their start in those times. This black-and-white edition is filled with stories and photos never seen before of many hip hop icons.
Shawn Setaro, Forbes contributor and host on The Cipher, had this to say about Definition of Down:
"Darlene Ortiz and Heidi Cuda have given us not only a beautiful and important hip-hop story, but a great California story, family story, and love story to boot. 'Definition of Down' is a must-read for anyone interested in how hip-hop came to be America's popular culture. Darlene was there at the forefront - dancing at Radiotron, hanging with the Furious Five and the Zulu Nation, rooming with Biz Markie, fighting Tipper Gore on 'Oprah, ' and documenting the filming of 'New Jack City.' This book gives us her one-of-a-kind perspective on those heady days when rap went from a fad to a cultural force."