Looking into the head and heart of a man who rose above a life of narcotics, violence, and fast money to become someone with his own voice and dreams, this memoir humanizes the dilemma many youngsters face today and underscores the role the streets play as both proving ground and educational institution. By the age of 9, Buddy Burrel was a millionaire with his own flourishing crime empire, having followed in the footsteps of his iron-willed, often-brutal father, a West-Side Chicago kingpin. A gang chief in the powerful Vice Lords family at the age of 11, Burrel attracted the attention of Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo, an infamous boss of the Chicago outfit, under whose tutelage he rose to become a serious player at the age of 16. Yet after realizing he had the wherewithal to lead a different life, Burrel turned from ghetto grit—his father's house, the gangs, the hard drugs, and the streets—to glitz and glamour. Immersed in a world of coast-to-coast living, golf, gambling, and entrepreneurism, populated with idiosyncratic characters and underscored by a painful emotional awakening, he eventually broke away from the dark side with his spirit, heart, and hopefulness intact.