Trying to be one of Phillys finest that made it out alive, Lil E had his work cut out from the very beginning. By the way, I'm Eric Reese aka Childhood Disrupted. From emotional abuse at school, trauma back home with the neighborhood bullies, the evolution of HIV and crack cocaine, to the senseless crimes committed on the gang-infested Philly streets in 1980s, my struggle was to try to become more than just the average black kid that society devalued or the troublemaker that so many believed I was destined to become.Until I Fought Back, is my childhood & young adult memoir of life as I experienced growing up with the battles of asthma and eczema, childhood sweethearts, step-parenting, introversion, love for video games, 80s cartoons, and boy adventures that Generation X rarely talk about in their own personal stories. As the story moves on from the 1980s to the 1990s, the childhood memories and episodes shift to scenes of hip hop homage, juvenile delinquency, peer pressure, urban adolescence to embracing a way of life that is conducive to survival in the inner city ghetto which is the most lucrative approach known in street terms as drug dealing or hustling. With the battle between getting fast money and the no-loyalty attitude of the cold streets, there are periods of homelessness, poverty, spirituality, self-awareness and life or death moments for E, that will keep the reader in constant comparison of his/her own life. As previously released as There and Now, you will discover that young black teenagers only have a few chances at securing financial stability in limited opportunities and that one strike of being put in the juvenile justice system can stain that black life forever. E (the grown-up Lil E) desperately tries to come to terms with who he is once he makes it to university on his own financial accord, but he must find ways to survive and that requires that hustler's mentality which every African-American brings when it comes to living. Until I Fought Back brings back the raw moments of the Philadelphia school of hard knocks era of the JBM and MOVE movement to the rap scene of Philly hip hop artists of the 80s and 90s where this memoir sharply focuses on moments of E's brash recklessness in middle school, high school and college. The streets may swallow him up like so many of his peers. If you are looking for a book that describes the lesser-mentioned, hard-core facts of urban life that inner-city teens faced with holding onto their street legacies while learning to accept responsibility for one's actions before it's too late, this is the one for you. Until I Fought Back is my ultimate tale as I grapple with destiny and deal with everything life throws at me with raw determination and charisma.