Wake Up Everybody: The Life of a Player - Softcover

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Jihad Shaheed Uhuru was born Elbert Lee Frazier, Jr. April 8, 1969 to Elbert Lee and Arthine Frazier. He grew up in a single-family home in Indianapolis, Indiana and spent his formative years in Atlanta, Georgia, which inspired the setting of his story. He was second of three children. His father was a street hustler, in and out of five marriages. His parents divorced when he was two. His mother worked a variety of jobs to better herself and children. She was responsible for teaching Jihad and his siblings how to be strong and resilient, and how to take risks.

Jihad attended alternative schools in Atlanta and had little interest in literature. However, when he was incarcerated, he discovered the Donald Goines Series, the Browder Files and educational books by Naim Akbar, an unexpected surprise. He didn't know African- Americans published books.

In 1988, Jihad attended Savannah State University. He didn't want his mother responsible for his financial responsiblities, so he developed a drug organization that targeted inner cities and projects. Making more than enough money to return to school, his lavish life-style turned into self-indulgence instead.

On August 4, 1990, Jihad was paralyzed from a near fatal automobile accident. Suffering two fractures of the neck, his medical team left him with little hope to ever walk again. But, through faith and determination, he regained enough mobility to return to the streets again, while the driver of the car remained in a wheelchair.

On March 19, 1992, Jihad was incarcerated for possession of drugs and a firearm. He served seven years in six different penitentiaries. He recalls this being a time of transformation and a new awareness. He joined programs to help troubled youths. He started looking up to a group of socio-political positive self-taught prisoners, who raised his awareness about himself and his past. He read everything he could get his hands on, and soon realized that the game he was playing was the wrong game.

He started identifying with classic black authors and historians, something that never spurred his interest while growing up in a mass of confusion in school. It wasn't until now that Jihad had a purpose and a reason to live.

Jihad started researching and writing about his own analysis of his findings. He wrote essays about European Cultures and Chinese Dynasties. He also wrote about things he felt were misconceptions, such as life, religion, society and his people His focus and discipline prepared him to write his first book, Wake Up Everybody: The Life Of A Player.

Jihad is currently living in Atlanta, and working on several projects for 2001. He is CEO of Envisions Publishing, patner in a real estate investment company and a personal fitness trainer. He also does live poetry at nightclubs throughout Atlanta. He shares his story by speaking to youths, and will forever donate money to guys on the other side of the road.

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Excerpts

Interrupting the good Reverend someone shouted, "The bitch was sho nuff good but she was sho nuff cheap. She still owe me two dollars for a TV I sold her for twenty dollars." The Reverend turned beet red when everyone saw it was none other than Maddog D-con. He was drunk as a goldfish swimming in Whiskey. He stood up and embarrassed half the congregation. After making a fool of himself, Maddog fell into the aisle in a drunken stammer. This had to be the craziest funeral ever. Heck I couldn't wait for somebody else to die. I was having a ball until Momma hit me in my mouth for laughing too loud.

"For hundreds of years, Black people in America have been taught what to think and how to think. We've been trained to keep pulling one another down like crabs in a barrel. This is making us weaker and in turn causing the oppressive power structure, the MAN, to continue to grow stronger, making us weaker still and more self-destructive. The reason for keeping us ignorant and divided is simple. It is to prevent us from ever rising to positions of power from which could implement programs to help change the mindset of our downtrodden people. If in fact we united first through realization of the truth, and then through economic empowerment, we could then force the man to adhere to our needs." Akbar became animated as he paced the floor of his office while speaking.

He continued, "So you see, little brother, when you steal from another, no matter if it is a brother or another, you are conforming to the ideology Blacks are weak and inferior to Whites in that we have to rob someone because we are too dumb to go out and legally attain what we want. Your word and your self-pride is the most important thing that you have, something no man can take away. You have worked for me now going on two months and you kept your word. You paid your debt to me. That in itself is a man's gesture, not a boy's. You lived up to your commitment. That is why I kept you on all this time as a trusted employee, but maybe I was wrong in my judgment of you. Over the short time I've known you I have become very fond of you, but after this latest stunt I just don't know. You've really disappointed me and, whether you know it or not, you've let your own self down. As long as you live, you must remember to use your head, think before you act. Furthermore, remember that every action precipitates a reaction. Now you may go back to work, that is all. A-salaam-A-leikum."

Turning his back to me and looking out a window clasping his hands behind his back, a disappointed Akbar abruptly dismissed me. I was shaken up by such an emotional lecture. I had come to truly admire and look up to Akbar. The last thing I wanted to do was to disappoint him, because he had become the one who I wanted to be like when I grew up.

During the past couple of weeks, she had found that crack gave her a much better rush than plain powdered cocaine. The euphoric feeling derived from smoking cooked cocaine, crack, by far overshadowed anything she had ever felt before. She had even started to kind of like Tarik, especially since he had started getting high with her. Now all of that had come to an abrupt end, and a panicky realization descended on her like a ten-pound brick. Tarik called his lawyer at home from the parking lot of Melanie's apartment complex.