ORIGINAL GANGSTAS

Award-winning journalist Ben Westhoff's new book "Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap" (Hachette Books) comes out Sept 13, 2016, the twentieth anniversary of Tupac's death. Ben is the former L.A. Weekly music editor and currently writes about hip-hop for The Guardian. His 2011 book on Southern hip-hop, "Dirty South," was a Library Journal best seller. His feature profiles and investigative stories have appeared in Rolling Stone, Vice, Village Voice, NPR, Pitchfork, Deadspin, Billboard, Oxford American, and The Wall Street Journal.