"Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises is a confessional, stylistic account (in the Joan Didion tradition) of coming of age in the Bronx alongside the birth and evolution of hip-hop culture. This essay collection presents a journalistic mosaic of seminal figures in hip-hop, documentary essays exploring the social decay of hip-hop, and a substantial element of memoir, as well as observations on the generational issues of urban America." "Miles Marshall Lewis captures the political ambitions of Russell Simmons, the Black Spades gang foundation of Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation, the spiritual sensibility of KRS-One and the Temple of Hiphop, and the debate on the materialistic, violent direction of hip-hop culture. Interpreting the mood and inner-city atmosphere that birthed the counterculture of hip-hop, Bronx native Lewis details the circumstances of his father's heroin addiction, his mother's Southern spirituality, his grandfather's career as a Harlem numbers runner, and his own journey from a tenement-building upbringing to worldwide travels - with hip-hop training his steps."--BOOK JACKET.