Smith, Danyel

"From one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation, a radiant weave of memoir, criticism, and biography that tells the story of black women in music--from the Dixie Cups to Gladys Knight to Janet, Whitney, and Mariah-- as the foundational story of American pop"--.

In 1980s Oakland, two teenage African-American sisters named Pinch and Paige escape a violent home, move into an abandoned Victorian mansion, and fall into friendship with a group of misfits and drug dealers, leading to a difficult look at their past choices and the paths their futures could take.