Definition of Down: My Life with Ice T & the Birth of Hip Hop

Darlene Ortiz was with Ice T for 17 years, beginning with his early days hustlin' on the streets and his subsequent rise to fame. In Definition of Down: My Life with Ice T & the Birth of Hip Hop, she tells how hip hop started with intimate glimpses into their daily life with stories about their climb to the top and all the rappers that got their start in those times. This full-color book is filled with stories and photos never seen before of many hip hop icons.Forbes contributor and host on The Cipher had this to say about Definition of Down:"Darlene Ortiz and Heidi Cuda have given us not only a beautiful and important hip-hop story, but a great California story, family story, and love story to boot. 'Definition of Down' is a must-read for anyone interested in how hip-hop came to be America's popular culture. Darlene was there at the forefront – dancing at Radiotron, hanging with the Furious Five and the Zulu Nation, rooming with Biz Markie, fighting Tipper Gore on 'Oprah,' and documenting the filming of 'New Jack City.' This book gives us her one-of-a-kind perspective on those heady days when rap went from a fad to a cultural force."

Darlene Ortiz is widely known as the first cover girl of rap. Her poses for such seminal Ice T albums as Rhyme Pays and Power made her a Hip Hop icon. She also starred in multiple music videos and modeled in dozens of magazines. She co-hosts a radio show with comedian Corey Holcomb that boasts thousand of listeners. Ortiz is a fitness instructor, songwriter and can claim acting on her resume, starring in a scene with Denzel Washington in the film Ricochet. Heidi Siegmund Cuda is an Emmy Award winning producer and the author of The Ice Opinion with Ice T, the first book of rap. She also wrote Got Your Back with Tupac's bodyguard Frank Alexander; Sublime's Brad Nowell: Crazy Fool (Portrait of a Punk); and Warped Book: Tales of Freedom and Psychotic Ambition, about the Vans Warped Tour. Cuda is a former investigative producer for Fox 11 News and former music critic and columnist for the Los Angeles Times. She now writes screenplays.