S. H. Fernando Jr.

After graduating from Harvard and the Columbia University School of Journalism, Skiz Fernando began his career as a music journalist for The Source magazine. He parlayed his expertise in the field of hip-hop into the critically-acclaimed book,

The New Beats: Exploring the Music, Culture & Attitudes of Hip-Hop (Anchor/Doubleday, 1994), which has become an important document of the culture behind rap music. His byline has also appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Vibe.

In 2007, he returned to his homeland of Sri Lanka to write a cookbook, Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking (Hippocrene Books, 2011). It was a New York Times notable cookbook, and also won Fernando a spot on the popular Travel Channel show, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, where he served as the host’s on camera guide in Sri Lanka.

Since the pandemic, Fernando has returned to writing. His most recent book, From The Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga (2021) was the definitive biography of hip-hop's greatest group. Next up is his biography of MF DOOM, The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap's Masked Iconoclast (Astra House) available in the fall of 2024.