Good Life (Sykes)

1988 is the era, Detroit is the scene, and crack is the movement. It's a time when young black men can become self-made millionaires seemingly overnight by selling dope. The crack era has become to Blacks what Prohibition was to the Italians-a time to get over! It's a time that inspires generations of street dreamz... Fresh out of high school, young Wink has but one thing on his mind-rollin' fresh. Infatuated by all the trappings of the game, Wink and his B-boy crew jump head first into the ills of the drug trade, determined to taste the good life. As they pay their dues and the unforgiving streets harden their hearts, they learn that all dreams aren't worth livin', and nothing lasts forever, not even friendship.

As soon as he graduated high school, Wink jumped head first into the drug game. He hardened his heart and did whatever he had to in order to rise through the ranks. In The Re-Up, Wink takes things to the next level. His father plugs him in with a cocaine pipeline from prison. Soon, Wink is at the top of his game, handling enough cocaine to supply the entire Midwest. But he will learn, just as hustlers before him have, that every run has its end. Wink takes us along for a shotgun ride to the top of the underworld-the money, the fast cars, the power... and the demise. In these closing chapters, the game throws everything it has to offer at Wink. Will he survive the treachery and betrayal, the addiction, and the lure of fast money? Or will Wink plan his own ending?

Wink was a drug dealer with a thirst for the good life and a drive to succeed. Now that he is no longer on the streets, is his son headed along the same path? All his life, young Saw listened to his mom tell him how much he looked like and acted like Wink, the man she claimed was his father. Wink was a hood legend who ran the city in the late eighties and early nineties. Saw's mother is convinced that he too will end up in a cell beside his father and grandfather-both doing life in the feds. Saw never met Wink since he's been in prison for twenty years, but even if he wasn't locked up, there's no guarantee he would act like a father to Saw. The only proof of Saw's paternity is his mother's own word, which is questionable. As far as Saw is concerned, the streets are his daddy, they raised him, and the only resemblance he shares with the notorious Wink is his thirst for the good life.