This veteran non-fiction writer's last book, Rollin' with Dre, was published in March by One World/Ballantine. Rollin' with Dre - co-authored by Dr. Dre confidant Bruce Williams - is a darkly offhanded recollection of West Coast gangster rap's heyday.

Many readers best know dude from his memoir Ghetto Celebrity (Crown, 2003), a non-fiction best-seller, among true books tricked-out with Warning labels. Ghetto Celebrity was named one of the best books of 2003 by the San Francisco Chronicle and Africana.com (now AOL Black Voices). Keith Olbermann of MSNBC observed that in this memoir, "Donnell Alexander has probably given us a preview of how most American writing will read twenty years hence."

Wearing critic and reporter hats, Alexander has written about popular culture for publications as diverse as Vibe, Utne Reader, and the Los Angeles Times. His style helped set the tone at ESPN The Magazine, where he was a member of the original writing staff. Alexander's 1997 essay "Cool Like Me: Are Black People Cooler than White People"--the final cover story of Dave Eggers' Might -- has been widely anthologized.

When not working on MTV's The Chronic: The Last Album that Changed the World, the author is adapting the short story "Rhyme Scheme" (from Akashic's 2006 Bronx Biannual collection).