Blending poetry and prose, music, and genealogy, Jive Poetic's Skip Tracer is a memoir structured as a "hybrid sound system" (complete with "records, " "tracks, " "decks, " and "channels"), expertly curated to convey the complexity of Blackness in the Americas. In this ancestral and cultural excavation, Jive conducts archival and oral-history research into his family's connections to Jamaica, Panama, Brazil, and Cuba to explore the impact of culture, environment, and family on first- and second-generation Black Americans in the United States. He also traces the profound influence that hip-hop, soul, R&B, , reggae, and other popular musical genres have had on him-all the while performing a dynamic re-creation of his legendary onstage persona on the page. A raw and affecting indictment of police violence and racism in the United States, Skip Tracer is also a searingly honest exploration of personal identity, power, and privilege-all expressed in the unmistakable language, rhythm, and style that characterizes Jive's live performances.