By DJ Suspence
Best selling author Sanyika Shakur, formerly known as “Monster” Kody Scott, has died, according to sources. Shakur, a well known former Eight Tray Crip from Los Angeles rose to national fame after releasing an autobiography about his life, “Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member.”
Shakur got the nickname “Monster” in the mid-1970s after he beat and stomped a robbery victim until he was disfigured. However, Shakur denounced his former life and joined the Republic of New Africa movement while in prison. It was in 1993 while he was incarcerated at Pelican Bay, a maximum security prison, that he published his autobiography while in solitary confinement.
“I was a criminal. I became a revolutionary. And people expected me to commit class suicide as a successful writer and become a noted author, and to me, I didn’t want to go that way. I didn’t want to be the go to guy when they said, ‘What about gangs?’ Because that’s not what it’s about,” he wrote.
He reportedly died of a stroke, but that has yet to be confirmed by his family.