So are you a diehard rap fan? Or did you simply do a lot of rap-related research for the sake of the book?
The latter. Like Scott, I put myself through a casual crash course in hip-hop. I read a lot of books and magazines. And, of course, I played a lot of music. Can't say I care for it too much, to be honest.

Is the character of Hunta based on any real rap artist, living or dead?
No, but in the story, Hunta bases a lot of himself on his old mentor, Tupac.

You place a lot of focus on Tupac Shakur. What was your reasoning behind this?
Because by many accounts, Tupac represented the very best and the very worst of rap; best in terms of talent, worst in terms of behavior. But I do recommend that everyone go to the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive and sample some of Tupac's amazing lyrics. When it came to banging out words, the man was gifted and then some.

So then why don't you include some quotes from his songs?
Hunta quotes Tupac in Chapter 5, but only for 18 words. Why only 18? Because that's the limit of words I can quote before I'd have to seek legal permission from Tupac's estate.

And I tried. Believe me, I tried to get the rights to quote extensively from Strictly for My N.I.G.G.A.Z. The rights were controlled by three different companies. It was impossible to get them all to provide clearance before publication. Darn them. Darn them all to heck.

From pages 69 to 74, you reproduce an entire Source article written by someone named Ed Freeze. How real is this?
The article is a complete work of fiction, as is Ed Freeze.

Is Hunta's dead friend Yusef Fula based on someone real?
Yusef Fula was real. He was a member of Tupac's backup band, the Outlawz Immortal (also known as the Immortal Outlaws). Yusef was shot in killed in New Jersey not too long after Tupac died in Vegas, but only the diehard conspiracy nuts think there's a connection between the two murders.

So Mean World Records, plus rappers L-Ron, X/S and Hitchy, are complete fictional constructs.
Very much so.

You seem to place some significance in Hunta's lack of tattoos. Your reasons?
For starters, I wanted to make him seem clean by rap standards. Secondly, his lack of tattoos adds to the whole "physical perfection" motif, a theme that causes Scott no small amount of discomfort in the very next chapter.