Overview

In 1973, the musical collective 24-Carat Black released an unheralded masterpiece on Stax Records—and then disappeared. Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth, a soul-funk concept album primarily written by the ex-Motown arranger Dale Warren, was too bleak, ambitious, or just outright bizarre to reach mainstream audiences. 24-Carat Black collapsed when Stax went bankrupt, and the group’s only completed album sank into cultural obscurity. With deep reporting elucidating an untold story full of cinematic details, this book traces how Ghetto went from commercial flop to enigmatic underground classic embraced by the hip-hop community. It also chronicles, in infuriating detail, how the music industry of the 1970s systematically exploited soul musicians and then left them struggling to get paid—and where 24-Carat Black fits into this broader injustice. This is a fascinating and multilayered story about a remarkable album nearly lost to history. It’s also a rare glimpse into what it’s like to have your music resurrected by rap samples decades after your career fell apart.

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9781501355509

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Reviews

I hardly knew anything about 24 Carat Black or Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth until very recently, when I picked up Zach Schonfeld's amazingly well-researched 33 1/3 book on the topic. Imagine my surprise as it slowly dawned on me how much of the music assembled by this collective served as the bedrock to so many songs I've known and loved for years. My world was rocked. * Sonic Breadcrumbs * [Veteran] music journalist and past A.V. Club contributor Zach Schonfeld uses the LP to unpack the '70s soul scene, the decline of the influential Stax Records, and the [BS] industry practices that have made it so difficult for 24-Carat Black's surviving members to get paid. * A.V. Club * Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series has gained a stellar reputation over the years for meticulously and lovingly analyzing classic and important albums. Almost every self-respecting rock music fan has at least a passing familiarity with the more than 150 albums covered in the series ...[24-Carat Black's Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth] succeeds on multiple levels - it's a wonderful snapshot of the American funk music scene of the '70s, it provides telling but unfortunate glimpses of the pitfalls of the music business, and it bridges gaps between classic soul, modern-day hip-hop, and other more adventurous genres that have mined classic albums for new inspiration. * PopMatters *

Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series has gained a stellar reputation over the years for meticulously and lovingly analyzing classic and important albums. Almost every self-respecting rock music fan has at least a passing familiarity with the more than 150 albums covered in the series ...[24-Carat Black's Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth] succeeds on multiple levels - it's a wonderful snapshot of the American funk music scene of the '70s, it provides telling but unfortunate glimpses of the pitfalls of the music business, and it bridges gaps between classic soul, modern-day hip-hop, and other more adventurous genres that have mined classic albums for new inspiration. * PopMatters *

I hardly knew anything about 24 Carat Black or Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth until very recently, when I picked up Zach Schonfeld’s amazingly well-researched 33 1/3 book on the topic. Imagine my surprise as it slowly dawned on me how much of the music assembled by this collective served as the bedrock to so many songs I’ve known and loved for years. My world was rocked. * Sonic Breadcrumbs * [Veteran] music journalist and past A.V. Club contributor Zach Schonfeld uses the LP to unpack the ’70s soul scene, the decline of the influential Stax Records, and the [BS] industry practices that have made it so difficult for 24-Carat Black’s surviving members to get paid. * A.V. Club * Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series has gained a stellar reputation over the years for meticulously and lovingly analyzing classic and important albums. Almost every self-respecting rock music fan has at least a passing familiarity with the more than 150 albums covered in the series …[24-Carat Black's Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth] succeeds on multiple levels – it's a wonderful snapshot of the American funk music scene of the '70s, it provides telling but unfortunate glimpses of the pitfalls of the music business, and it bridges gaps between classic soul, modern-day hip-hop, and other more adventurous genres that have mined classic albums for new inspiration. * PopMatters *

Author Information

Zach Schonfeld is a writer, journalist, and music critic based in New York. He contributes regularly to Pitchfork, Vulture, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Previously, he was a senior writer for Newsweek, where he covered culture and entertainment for the print magazine, and an associate editor for PopMatters. This is his first book.

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