“Kanye Western Owes Me personally $300 could be the funniest rap memoir ever.” -LA Weekly

After Vanilla Ice, but before Eminem, there is ‘Hot Karl,’ the Jewish kid from your L.A. suburbs who became a rap battling legend-and then nearly became a celebrity.

When 12-season old Jensen Karp got his first taste of rapping for crowds at his friend’s pub mitzvah in 1991, little did he know that he was taking his first rung on the ladder on a crazy journey-one that would end having a failed million-dollar recording and about Kanye West Owes Me $300: And Various other True Tales From A White Rapper Who Nearly Made It Big publishing deal with Interscope Information when he was only 19. Right now, in Kanye Western world Owes Me $300, Karp finally tells the real story of his outrageous ride as ‘Warm Karl,’ the most well-known white rapper you’ve hardly ever heard of.

On his way to (almost) celebrity, Jensen stocks his years as a child run-ins with rock-listening, southern California classmates, who simply tell him that ‘rap is for black people,’ and recounts his record-breaking rap battling streak on popular radio competition “The Roll Contact”-a work that caught the eye of the music industry hungry for fresh rap voices in the first ‘00s. He also introduces his rap partner, Rickye, who constitutes the second half of their group XTra Large; his supportive mother, who works with him onstage; and the soon-to-be-household-name performers he information with, including Kanye Western, Redman, Fabolous, Mya, and can.we.am. Finally, he reveals why his album never noticed the light of day time (two phrases: Slim Shady), the downward spiral he suffered after, and what he found rather than rap glory.

Filled with rollicking tales from his close brush with popularity, Karp’s hilarious memoir may be the best fish-out-of-water story about a man who comes after an unlikely passion-trying to split the rap game-despite what everyone else says. It’s 30 Rock and roll for the rap set; 8 Mile for the suburbs; and quite the trip for any white kid from the valley.