In the world of street mags Cavario H. is well known. One of Don Diva’s main writers and a force behind the magazines inception. Cavario has been down with the gangsta movement popularized by BET’s American Gangster series since the jump. From Don Diva he moved onto Hip-Hop Weekly where he still resides as the Editor at Large. And now he’s dropping his first book- Raised by Wolves, Inside the Life and Mind of a Guerrilla Hustler. Check out what he has to say about it in this exclusive.
What is your book about?
Raised By Wolves is the story of my life growing up in an ultra-violent, narco-criminal clan and how I survived 18 years of Guerrilla gangsterism to ultimately emerge Alive, Healthy & Free.
Why did you write it?
It began as a personal introspective, a sort of self therapy; after the deaths of essentially my entire family unit I began to reassess the three generations of criminal enterprise from which I was created. I had to write because I had no one I could discuss my past with. The book grew from that.
What were the early years with Don Diva like?
Those years, from its accidental inception in December of 1999 up to my departure in August 2006, were both difficult and exciting. It was my first ever legitimate endeavor. I did all of the interviews wrote all of the articles myself as well as took all of the pictures and did all of the promotions and distribution across the country myself. I wrote under several pseudonyms to hide the fact that there was really only one person providing the majority of the material so that we wouldn’t appear to be the small operation that we actually were.
How did you get involved with that?
I started it with my ex, although a magazine was not in either of our plans. It grew out of another idea and was mistaken for an actual magazine after a promotional item to promote the initial idea was released. The promo item (although extremely slipshod) looked like a magazine so people, thinking it was a magazine, began asking me when our “next issue” was coming out. Since I had already been writing my book for two years prior it seemed the magazine was predestined. So we took our cue from the streets and in January of 2000 the very first actual issue of DD was born.
How did the hip-hop weekly gig come up?
In August of ’06 after realizing that DD had hit a glass ceiling and that things would only go down from that point, I dissolved my interests and then immediately incorporated Body of Power publishing. With my two completed manuscripts I began focusing on publishing my books. Dave Mays, having heard over the radio in New York that I’d left DD, called me within two weeks and asked me to join him and Benzino in the launch of Hip Hop Weekly. I wasn’t interested in doing magazines anymore but the concept intrigued me so I went to New York to check it out. We released the 1st issue of HHW on my birthday in Nov of that year and we’ve been making history ever since.
What are your future aspirations?
I aspire to bring genuine reality to the hip hop generation. The romanticized images of street life commonly perpetuated through popular media, i.e.; rap lyrics, rap videos, urban films, and so called “urban lit” has and will continue to confuse and mislead many more thousands, causing them to abandon their true paths. Most are far removed from the harsh hidden realities of that existence, because all they ever see are the trappings thus the choice to go that way seems sensible. Through the promotion of cult-ish materialism (in place of self-worth) many have been tricked into thinking that a couple of summers of fast cars and open bars is worth a lifetime in prison –if not a life. Having had it all, done it all, and survived I am uniquely qualified to say, “It’s a dirty trick and it simply isn’t worth it.” The way I did in DD.
BoPp books are about real people and real situations and through them I will provide insight into the deep-seated motives behind the blatantly self destructive choices too many young people continually make, motives that most of them do not overstand.
Be one of the first to get a copy of Raised By Wolve’s Author Cavario H. by clicking here.
