In Conversation: On The Darkest Hearts

Touré is the host of the podcast Toure Show and the political podcast Democracyish. He was the co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle and also a host at MTV, BET, and Fuse as well as a Correspondent at CNN. He’s the author of six books including I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became An Icon and Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means To Be Black Now. He is currently at work on an oral history of Prince.

Nelson George is an author and filmmaker. His books include the first four novels in his D Hunter mystery series: The Accidental Hunter, The Plot Against Hip Hop, The Lost Treasures of R&B, and To Funk and Die in LA. Among his many nonfiction works are The Death of Rhythm & Blues, Hip Hop America, and The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture & Style. Former bodyguard D Hunter has moved to Los Angeles to become a talent manager. Business is good: he has signed a hot Atlanta rapper named Lil Daye and negotiated a lucrative endorsement with a liquor brand. But then D learns of the liquor CEO’s unsavory sexual habits and reactionary political views and worries that he has sold his soul. Back in Brooklyn, a body has been found and it connects D and the retired hit man Ice. The FBI wants to speak to D, which is making Ice nervous. Meanwhile in London, Serene Powers, a vigilante and sometime collaborator with D, breaks up a human trafficking ring. When she returns to the US, D asks her for assistance with a sensitive matter involving Lil Daye, his wife, his mistress, and a thug on his payroll. Nelson George ‘s The Darkest Hearts (Akashic Books) reflects the challenges of being a black businessperson in an era when the rules of entrepreneurship are constantly shifting beneath an increasingly polarized political environment. Filmmaker Spike Lee praised George: “I’ve known Nelson over thirty years