Orphaned young and raised on the streets, this young man became a music and TV icon

and coasts, he developed a rigid, almost paradoxical code: while he engaged in the dangerous hustle of the streets, he remained fiercely sober, avoiding the drugs and alcohol that claimed so many of his peers. It was a survival strategy born of pure, unadulterated fear.

Even a stint in the U.S. Army, which provided a brief infusion of discipline, could continue reading …