“I’ve fixed eyes on the divine sketch of thine own destiny. And to the scope of my optimism, I stretch digits to a sky that is unbound by a ceiling of complacency…” – D.D. Turner, 2011
Simply stated, D.D. Turner has a way with words; in his possesion is a raw ability to conjure his own ideals in a way that appropriately uses philosophic rhetoric. And I can assure you that it is not a result of his recent fracture of the left Tibia plateau… He has always been this way and if you ask him where it came from, he will surely attribute it to the tremendous clutch that both Hip Hop and literacy have on his life. But to understand Derrick “D.D.” Turner, you have to get to know him. Despite his apprehension to make public a summary of his biography, I submit the following to you:
D.D. Turner, Scribe – Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend is Derrick Dwayne Turner (born March 16, 1978),
best known by his Author pseudonym – D.D. Turner, is an American Author and
creator of The Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend literacy series. He is also credited with creating the new
literary genre of Hip Hop Fantasy; a style of creative writing where the cultural phenomenon of Hip-Hop and the creatively limitless genre of fictional fantasy become joined.
Derrick Dwayne Turner was born in East New York, Brooklyn to Ellen Abney-Turner, a New York City Board of Education administrator, and Warren Turner, Long Island College Hospital department supervisor. He lived in Linden Houses from birth to the age of sixteen. The younger of two boys resulting from the union between Ellen and
Warren, Derrick was often labeled as the “Creative Dreamer” according to the accounts of his parents. “Derrick was extremely smart but always had a problem with day-dreaming. In elementaryschool his report cards always said two things, ‘he is a day-dreamer and he is shy’. This day-dreaming is what caused him to bring home just mediocre grades,” said his mother in a recent discussion. “I guess back then he was charting a path to success in his own way,” she continued proudly.
Growing up in East New York, Brooklyn was no easy task; during the 80’s and early 90’s, the south-east section (East New York) of the borough was amongst New York City’s highest ranking locations for drug-related homicides. Hence, the time appropriate, yet, less respectable name of Homicide Central (refer to fellow East New Yorker, Jeru the Damaja reference on debut single, Come Clean) was granted to the Brooklyn sub-section.
But despite what East New York had to offer, Derrick remained concrete in his pursuit of greatness and never fell clutch to the ill lifestyle(s) that many of his peers found themselves victims of. He often credits his older brother, Corey M. Turner, a New York Attorney, with providing a tangible concept and example of remaining focused and not succumbing to what Criminologists refer to as the Social Perspective Theory (an institutional theory that concludes individuals and their correlating mannerisms are often times a direct reflection of their environment and circumstances). “When the ‘knowledge-of-self’ movement had become prevalent in Hip-Hop during the late 80’s and early 90’s, I was introduced to it by my older brother. I have sound recollections of him coming
home with the first A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Public Enemy, X-Clan, Brand Nubian cassette tapes. To supplement the music, he would also come home with books that would explore the cultural richness of our African and Black history,” Derrick offered in a recent discussion.
“Some of my peers had older siblings that taught them how to chop weight, hustle, and work the corner. My older brother taught me how to chop down stereotypical barriers by developing a sense of intellectualism through education and self-enlightenment,” he continued. This shared discipline is one that Derrick carried into his college years and continues to employ as a major fixture in his life today.
The Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend – The Creation
The fundamental concept for the Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend story came to Derrick on a clear spring afternoon while sitting in his car in New York City’s famed Wall Street area in 1999. Waiting for his girlfriend (now wife), he indulged himself in the revisit of LL Cool J’s 1995 release, Mr. Smith.
“I can’t recall the track number, but the song was titled ‘Hip Hop’. I heard the joint before, but on that day, it really moved me. The song starts off with LL talking and as soon as the track dropped, it was as if God began feeding me the synopsis of the story piece by piece. By the time song ended, I had the basic premise of the first installment completed, character names, and location…I went home that night and began building the story and haven’t looked back sense,” he offered.
After employing his writing artistry and crafting the first three installments of the series, he realized that a visual medium would be received best by the targeted audience. He immediately reached out to two of his childhood friends that were traditional artists. He also realized that someone with experience in the way of street promotions and marketing would also prove to be pertinent to the development of the story; for this task he reached out to another childhood friend, Chaz Staton. Eventually, Derrick would ask for the assistance of one last childhood friend for the purpose of handling the scant, yet important, task of addressing over-head and operational matters.
“During this time, I was heading up U.S. operations and production for a Media-Monitoring company that was based out of London. My office’s operation times were from 5am-3pm, 7 days a week, this was because we needed to capture all variations of relevant print media on its day of release and electronically transfer it to headquarters in London during the course of their respective business hours. This schedule was particularly good for me because after 3pm, 7 days a week, I had free office space, computers, scanners, and laser printers to help with the process of bringing the rough art work for The Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend comic book to print,” Derrick offered.
“Also, the location was prime because it was in the heart of New York City; on the corner of Madison Avenue and 42nd Street. Whenever we had meetings, people would bug-out when they heard that our office was on Madison and 42nd,” he continued.
For four years following the creation of the first installment, Derrick and his hand-picked crew poured everything they had into the development of subsequent installments and marketing/promotions. As the fourth year rolled around, opportunities for exposure began to present itself less and with only three members remaining, including both Derrick and Chaz, the group began to question their approach in marketing and the choice of medium. These feelings led to a much needed period of assessment and ultimately to a 2 year hiatus.
In early 2006, Derrick Turner reached out to his remaining partners for the purpose of gauging their interest in revisiting the story that they had worked hard on just several years prior. He was pleased to see that they were equally excited and by the following day, the group of friends had come together to structure a new game plan.
Immediately, the friends got working on the re-introduction of The Chronicles of the Hip Hop Legend series. With Derrick handling the writing, one friend handling the art-work and layout, and Chaz handling marketing and advertising, Derrick was sure that they would touch success this time around. Unfortunately, in April of 2006, the friend that was responsible for artwork and layout had abruptly become gravely ill and was no longer able to perform his duties as lead artist. During the course of the following months, his condition began to worsen and it became evident that a recovery wasn’t realistic.
“During this time I began to struggle with myself because I felt like my back was up against the wall. While I was confident in my writing abilities, I new that my art abilities were seriously lacking; my children can draw better than
me,” Derrick offered while laughing.
“But once again, God spoke to me in a way that was clear, constant, and certain. And as I did previously, I followed his direction. The following day, I began writing The Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend / Paths of Grand Wizardry; that was in July 2006. By November, I had a 32 chapter completed manuscript. And in January of 2007, my long time friend that shared in the vision of this series past away,” he continued in a manner that suggested that he still can’t believe it.
The Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend and beyond
Entitled Paths of Grand Wizardy, the first installment of the Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend series has been released as a self-published work under the Turner Scribe Publishing Group entity, with both Derrick and Chaz at the helm. With solid distribution of the book, copies are available for purchase through all major book retailers throughout the world. Derrick is currently working on several other literary projects and has completed the second installment of The Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend series (entitled Cipher and the Lost Relic of Pangea’s Core, due in stores in 2012). He has began working on the third installment with no title information disclosed as of yet. Both he and his business partner, Chaz Staton, are excited about the unique nature of the series and are looking forward to The Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend growing into a global brand.
Derrick Turner currently resides in Texas with his wife and their four sons.
The Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend (TCOHHL) 