In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hawaii was ground zero for the crystal meth epidemic in the United States. While tourists have mostly been shielded from witnessing the carnage, crystal meth has wreaked havoc on the people of Hawaii like few other places in the world.
Concrete Rainbow takes place during the height of the crystal meth epidemic on Oahu during the 1990's. It focuses on the partnership between Byron, an angry bi-racial fifteen-year-old poet, and Kimo, a native Hawaiian felon who is part crime boss, part philosopher.
From a broken home in Oakland, California, his father safely away in prison, Byron finds himself dropped in the poor and rugged west side of Oahu when his mother moves to Hawaii to remarry a local man. Along with his new local neighborhood friends, a rebellious Byron starts down a path of fighting and selling drugs.
Kimo, fresh off a fifteen-year prison stint, believes meeting Byron is no chance encounter. Kimo becomes Byron's boss and mentor and teaches him hard, violent, and morally-questionable rules about life. As Byron gets pulled deeper into Kimo's dysfunctional crime family, it becomes increasingly clear that there is something dangerous inside of Byron. And he can't control it.
Together, Kimo and Byron become entangled in a deadly power struggle involving Honolulu's skin peddlers, illegal gambling houses, and meth dealers. Kimo's penchant for violence escalates while Byron starts to realize that Kimo may be taking advantage of the darkness living inside of him as they both slowly unravel under the pressures of Oahu's criminal underworld.
Chapter by chapter we journey with Byron through the breathtaking beauty of Hawaii's lush waterfalls and beaches into the horror of the west side's crystal meth tent cities. In the end, Kimo and Bryon must confront each other and the inner demons that are consuming them from within.
Through Byron's poetry, humor, violence, and gut-wrenching honesty, Concrete Rainbow vividly describes the dark underbelly of Hawaii that tourists rarely see and, in the process, sheds light on the darkest parts within us all.
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There was another phenomenon that was taking Hawaii by storm in the 1980s and 1990s: Rap and Hip Hop. While troubled, Byron also is a deeply reflective and talented poet. Byron uses those gifts to try to make sense of the chaos around him and the monster within, resulting in insightful poetry and ultra hardcore head bangers.