Kenny Edwards II, a product of 39th Street and South Park, the location of Ida B. Wells, one of Chicago's many subsidized housing projects, relives his life as a southside street fighter and member of the old 13 Cats street gang. As a teenager, Kenny worked and earned large sums of money as a busboy and waiter at the Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago, supporting his family and his expensive street habits, mainly associating with older women. After graduation from high school, he was hired at one of Chicago's steel mills, earning more money and getting deeper into street crime. He recalls his gang activities, brushes with death, drug addicts and drug deals, pimps and prostitutes, gamblers and con-men, and his days as a part- time gigolo. He joined the Navy at the age of 19 to escape from Chicago's street life. After exiting the Navy, he became a real estate broker and speculator in California, where he became a millionaire, went broke, and regained his wealth using the art of "gentrification," which involves buying houses below market price.