Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Kathy Yandelie used to be a journalist. Not so much anymore, which is probably a good thing.

You know, it only reaffirmed why I considered myself a terrible journalist.

I didn't say I wasn't a good writer, but I said I was a terrible journalist.

She's now the person, some of the most famous rappers around call when they want to write a book.

Her latest is a collab with Gucci Main titled episodes.

It's a pretty raw examination of his own relationship with drugs, his career, and his mental health.

After the break, Yoneli gives us a peek behind the curtain as to what these writing relationships are like and what it's like separating the artist, the persona, from the person.

That's after the break.

When the rapper Gucci Main was on the heater run that launched his career about 15 years ago,

he was putting out songs built for good times.

But he was not having a good time.

But he was not having a good time.

In his new book episodes, he talks about his depression, his bouts of mania and anxiety, his

drug abuse.

He didn't write the book alone, and that's no slight to him.

It's pretty common actually for famous people who aren't writers to get some help when they want to do a book.

Kathy Yandelie is the co-writer of this book.

On top of her original works about women in hip-hop, she's worked with the late artist Prodigy,

with T. Payne, with Eve on their books.

And she's been working with Lil Kim on a memoir. So what is it like

being the go-to writer for rappers? Kathy Yonnelly joins us now. Hey, Kathy, welcome to All Things

Considered. Hi, thanks for having me. Yeah, so I want to start with this most recent book,

...