Seen on screen in the film Sing Sing
Money Grip
A Brooklyn crime odyssey by Divine G · Part one of a trilogy
Rasheen Smith wanted out of the projects. Killer Kato gave him a way out — suicide runs on rival drug houses, a life sentence, and a stolen future. Divine G wrote this novel while serving twenty-five years for a crime he did not commit. In Sing Sing, Colman Domingo autographs a copy of it. This is that book, rebuilt.
From $9.99 · $20 $15 paperback
The moment in the film
He asked himself for an autograph. On camera
In Sing Sing, Colman Domingo plays Divine G. In one scene a fan approaches him holding a novel and asks him to sign it. The fan is the real Divine G. The novel is Money Grip. The author is asking the actor playing him to autograph the book he wrote in prison.
The scene as it plays in the film.
Colman Domingo and Divine G on set, holding the book.
The working copy that lived on the production table.
Divine G appears alongside the actor portraying him. Sing Sing earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Colman Domingo and Best Adapted Screenplay, which Divine G co-wrote.
4 credits
Story, screenplay, executive producer and an on-screen cameo in Sing Sing
25 years
Wrongfully imprisoned. The source of every page in this book.
8 novels
Published across the Divine G Entertainment catalog
PEN awards
Multiple PEN America honors and the 2008 Tacenda Literary Award
Buy direct from the author
Three ways to read it
Every order placed here goes straight to Divine G Entertainment. No retailer takes a cut, which is why the direct price beats the retail price and the paperback can be signed.
This is the book Colman Domingo autographs on screen in the A24 film Sing Sing.
Now rebuilt as the Revised & Enhanced Edition. 378 pages. 31 chapters.
Brooklyn, the 1990s. Rasheen Smith has a mother he cannot protect and a little brother he would die for. What he has instead of options is nerve — enough to take what nobody else will touch.
That nerve gets noticed. Killer Kato doesn't want a soldier. He wants a weapon: a stick-up kid who will run suicide missions on rival drug houses and never ask what comes after. Rasheen takes the work. The work takes everything.
Rikers. Elmira. Clinton. Sing Sing. While Rasheen does his bid, his brother Lameek becomes a rap star — and the man holding Lameek's contract is the same man who put Rasheen in a cell. Getting out is the easy part. Getting to Lameek before Kato does is what the rest of his life comes down to.
Money Grip closes on a turn of dramatic irony readers still argue about, and lands one hard truth: money is not only the root of all evil. It is the master of every motivator, including the ones drenched in good intentions.
NEW IN THE REVISED & ENHANCED EDITION
Fully revised text with new and expanded scenes throughout
378 pages across 31 chapters
New cover design
Updated author's note and front matter
Direct link forward into Money Grip 2
BOOK DETAILS
Format: Paperback, perfect bound
Length: 378 pages / 31 chapters
Publisher: Divine G Entertainment
ISBN-13: 978-1-940765-50-1
Language: English
Series: Money Grip — Book One of a trilogy
ABOUT DIVINE G
John "Divine G" Whitfield wrote Money Grip while serving twenty-five years for a crime he did not commit. He is a co-founder of Rehabilitation Through the Arts, an Oscar-nominated co-writer and executive producer of Sing Sing, and the man Colman Domingo portrays in the film. He wrote this novel from the inside. It reads that way.
ORDERED DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR
Every copy ships from Divine G Entertainment in Brooklyn — not a warehouse. Add a signed and personalized copy at checkout.
Standard — $16.00
Signed & Personalized by Divine G — $30.00
Also available as an eBook, the original edition as an MP3 Cinematic audiobook, and audio CD. [https://www.divinegentertainment.com/shop/p/money-grip-audiobook-mp3]
Rasheen's story continues in Money Grip 2. https://www.divinegentertainment.com/shop/p/money-grip-2-paperback
HE SWORE HE’D BE A MILLIONAIRE BEFORE TWENTY-ONE.
EVEN IF IT KILLED HIM.
For seventeen-year-old Rasheen Smith, money isn’t just a way out—it’s the only way out.
Growing up in the brutal streets of Brooklyn, Rasheen has watched poverty, addiction, and violence consume his family. His mother is trapped in crack addiction. His little brother needs protection. And the neighborhood offers him only two choices: become a victim or become dangerous.
Then Rasheen kills the man abusing his mother.
What should have been an act of desperate protection becomes the beginning of a nightmare. A ruthless and manipulative drug lord sees an opportunity in the young stick-up kid and turns Rasheen’s first kill into a debt he can never repay. Before long, Rasheen is pulled deeper into a world of robberies, drugs, betrayal, and bloodshed—where every score brings him closer to the fortune he believes will set him free, while tightening the grip that threatens to destroy him.
From the projects of Bed-Stuy to the prison yards of upstate New York, Rasheen fights his way through one betrayal after another, driven by two obsessions: revenge and riches. He robs spots, stash houses, mansions—and anyone standing between him and the money he believes will change his life.
But money has a price.
As Rasheen’s ambition grows, so does the cost. Family slips away. Love becomes collateral damage. Loyalty proves temporary. And the very fortune he has sacrificed everything to obtain begins to consume the man he has become.
Because when money becomes your god, there is no such thing as having enough.
Raw. Relentless. Unforgettable.
Money Grip is a brutal, cautionary street saga about ambition, betrayal, survival, and the devastating price of believing that money can buy your freedom.
The signature crime saga from John “Divine G” Whitfield—Oscar-nominated writer of the A24 film Sing Sing, for which Colman Domingo earned a Best Actor nomination portraying him.
ABOUT DIVINE G
John "Divine G" Whitfield wrote Money Grip while serving twenty-five years for a crime he did not commit. He is a co-founder of Rehabilitation Through the Arts, an Oscar-nominated co-writer and executive producer of Sing Sing, and the man Colman Domingo portrays in the film. He wrote this novel from the inside. It reads that way.
What you get
PDF — print it, read it on any screen, page numbers match the paperback
EPUB — Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play Books, Nook
DRM-free — yours to keep, on every device you own, forever
Instant delivery — download link on the confirmation page and by email
Simple instructions included for loading the EPUB onto a Kindle
Why buy direct
No platform takes a cut. No account required to read it. No file that stops working if a company changes its mind. You buy it, you own it — and nearly all of what you pay goes to the writer.
Digital Edition · 358-page novel · PDF + EPUB · Divine G Entertainment
Content note: contains depictions of sexual assault, prison violence, and drug use.
Digital products are non-refundable. If you have any trouble downloading or opening your files, email us — we will fix it.
The novel from Sing Sing — performed like a film.
This is not one narrator reading a book. Money Grip: The Cinematic Audiobook is produced with a distinct voice for every character, sound design, including gunfire, street noise, etc. Close your eyes and it plays like a movie with no picture.
Brooklyn, the 1990s. Rasheen Smith treats money like a god and the gun like a job application. Killer Kato is watching — and Kato doesn't want a soldier, he wants a weapon. Suicide runs on rival drug houses, until the day one of them costs Rasheen his freedom.
Rikers. Elmira. Clinton. Sing Sing. While Rasheen does his bid, Kato turns his baby brother Lameek into a rap star and owns him outright. Getting out is the easy part. Getting to Lameek before Kato finishes with him is what the rest of Rasheen's life comes down to.
The ending is the part readers argue about. We'd rather you hear it.
WHY THIS RECORDING IS DIFFERENT
A separate voice for every character — not one narrator switching tones
Original sound design: effects and background audio throughout
Produced independently by Divine G Entertainment, start to finish
Written by the man Colman Domingo portrays in the Oscar-nominated A24 film Sing Sing — and Money Grip is the novel he autographs on screen
LISTEN BEFORE YOU BUY
Press play on the sample above. If the first four minutes don't move you, this isn't your book. We'd rather you know now.
WHAT YOU GET
Format: MP3 digital download, delivered instantly after checkout
Runtime: 7:37:22
Chapter files: 31 Chapters, MP3s, numbered in order, in one ZIP
Plays on: phone, tablet, computer, car USB, any MP3 player
Yours permanently — no subscription, no app, no expiration
Author: Divine G (John "Divine G" Whitfield)
Publisher: Divine G Entertainment
Series: Money Grip — Book One
Note: this is the original edition text, performed in full. The Revised & Enhanced Edition, released in 2026, expands several scenes in print. This recording preserves Money Grip as it was first published — the version that was in the world when the film was made.
BUY IT HERE, NOT THERE
Buying direct from Divine G Entertainment means: you own the files outright, you pay once, and the money goes to the author instead of a platform. 7-day guarantee — if it's not what you expected, email us and we'll make it right.
Rasheen's story continues in Money Grip 2 — Cinematic Audiobook. https://www.divinegentertainment.com/shop/p/money-grip-2-audiobook-mp3
ABOUT DIVINE G
John "Divine G" Whitfield wrote Money Grip while serving twenty-five years for a crime he did not commit. He co-founded Rehabilitation Through the Arts, is an Oscar-nominated co-writer and executive producer of Sing Sing, and is the man Colman Domingo portrays in the film. He produced this audiobook himself.
The DGE Double Feature · October 1 thru November 1
Buy one audiobook (Money Grip the Cinematic Edition)
Get one free (any of the five our five narrated editions)
Included with this double feature is a 7-day money back guarantee for this limited time. Buy an audiobook, get another one free, if you don’t love them, we’ll refund your money.
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Direct Support.
Questions answered by the author himself.
New in 2026
The same story. Twenty years of craft between the two printings
Money Grip first appeared in 2006, written by hand inside a maximum-security facility. The Revised & Enhanced Edition is the version its author always intended.
Original edition, 2006
Scene Enhancements throughout
Material added not in the 2006 printing — including sequences that set up and enhance the trilogy's third book.
Line-level revision
Two decades of published fiction went into tightening every chapter. The pace is faster and the prose is cleaner.
Positioned as part one of a trilogy
The connective tissue linking Money Grip to Money Grip 2 and the forthcoming third volume is now on the page.
New cover and interior design
Redesigned for the audience the film brought to this book.
Revised & Enhanced Edition
The story
Money is not just the root of all evil. It is the master of every motive.
Rasheen Smith comes up in a Brooklyn where the crack economy is the only economy that answers when you knock. He is smart and he is loyal, and both of those things get used against him. When Killer Kato takes Rasheen under his wing, the mentorship turns out to be a leash: suicide runs on rival drug houses, bodies that trace back to Rasheen and never to Kato, and a life sentence that arrives right on schedule.
Kato does not stop there. While Rasheen sits with a life bid, Kato takes Lameek — Rasheen's baby brother — and builds him into a platinum rap star, then works him like property. Two brothers, two cages, one man holding both sets of keys.
Then Rasheen gets out
The second half of Money Grip is what a man does with seven years of stored-up arithmetic. Rasheen comes home into a war he did not start and cannot leave: a Colombian cartel holding a standing contract on his life, a Dominican crew with its own ledger, a rap-industry beef being deliberately inflated by executives who profit from body counts, and federal agents who see him as leverage rather than a person. He chases the overnight comeback. He chases revenge. He learns which of those two things a man can actually catch.
Why this urban fiction novel and not another
Divine G wrote Money Grip inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility while serving twenty-five years for a crime he did not commit. The courtroom procedure in these pages is not researched. The CPL 440.10 motion Rasheen files is the motion the author filed. The prison bus, the calendar dates, the seven-page decision read eight times before it starts to feel real — that is reporting wearing the clothes of fiction. Street literature rarely arrives with this kind of provenance.
The ending turns on a piece of dramatic irony readers have been arguing about since 2006. It is the reason the trilogy exists.
Book details
Title
Money Grip (Revised & Enhanced Edition)
Author
John "Divine G" Whitfield
Genre
Urban fiction · street lit · crime
Settings
Brooklyn, NY · Watts, LA · 1990s–2000s
Series
Part one of a trilogy
Publisher
Divine G Entertainment
Formats
Paperback, eBook, full-cast audiobook
Content note
Explicit language, violence and sexual content. Written for adult readers.
Nobody could tell him, as he got inside that car, that there wouldn't be a wild-wild-west shootout the moment he stepped off the bus.
Money Grip, Chapter 13
Listen first
A full cast, not one narrator
Most independent audiobooks are one voice in a closet. Money Grip (Original Edition) was produced with a cast of actors, and original location sound design — closer to a film you listen to than a book someone reads to you. Play three minutes and decide for yourself.
About the author
John "Divine G" Whitfield
Divine G served twenty-five years in New York State prisons for a murder he did not commit. Inside, he became a founding member of Rehabilitation Through the Arts, wrote eight novels along with a shelf of screenplays and stage plays, and won multiple PEN America awards and the 2008 Tacenda Literary Award for best play.
His life became Sing Sing, the A24 film nominated for three Academy Awards. He holds a story credit, a screenwriting credit and an executive producer credit on it, and he appears on screen himself — as the fan asking Colman Domingo, who is playing Divine G, to sign a copy of Money Grip.
Before you order
Questions people actually ask
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Yes. Money Grip is the novel Colman Domingo's character autographs on screen in Sing Sing. The real Divine G appears in that scene as the fan requesting the autograph — asking the actor playing him to sign the author's own book.Description text goes here
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It restores scenes cut from the 2006 printing, expands Rasheen's prison chapters, tightens the prose line by line, and adds the connective material linking this book to Money Grip 2 and the forthcoming third volume. New cover and interior design throughout.
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Yes. Money Grip 2 opens with Rasheen fighting out of a coma caused by the events that end book one. Reading them in order preserves the ending the rest of the trilogy is built on.ription text goes here
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Direct orders are cheaper, include a buy-one-get-one free offer and a 7-day listen guarantee, and pay the author several times what a retail sale does. Paperbacks ordered here can be signed with an extra cost.
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The unabridged novel in a full-cast dramatized production with multiple actors, original score and sound design, delivered as MP3 files you own permanently. No subscription and no expiry.
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No. Money Grip contains explicit language, graphic violence and explicit sexual content, and is written for adult readers.
Start the book Colman Domingo signs on screen
Revised & Enhanced Edition. Paperback, eBook or full-cast audiobook (Original Edition).
Buy one, get one free. Seven days to change your mind. This limited time offer is available only for the Audiobook Edition