They played reggae, punk, ska, and hip-hop — all in the same song. And somehow it was perfect. Sublime was three kids from Long Beach, California, who built one of the most devoted followings in American underground music without a single major label, a single radio hit, or a single moment of mainstream attention. They did it the hard way — touring relentlessly, self-releasing records on their own Skunk Records label, and letting the music spread the way the best music always spreads: person to person, one converted listener at a time. Then, two months before their self-titled MCA debut was released in 1996, lead singer and songwriter Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose at twenty-eight years old. The album went platinum. 'What I Got' became one of the defining songs of the decade. The band was already gone. This complete biography tells the full story of Sublime — from Bradley Nowell's childhood in Long Beach's Naples neighborhood to the posthumous success that made them legends, with every chapter of the journey in between: • The Long Beach music scene that made them — surf culture, reggae, punk, and the underground circuit • The formation of the band and their groundbreaking eclecticism • All three studio albums examined in depth — 40oz. to Freedom, Robbin' the Hood, and Sublime • Skunk Records and the DIY ethos that defined their independence • The brilliant and troubled Bradley Nowell — songwriter, addict, father, legend • The posthumous chart success that gave millions of new fans what they'd been missing • The legacy, the influence, and the creation of Sublime With Rome For fans who discovered them through 'What I Got' and for the underground faithful who were there from the beginning, this is the definitive account of the band that made the eternal summer. What I got you got to give it to your mama. What I got — is this story.