Grimm's childhood wasn't too much unlike any of the other kids in his dirt-poor neighborhood. Hard times and hard lives. For the most part, while his best friends Spoon and Goldie were out getting into mischief, Grimm was in the house studying or reading. Grimm had been somewhat of a child prodigy, highly skilled with computers and a photographic memory. His intellect had fast-tracked his graduation from high school, and he received his diploma at only sixteen years old.

Following in the footsteps of his deceased grandfather, Grimm enlists in the army. Instead, however, he would spend seven years trapped in a Saudi prison camp, subject to torture, starvation, and, most notably, the Pitt, a deadly underground fighting circuit where he was bestowed the nickname The Black Death. By the time he was rescued, he emerged a two-hundred-and-twenty-five-pound weapon of mass destruction.

Upon Grimm's return home, he finds that his neighborhood has changed. His mother is a broken shell of her former self, and his father has graduated from drinking liquor to smoking crack. His siblings are spread out, and his family is torn apart. His best friend Spoon is now an up-and-coming hustler and pimp, and Goldie has become a prostitute.

It's up to Grimm to fix his family and community. He embarks on a one-man mission to try and push some of the low-level dealers and users out of the neighborhood. Word of what he has done starts to spread, and the community is hopeful now that there's someone decent back around to protect those who can't defend themselves. He's beloved in the neighborhood, and some of the people start referring to him as the Black Godfather because of the way he's taking care of his people.

Grimm recruits his veteran buddies as backup, and in under a year, Grimm and his unit manage to do what the NYPD couldn't in a decade- clean up their block. Grimm now has a small army behind him that is looking to lock the city down.

Gradually he finds himself becoming more like the men he's fighting against. He starts slipping further into the darkness of the streets and his new Black Godfather status. Grimm models his team after the mafia and tells himself that they aren't a criminal organization, but in truth, they are. He's pushed the drugs out of his neighborhood, leading to them spreading elsewhere.

This all sets the scene for a confrontation between Grimm and Spoon. The two once best friends are now bitter rivals and locked in a personal war in the streets. It's a long and hard-fought battle, but it's only the beginning of a greater war. What started on the streets will take Grimm on a bloody path through the American ghettos and lead him to the halls of power, where he will face his greatest enemy yet.