In 1951 Ike Turner organized the band, booked the session with Sam Phillips and shaped the distorted guitar sound on "Rocket 88," a record many historians call a contender for the first true rock and roll single. The label credited it to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, Brenston sold the rights for more than $900, and Turner and the Kings of Rhythm were paid $20 each. In this deep dive we examine how that betrayal, layered on a Clarksdale, Mississippi childhood marked by his father's death after a beating by a white mob, an abusive stepfather and sexual abuse, forged a pathological need for control that built an empire and then destroyed it. This is not a redemption story; the episode looks strictly at the documented facts of an organizational genius whose cruelty is inseparable from his legacy.

We trace his education in the control room ...