Illmatic to become a book

"Large Professor Reacts To Illmatic Being Turned To Book
September 4th, 2008 Author: Jake Paine

Hip Hop scholar, author and activist Dr. Michael Eric Dyson announced yesterday that he is currently writing a book on Nas' debut album Illmatic. The 1994 release received the coveted five mic rating from The Source magazine, and is considered by many, to be the greatest single Hip Hop album of all times.

"Every song on Illmatic will be analyzed, interpreted and then re-articulated in a kind of intellectual sense from his own base in Hip Hop and we’re trying to deal with that seriously," Dyson told AllHipHop.com Wednesday."

Full Story Here: HipHopDX

Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies

Product Description
A Tribe Called Quest • Beastie Boys • De La Soul • Eric B. & Rakim • The Fugees • KRS-One • Pete Rock & CL Smooth • Public Enemy • The Roots • Run-DMC • Wu-Tang Clan • and twenty-five more hip-hop immortals

It’s a sad fact: hip-hop album liners have always been reduced to a list of producer and sample credits, a publicity photo or two, and some hastily composed shout-outs. That’s a damn shame, because few outside the game know about the true creative forces behind influential masterpieces like PE’s It Takes a Nation of Millions. . ., De La’s 3 Feet High and Rising, and Wu-Tang’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A longtime scribe for the hip-hop nation, Brian Coleman fills this void, and delivers a thrilling, knockout oral history of the albums that define this dynamic and iconoclastic art form.

The format: One chapter, one artist, one album, blow-by-blow and track-by-track, delivered straight from the original sources. Performers, producers, DJs, and b-boys–including Big Daddy Kane, Muggs and B-Real, Biz Markie, RZA, Ice-T, and Wyclef–step to the mic to talk about the influences, environment, equipment, samples, beats, beefs, and surprises that went into making each classic record. Studio craft and street smarts, sonic inspiration and skate ramps, triumph, tragedy, and take-out food–all played their part in creating these essential albums of the hip-hop canon.

Insightful, raucous, and addictive, Check the Technique transports you back to hip-hop’s golden age with the greatest artists of the ’80s and ’90s. This is the book that belongs on the stacks next to your wax.

Rakim Told Me

Product Description
For years, hip-hop fans have been robbed of context and background when buying and enjoying classic albums from the Golden Age: the 1980s. “Rakim Told Me” brings you these invisible liner notes, one album at a time, with new angles and engaging stories. 21 albums are examined in-depth, and facts are uncovered with the turn of every page. Journalist Brian Coleman has, over the past decade, immersed himself in and written about the hip-hop art form as a columnist for national magazines like XXL, Scratch, CMJ and URB. In this volume, The ‘80s, he digs deep, one-on one, with legendary artists like Rakim, De La Soul, Ice-T, Public Enemy, KRS-One, Run-DMC, Slick Rick, Too $hort and many more. “Rakim Told Me” lets you dive head first into the world of your favorite hip-hop artists and the classic albums they produced. These are pure wax facts straight from the original artists, brought to the surface again after years of invisibility. So dig out your turntable, clean off your Zulu Nation medallion, crack open a chapter, and relive hip-hop’s most creative and captivating era.

About the Author
Brian Coleman is 34 years old and has been mesmerized and energized by hip-hop music since Run-DMC, Public Enemy, DJ Red Alert and "Yo! MTV Raps" messed with his teenage mind in the otherwise forgettable 1980s. In the past decade he has written hundreds of reviews and features about the hip-hop artform for national magazines and newspapers such as XXL (“Classic Material” columnist, 1999 – present; “Ill Techniques” columnist 2001 – 2003), Scratch (Editor-At-Large, 2004-present, “Pioneer DJ” and “Indie 500” columnist), Complex, CMJ Weekly (Hip-Hop columnist and editor, 1997 and 2001) and CMJ Monthly (Hip-Hop columnist 1997 – 2001), URB, Boston Herald, Boston Phoenix, Blaze and NY Press.