Check the Technique Volume 2: More Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies (Wax Facts Press), by veteran Boston-based music journalist Brian Coleman, is the follow-up to 2007’s acclaimed Check the Technique (Villard / Random House), which has sold more than 11,000 copies to date. For background and information on Coleman and the book series, visit: www.BrianColemanBooks.com.
Presenting never-before-told, behind-the-scenes histories ranging from influential ‘80s masterpieces like DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper and 3rd Bass’ The Cactus Album to ‘90s classics like Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, Mos Def’s and Talib Kweli’s Are Black Star and Dr. Octagon’s Dr. Octagonecologyst, the book’s approach is one that Coleman calls Invisible Liner Notes – retracing the story of an album step by step, in collaboration with the artists themselves. Weighing in at 544 pages, the 25-chapter book includes lively, in-depth, provocative interviews with more than 80 artists, DJs, producers and industry insiders. All in all, 325 hip-hop songs are discussed and dissected, by the artists who made them.
As Coleman explains, “This third edition of my Check the Technique / Rakim Told Me series is the one that I am proudest of, by far. The interviews are deeper than ever before, the chapters are longer and more in-depth, and I have spent months gathering the 350-plus images that are included in the pages which really bring the stories of these amazing albums to life.”
Coleman’s past two books have sold more than 13,000 copies worldwide and received worldwide acclaim amongst both music and literary / cultural critics.
“Brian Coleman gets props for the exhaustive effort it took to interview the writers and producers of three dozen seminal hip-hop albums for Check the Technique. He doesn’t merely compile fresh liner notes and anecdotes from stars like Q-Tip, Chuck D and Too $hort. He captures hip-hop’s spirit from the ‘80s to the mid-‘90s, when inner-city kids discovered music through samples crammed into SP-1200 drum machines, learned the biz from shady contracts, and built their personae from their stage names up. Most admirably, Coleman sits back and lets these born storytellers talk.” – Entertainment Weekly.
“Rock historiography is full of lore about the making of canonical albums, but there hasn’t been much like that for the rap world – until now.” – Village Voice.
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