The book is small in dimensions, similiar to the jacket of a 45 vinyl. But don't be fooled coz it's thick with 176 pages of some of the best album commentaries in hip hop I've ever read. Oliver Wang got some of the best writers in Hip Hop to write about albums they thought was important since it all began. For those who don't know Oliver has written for some of the top urban publications such as Vibe, XXL, The Source, URB plus many others. Some of the people who contribute to this book are pretty well known in hip hop circles, like Billy Jam and Reginald Dennis.

The format is straightforward, each writer contributes around 2 to 3 pages in the book to write about an album or at most 2 albums. Everything from Company Flow's "Funcrusher Plus" to BDP's "Criminal Minded" and even touching on Juvenile's "400 Degreez". 

I found this book insightful as they talk about them in a reflective way, often giving little bits of info that you probably never knew. What I liked about this book was the diversity covered, e.g. politics (Public Enemy) to pimping (Too Short) to rhyme masters to platinum folks. And while they did cover the bulk of what is considered 'classic' albums I feel that they did leave out other important albums. Nevertheless I trust that these will be covered in a future volume.

This book will be shoved into my book shelf and often withdrawn from my library every time I need to visit the John for a good read. A good read indeed. Get it if you can.

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http://www.john-book.com/reviews/classicmaterial.htm

For more info get at Kulsum Merchant at 514.499.8173 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

ISBN 1-55022-561-8
$19.95 CDN $15.95 U.S.
Paper: 176pp.
April 2003

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