Amazon's description of the new book

[Bernard Goetz]

Funny to hear Paul's Boutique described as "genre-defying" - it's 100% hiphop.

[dave790]

It defied what hip hop was at the time, though.

[Bernard Goetz]

Ah, I can see that - I was reading the term "genre-defying" as meaning uncategorizable.

[dave790]

I agree it is not particularly clear, though it is difficult to properly explain anything in blurbs / abstracts.

That being said, it has only enhanced my excitement for the final product! One thing I find with such memoirs is that they are often heavily weighted towards the early years. Which makes sense, but I don't know - I'm kind of just as interested in the 2000s as the 1980s.

Pumped either way!

[Extra Cheese]

I wonder how long sacha jenkins was involved for, probably not much at all. From the time the book was announced to now he's been a pretty busy man. It's too bad. I was really excited about this book when I heard he was going to be involved.

contributions from Amy Poehler, Colson Whitehead, Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson, Luc Sante, and more

I guess that sounds somewhat interesting in way.

[dave790]

Yes agreed - I've read that booklet so many times, if I ever hear a song off the Anthology I can practically relay every single word! While they were very entertaining interviewees, they rarely spoke that seriously about the process of creating songs (in my experience), so I found the booklet to be very revelatory.

Originally Posted by Extra Cheese

I wonder how long sacha jenkins was involved for, probably not much at all. From the time the book was announced to now he's been a pretty busy man. It's too bad. I was really excited about this book when I heard he was going to be involved.



I guess that sounds somewhat interesting in way.

I thought Sacha Jenkins was editing the book? At least the description doesn't say he's NOT editing it, but you'd think it would mention it if that was the case.

[brooklyndust]

Originally Posted by dave790

they rarely spoke that seriously about the process of creating songs (in my experience), so I found the booklet to be very revelatory.

I thought they brought in good insight on how songs evolved and were created. Unless you were looking for more technical aspects.

It seemed a lot of it was jamming and fucking around (like for Sabotage) and then polishing it up later.

Or really digging a groove like Jimmy Smith's Root Down, making a beat and then putting the lyrics on top of it later.

[cj hood]

Originally Posted by Extra Cheese

I wonder how long sacha jenkins was involved for, probably not much at all. From the time the book was announced to now he's been a pretty busy man. It's too bad. I was really excited about this book when I heard he was going to be involved.



I guess that sounds somewhat interesting in way.

He backed out cuz they were taking too long....

[brooklyndust]

Originally Posted by dave790

I'm kind of just as interested in the 2000s as the 1980s.

Pumped either way!

I am a bit more interested in that period too.

The LTI era has been covered a lot and you hear many stories from other Def Jam artists biographies around that time period, but I'm curious around the Hello Nasty era and the hiatuses that followed. No matter what era, I can't wait to check it out.
If it's anything like the anthology booklet that I've read 100's of times, then it will be great.

[Brother McDuff]

I think they are far prouder of their output post LTI, and have actively tried to be recognized for such over the years. Mike's recent interview even illustrates his belief that their career shouldnt be defined by a handful of milestones (LTI, Sabotage video, etc.), but just as much the smaller events in between. So considering it's an autobiography and they're at the wheel, I reckon they'll handily offer up plenty of juice on the latter.

[Michelle*s_Farm]

Originally Posted by Bernard Goetz

Funny to hear Paul's Boutique described as "genre-defying" - it's 100% hiphop.

I remember at the time playing it for others and some folks said 'what the hell is this?'. Others thought it contained too many samples. I do think "Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun" must have sounded quite unique compared to other rap singles. "Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun" appears to take the rap rock sounds from LTI and update them in significantly interesting ways. Perhaps this postmodern pastiche is what makes PB so timeless.