Outtakes: How did you get interested in writing this book?
Coleman: I just always wanted to know more. The more work I did as a journalist, it started to piss me off that nobody put liner notes in the records. I knew all these records by heart, but didn´t know a goddamn thing about them. So it was basically feeding my own selfish interest in learning more.
The first chapter of the book is on 2 Live Crew.
I´ve always loved Miami stuff. What stood out to me, among many things, was Luke... not as a producer or MC but as a DJ, an A&R man, and as a musical visionary. As it relates to the South, he was Master P long before Master P, that´s for sure. I think Ghetto Style DJs has never gotten their due. So to me, it was great to learn more about that. People treat 2 Live Crew like they were a joke. They were funny, but there´s a difference between being funny and being a joke.
After gathering all of these stories, how do you approach putting it all on the page?
I´ve always come at it as a fan. I´m a fan first and a writer second. I didn´t want to present it in too academic a way, because academic approaches lack energy and love, they are often detached.
Some people have argued that this book is heavy on East Coast hip-hop?
I grew up in the Northeast, and I´m very self-conscious of my East Coast bias. But it´s important to have Common and the Geto Boys in there. And Cypress Hill and Ice-T, so, yeah, geography is important. There is a lot of back and forth... Beastie Boys recorded in Los Angeles. DJ Muggs was from Queens, Ice T was born in New Jersey, so there´s lots of cross-country pollination. I wanted to present it all on even ground. "Check the Technique" is available from Villard Books. For more information, go to www.checkthetech.com.