A fun, detailed read on a true hip hop classic. The album is probably still fairly slept on - hopefully the book won’t suffer the same fate.

I own many books in the 33 1/3 series and this title really shines. The author does a great job portraying the friendships and evolving relationships of the group menbers as well as providing great details on the producers. It almost reads like a screenplay and would make for a great movie - on friends coming together from their love of music and then growing apart under the weight of fame and demands from the industry.

A seminal album in a truly outstanding era for hip-hop that deserves a critical eye. I'm not sure what I expected from this book, however, as I don't think a track by track analysis is really needed (and that kind of approach would probably become exasperating right quick) and this reads like long-ish Behind the Music episode in a pleasing way, but I came away from this wanting a little more. That's probably an unfair reaction as I do think exposure and evaluation are important in their own rights, especially for an album that could be dismissed as playful and therefore not particularly meaningful when looking at the 1990s West Coast hip hop and popular culture and Mr. Barker effectively dismisses those types of criticisms. This is definitely a worthy project and I'd love more close reading of 90's hip-hop (I'm looking at you Enter the Wu-Tang). Recommended.