The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed

So much fun to look at!

I have read quite a few books in my 27 years of life and very few make me feel like I could really sit down and talk with the author. This book is one of them. I'm a casual Hip Hop fan. What does this mean? I get the vast majority of my music for free.99. Of course I also have an active Google Play account because I forgot about it after the trial membership 6 months ago and...'sec let me cancel that. Alright, back to the review. As I stated, I'm a casual fan. I'll buy an album here and there but I don't invest a lot of money into the genre any more (personal reasons). I am still in love with the culture and the craft. Just not that in love enough to spend money on a lot of it. So, why does any of this matter? Because, even as a casual, I still enjoy this book and if I enjoy it I'm sure the Hip Hop Heads would absolutely adore it. Talking about the people that are salivating over the idea of Vinyl Kendrick albums, btw. Full disclosure: I've only read through the first Chapter but I can tell this is going to be a great ride. This guy is entertaining and really comes off as one of the guy's you can have a conversation with on a lazy Saturday afternoon. That's really what this book is, anyway. A conversation piece. I can tell from the outset that I wont agree with everything this man lists but I am sure he'll make a pretty compelling argument for his decisions. So buy this book. I first bought it on Kindle, read the first chapter and then ordered a physical copy. It's that good. Bonus Points: Listen to the song for each chapter before reading it.

Full disclosure I didn't actually order this book from Amazon. I got it as a gift. Basically, I had to attend this dinner party with my girlfriend where I was about to meet a group of people I'd never met before. It was important to me to make a good first impression and not be this boring dude with nothing interesting to say. The night before I could barely sleep. When I finally did get to sleep I had the strangest dream. The ghost of Big Pun came out of my closet and into my bedroom. I was like oh my god...you're really him. Big Moon Dog, Big Punisher, Pun... Pun was like "yeah yeah kid and a bunch of other dopey nicknames, forget about that stuff, we don't have much time. I'm here because you're in some kind of a pickle, right? Some big dinner party, and you got nothing to say? Here's what I want you to do, go in there, and talk about hip hop." I said, hey Pun, look man, I don't know the first thing about hip-hop. I'm a real pale blond kid from the suburbs. The Big Pun looked at me and he said something I'll never forget. He said, "Everyone gets a chance to do something great. Most people never take that chance, either they're too scared, or they don't recognize it when it spits on their shoes. Remember when you followed Shea Serrano on twitter the other day? Someone's telling you something kid, if I were you, I'd listen." Then as he headed back towards my closet, he went over to my desk and picked up six rulers. He said, "six rulers...I don't know why, but can I take these?" I told him sure thing, and thanks for the advice. He told me, " Remember kid, there's heroes, and there's legends. Heroes, get remembered, but legends never die." And then he was gone. I woke up the next morning and this book was under my pillow. I spent the whole day reading it. And I crushed that dinner party. They're talking about making it a weekly thing.

The Rap Year Book is both a creative and thoughtful look at history as seen through the eyes of rap music. You don't even need to have heard all the songs to appreciate the depth of thought that went into this book (although it helps). Shea Serrano does a fantastic job of diving into a song, as well as giving a fair shake to other songs that were in direct competition for the top spot. He even includes guest contributors that make cases for particularly strong songs. The art in this book is incredible as well. It is a style that fits Shea's writing incredibly well. I would recommend this book to: you, your siblings, your best friends, your mom, your kids, your high school English teacher, your close acquaintances, your ex-girlfriend, your coworkers, and any and all pets. It is that good. Do yourself a favor and get it already.

If you want a review of what the author's deem as the best rap songs since 1979; this would be the perfect book to start with. I purchased The Rap Year Book for my boyfriend and he has genuinely enjoyed it thus far. Honestly, his biggest "complaint" is strictly not agreeing with some of the songs that have been chosen as the "most important". This is the perfect gift or leisure read for the rap enthusiast in your life. Not only does this book name the most important rap song of that year, it also goes into detail about the artist, as well as an in depth description of why they deem the most important song. Also a bonus which I was pleasantly surprised by was the fact that the book included info-graphics and hand drawn illustrations; I believe this most certainly added to the integrity of the book. Plus this book is a New York Times Best Seller so I thought that spoke volumes to its worth. In terms of purchasing and shipping, this book was a great price. This book was also offered as an Amazon Prime deal; therefore the shipping was free and I received it within two days of the purchase date. The Rap Year Book arrived on the date when it was supposed to and was in perfect condition upon its arrival. I am not only pleasantly surprised by the condition that the book arrived in, but also the content. I would have happily given this a 5-star review, but my boyfriend is still holding a grudge about some of the songs that were picked as the most important. (If anything it's opened his eyes to different perspectives of what others might believe are the most important songs.) I recommend this to anyone searching to find more information and broaden their horizon on rap music or for the general rap lover in your life. Definitely worth the buy.

This is a very easy read. It is broken up nicely into one chapter per year, the chapters are short, and there are graphics that quickly eat up pages. I'm a casual rap fan whose interest probably peaked in the mid-90s and has waned in the last few years, so roughly half the chapters featured songs or artists with which I wasn't familiar. However, Shea writes with that audience in mind, explaining the background of his choices alongside his justification for why he chose them. This is not an encyclopedic tome for hardcore rap historians (Serrano himself says so in the intro). Rather, it's a very entertaining and educational primer for the rest of us who want to learn the origins of the world's most dominant music genre and maybe be exposed to a few tracks we missed along the way while laughing at anecdotes centered around the San Antonia Spurs, sleepwalking children, and friends who turn out to be pimps.

This is the 3 Wolf Moon of Yearbooks, only if instead of Wolves, it's got Biggie, Tupac, and the God MC himself, Rakim. Ordinary yearbooks don't have pages and pages of painstakingly hand-drawn illustrations; no, all they've got are crappy snapshots that some wage-slave took on the hottest day of the year, then didn't even bother photoshopping (or airbrushing, 'cuz I'm old school like that). Ordinary yearbooks only let you pick one quote, and most people botch even that with something lame from Led Zeppelin that even the band was too high to figure out. *This* yearbook is packed with quotes, cover-to-cover! And not only that, they're the cream of the crop! Seriously, if anyone in my high school had dropped something as epic as "Fish, which is my favorite dish" as their yearbook quote, I probably could've just skipped college. Ordinary yearbooks are full of photos of your ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend...and that's only if you were actually lucky enough to *have* one. *This* yearbook is full of old familiar friends that you're actually happy to read about. Ordinary yearbooks are full of lame-ass notes that your friends scribbled on the last day of school. *This* yearbook is full of the bomb-ass wit and wisdom of Dr. Shea Serrano, PhD (I'm just assuming that he's going to have been awarded multiple honorary doctorates by the time you're reading this). Ordinary yearbooks make you think your past was lame. *This* yearbook is a reminder of how freakin' amazing your past actually was. The insight contained in the pages of this book would be a bargain at any price. Buy it. Buy it now...and then buy it again...because C.R.E.A.M.

His writing style, based on anecdotes and humor, will not appeal to everybody, but I found it very interesting and enjoyable. Most bad reviews on this book attack it saying that most of the songs are not the best song of the year but rather mainstream songs, but Shea's point is that those songs were the most influential / the first time a rap song of a certain flavor was made / the first time a rap song had such a success on radio / the beginning of a certain label that changed hip hop history. I agree that sometimes there are better songs (and Shea often does too, and he often mentions other songs which still helps to rediscover some great songs) but those chosen definitely made a huge difference in hip hop history. And obviously those choices are always highly subjective and some people will cry when they see that their favorite song is not on it, it was my case too but I also agreed that it didn't revolutionize hip hop in the same way. That's the purpose of this book and that's why I found it was a great book

Este livro serve ao mesmo tempo como uma história do rap, suas transformações e personagens; uma revista de fofocas em torno dos/das artistas do gênero; uma coleção de ilustrações e gráficos maravilhosos e/ou sem sentido; e, às vezes, uma autobiografia em torno da relação do autor com o rap. Informativo, engraçado e descontraído, "The Rap Year Book" deveria ser recomendado para qualquer pessoa que se interesse um pouquinho pelo rap americano e sua história.

Me gustó mucho

El libro está muy bien encuadernado y tiene una estética muy bonita. "Selecciona" la mejor canción de rap de cada año desde 1.979 hasta 2.014 (creo recordar). Está lleno de ilustraciones y tiene muchos datos. El libro es en inglés.

Originalissimo sia nel concept (anno per anno, incorona la miglior canzone rap) che nel formato (testi disegni e - talvolta- lyrics stanno insieme magnificamente ). É pieno zeppo di aneddoti, curiosità, storie che ti tengono incollato alle pagine. Ovviamente non ci si ritroverà d’accordo con tutte le scelte fatte, ma il bello delle classifiche é proprio questo 😁

Pour tous les francophones qui aiment beaucoup le rap(ou même ceux qui aiment pas beaucoup) prenez votre temps pour lire cette œuvre de Shea Serrano, l'anglais ici n'est pas compliqué donc ce sera une lecture plutôt simple. Donc c'est une œuvre qui analyse chaque chanson la plus "importante" de chaque dès le début du rap comme genre de musique en 1979 à 2014, les arguments de Serrano sont convaincants et surtout super drôles, avec ses petites anecdotes et sa connaissance en général de la culture rap, donc si vous êtes un hip hop head et aimez la culture rap prenez le sans avoir peur