Although I am a fan of the boom bap style of rap, there’s no denying that Uptown Saturday Night was a game changer for hip hop, not only did Camp Lo eschew the normal types of beats and still incorporate jazz and soul samples but they were literate and even had their own language, which was influenced hip hop lyrics. Oh and Sparkle was famously used by Australian electronic group The Avalanches on their legendary debut Since I Left You.
This book is an excellent companion piece to the Pharcyde book I read last week as it also describes 90’s hip hop and there are some parallels, well Rivers goes deeper as Camp Lo were already in their late 20’s when they dropped their debut so they experienced the beginnings of hip hop.
There’s also the obligatory analysis of the album, which I liked but I will admit I gravitated more to the historical sections of the book. Since I am a bit of a completist I am hoping that more classic hip hop groups and artists get their own books as four in a 127 strong series is too little.
The Bobsphere 