Brian Coleman Reminisces on David Toop’s Life-Changing “The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop”
About the Interviewee: Brian Coleman is a music journalist and historian who has previously authored two acclaimed, nonfiction music books: Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies (Villard / Random House, 2007; Shinkob [Japan], 2008) and Rakim Told Me: Hip-Hop Wax Facts, Straight From the Original Artists. The ‘80s (Wax Facts Press, 2005). Before that, he promoted avant garde jazz and moonlighted as a hip-hop journalist for more than a decade, contributing hundreds of articles and reviews to publications including XXL, Scratch, Wax Poetics, URB, CMJ, the Boston Herald, Metro Newspapers, and many more.
Coleman resides in Boston and runs Good Road, which encompasses a PR agency, apparel brand and record label. For more information, visit www.BrianColemanBooks.com and www.Good-Road.net.
“Keep in mind, when I write these days, and when I’ve always written, I try and emulate Toop’s approach, but I can’t come near it.”
Gino: You told Unkut in an interview with them, “I’m glad David Toop did Rap Attack, because that book changed my life.” I was wondering if you could talk about when you discovered it, where you were in your life, and how it influenced you and the way you were thinking about and writing about rap music.
Brian: I’m guessing I first came in contact with the book in the late 80's. It first came out in ‘84, I believe originally on a press called Pluto in the UK. Then it was picked up by an imprint out of Boston called South End Press, which put out the edition I have. At the time I was listening to a lot of hip-hop. I was starting to understand more about how it was put together and how sampling worked. I started to dig into some of the sources that people were sampling. That’s kind of an additional thing that hip-hop allows you to do. It allows you to enjoy so many different kinds of music. It’s like you’re constantly walking through this house and these different doors keep opening. I was kind of in that stage as a fan of hip-hop. I really liked it and I wasn’t just listening to it as entertainment. I was really interested in knowing more about it, but I didn’t have much context about it on my own. I didn’t understand where Bambatta, Grandmaster Flash, and Grandwizard Theodore came in. Maybe I heard those names, but they didn’t mean much to me at the time.
I was probably in my late teens when I first read it. I was really starting to realize that music wasn’t just entertainment. I knew that I wanted it to be a bigger part of my life. I didn’t know how that would happen. That’s kind of where it Rap Attack came along. I can’t remember where I first saw it and if someone gave it to me or I just found it in a used book store.
The two things I remember most about the book form a big picture standpoint were, not only was the way that Toop approached the book scholarly, but it was also passionate. He was clearly a fan. Even though it was very intelligent and historically deep and poignant, it wasn’t this BS academic jargon. It was written by an incredibly intelligent fan of the music. I could tell that right away. That’s how I try to write, with that kind of approach. I never want to write too close to fan-zine style. I want it to have some structure and read intelligently, but I don’t want it to be stiff. So I think that was my first impression. The second thing that I can remember very clearly is that the “Lightning Swords of Death” lists in the back of that book. I have the first U.S. edition, and I think it is currently in the third or fourth printing.
“I was probably in my late teens when I first read it. I was really starting to realize that music wasn’t just entertainment.”
Gino: Yeah, the version you have is very sought after and it isn't cheap.
Brian: No, it’s definitely not cheap.
Gino: Let’s talk about “The Lightning Swords” record list. I’d heard of Rap Attack and Toop before our interview, but I’m not familiar with the list you mentioned.
Brian: “The Lightning Swords of Death” is basically 100 songs where it’s like Toop was saying, “If you want to know more about hip-hop, you need to own these 100 songs.” I took that very literally and thought, “Oh shit, I need to buy all of these songs.” It wasn’t as simple as going to iTunes back in the late 80s. I photocopied it and kept a copy in my wallet at all times. That’s how serious it was to me. I didn’t question that maybe David Toop was wrong or that there might have been another top 100. This was the top 100.
So basically any time I was at a record store I would rip out the list and I would have to re-photocopy it because it would get folded and tear apart. But for the next however may years, that was part of my life. The book itself taught me so much context, but so did the “Lightning Swords of Death”. That kind of information wasn't really out there. You couldn't just go to a blog or look at what VH1 said were the top 100 songs of all time. At some point I should look, but I’m guessing I probably own eighty of those records. There are some I probably don’t have that have eluded me after all of these years.
Looking back now in 2015 on what my life has become and what my career has become, who would have known how important that book would have been? I don’t think any less important than if I hadn’t written my books. It still would have had the same meaning to me. And I’ve told David Toop that. I’m friends with him on Facebook and I’m glad I’ve gotten to tell him that on several occasions. He’s been very gracious about it. Yeah, it’s important that sometimes you just get struck by lightning like that in your life and it just pushes you a certain way.
“Looking back now in 2015 on what my life has become and what my career has become, who would have known how important that book would have been?”
Gino: The way you talk about the book reminds me of the way another interviewee, Michael Hauge, spoke about his book of choice, Hitchcock’s Films. He said in our interview, “When you have a passion and someone comes along and says, ‘What you love is worth serious examination, means something, and touches people more deeply than just as an escape,’ that’s a wonderful moment.” It seems like discovering Rap Attack resonated with you in a similar way.
Brian: Yeah, I probably read books previous to Rap Attack that talked about music in different ways and I’d always read magazines. I just think that the way the book was approached and also the way that it was laid out with the photographs in there, it all just kind of came together. The punk world in the mid 80s was my first musical immersion and real love. I was really into that in central New Jersey, so I read a lot of fan zines. There’s that kind of fan zine style that’s not exactly scholarly, but just as importantly it has that energy. Maybe it’s not really written as eloquently as it could be, but what it gets across is, “You gotta listen to this, and if you don’t listen to this, you’re missing out.” That’s what the best music journalism is. Not lecturing, and not being too esoteric about it, but just being like, “What the hell is your problem, why are you not listening to this new album?” And for me, a lot of the stuff that Toop was talking about, those were new albums. Some of them were five or ten years old, but they were new to me. I didn’t know anything about Toop, about his experience, and I’m sure I had no idea he was British. But he just seemed like he was in there, like he was in the middle of it. He made it seem like it was very exciting.
“That’s what the best music journalism is. Not lecturing, and not being too esoteric about it, but just being like, ‘What the hell is your problem, why are you not listening to this new album?’”
Gino: So many of things you've said make me think back to when I first read Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists and your book, Check the Technique. Before that, a lot of the writing I had read about rap music was very dry and overly scholarly. It seemed like it was trying to win approval from the academic circles and appear worthy. When I read your book and the Ego Trip book, I realized you could have a book go in-depth about rap music while keeping the raw energy and feeling that I loved about the music. You could inform people about the music without making their eyes glaze over.
Brian: That’s important too. Yeah, it’s the way you write about it, your tone, and the way you turn phrases. Keep in mind, when I write these days, and when I've always written, I try and emulate Toop’s approach, but I can’t come near it. I was never trained as a writer, I’m more of a fan. I consider myself much more of a fan and maybe a historian or interviewer than a writer. There are certain people who can write really well, but I just don’t feel like anything they say is of interest to me. That was the important thing about Rap Attack.
I also pulled out another book for this interview and it came out the same year as Rap Attack and covers a lot of the same ground. There’s this other one Steven Hager put out called Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music, and Graffiti. I think it’s still in print. Steven Hager was part of High Times interestingly enough. He wrote a book that was very similar in it’s approach. It kind of looks the same as Rap Attack. They were both being done independently and I don’t think either one was copying the other guy. Hager was American as far as I know and he was in New York. Toop was British and obviously visiting. I didn't know about the Hager book until a couple years later in the early 90s, even though his book came out in ‘84.
When you look at both books it’s kind of crazy to think that they both came out at the same time and they both had the same kind of milestones. They both talk about Bambatta, Flash, and grafitti. I think Hager’s deals more with graffiti and goes deeper with it than Toop does. Hager’s is well written, it’s well done, and it’s a great book. But there’s something about Toop. There’s something about the energy and how he writes that I go back to. I can still read that book again, and even though now I know everything that is in the book, I can still be like, “Oh, wow, that’s really cool”, as if I’m reading it for the first time. And that’s really the mark of what makes a great read for me. It conveys energy and information.
“That’s really the mark of what makes a great read for me. It conveys energy and information.”
Bookshelf Beats is a website run by Gino Sorcinelli. I interview people about books that change their lives, inspire them, and/or make them think differently. If you enjoyed this article consider subscribing to my Medium publication.
