CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/9/2023

Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop

Featured spreads are from new release The Book of Rhyme & Reason: Hip-Hop 1994–1997, collecting 130 in-the-trenches photographs by acclaimed filmmaker Peter Spirer, taken during the making of his 1997 documentary about rap and hip hop, Rhyme & Reason. Featuring everyone from DJ Cool Herc to Tupac Shakur, Salt-n-Pepa, Jay-Z, Lauryn Hill and Ice-T, who contributes the Foreword, this volume undoubtedly captures some amazing moments, Spirer notes: “Puffy getting a trim in his office while doing three tasks at once; Biggie opening record plaques on his couch; Ice-T and Mack 10 hanging with their homies; Heavy D at the barber, playing pool, then celebrating at his ‘Nuttin’ But Love’ picnic. There was the ‘Jack The Rapper’ convention with Death Row making a statement, all at a Disney World Hotel, that ended in chaos. There were magical moments such as Redman and Erick Sermon freestyling on the mic to amazed onlookers at a block party in Newark and watching Wu-Tang Clan chop it up on the block in Staten Island on a cold winter’s day before they exploded.…”