The 1997 Book is a project that I’ve wanted to produce for some time now, first envisioning this as a book, co-written between Shaheem Reid and myself. The idea was to do an oral history of what I was then proclaiming to be the greatest year in hip-hop history. We published an essay on the year in XXL, however, I later went on Fuse to talk about the issue (a Biggie themed one) and Touré asked me about the essay…and I wasn’t prepared. It turned into a Twitter debate between Questlove, T and myself, and in that exchange I realized I was intrigued by the transformation of the year. Big passed, ‘Pac’s death was still being processed, Bad Boy went on its run, but Def Jux, Rawkus and the underground still packed a mean punch. And Will Smith became a global superstar. Personally, the year moved me because this was the time in my life that I went from being a senior in high school to a college freshman.
I still wanted to pursue the the oral history angle, but by myself, then Dan Charnas (“The Big Payback,” The Breaks) talked me out of it. Said I had to do a narrative. Admittedly I was overwhelmed by that though and I also saw friends completing books with complaints about how challenging it was to work with some publishers. Of course, there’s some bad experiences and probably a lot more better ones. Yet, it inspired me to really think about what I wanted.
The reality was, I wasn’t sure if folks would still buy books (even though my personal proclamation is that books are the new magazines) and in thinking of my talents it dawned on me: I write, yet now I also podcast, host and produce video. Thus, the forthcoming iteration of this project was born. This blog to document the year and the process in real-time, followed by a podcast series, then an e-book, possibly (cross ya fingers) a web doc and a party (or two) to cap off the celebration.
Puff said he won’t stop, so why should I?
–Jayson
P.S. : That image above is from the No Way Out Tour in ’97, maybe my second concert ever. I went to the Philly jawn (!) with my best friend Barry. Copped a shirt from a street vendor afterward and wore it to my Econ 110 class that next week, which blew my anonymity in the large lecture class all the way up as the professor stopped to point out how loud it was. Ha!
