Where do I start with Jake Brown? To put him into proper context, Jake Brown is like the poor man's Ronin Ro . . and Ronin Ro is like the C student of music biographies. I say this because they both essentially do the same thing, their books are comprised of compilations of quotes from over the artist's career. Interestingly both Ronin Ro and Jake Brown have books on Dr. Dre (and Prince as well). Ronin Ro fails to keep the quotes within the chronological narrative . . he also fails to use quotation marks many times often. So the writer's dialogue leads write into a quote without any indication that you are now reading a quote. He also types like a hip-hop forum poster, leading me to believe the quotes are directly copied and pasted in from online forums. Example, he uses the letter 'z' in place of 's'. His most glaring offense is getting dates wrong throughout the book, not just this book but his other books as well - example, calling Snoop's 'Doggystyle' a 1994 album when it came out in November of 1993 is a minor offense when you compare him getting entire decades wrong. Like, who remember when Tupac was signed to Death Row in 2005? Ya, like that. Also 'The Firm' album coming out in 2006 . . Ya, exactly
However, the subject is Dr. Dre - which means if you compile any relevant information about him it's going to be an interesting read. There aren't many books about Dr. Dre. If you were a college professor comparing Jake Brown's attempt vs. Ronin Ro's attempt; you would be looking at a just barely passing D- student compared to a B- student. Jake Brown would be like the kid who really doesn't care about what he's doing but turns the work in anyway so he gets some grade rather than no grade. This review is just to let you know what you're getting, not to disparage the author. I have respect for what he does. If you look up his name along with the word "scam" you'll notice claims from music bands that he's hustled sponsor fees from to distribute their music alongside his book, apparently he attempts this in the rock music community but not in the hip-hop community. Seems to be a dated accusation though. However that, combined with this book tells me he's a hustler, I make no judgements, some people respect that sort of thing. These books are self-published, he makes about $10 a book as they tend to fall under the 150 pages threshold. he pays about $6 a copy to print these. If you really think about it . . in a novelty sense, there's something cool about this. If you're really look for a good book about Dr. Dre 'Rollin With Dre' by his former assistant is pretty good. Unfortunately there aren't many books about Dr. Dre, there's another one by some biographers that come off like they're writing from a law office that ran out of business and had to resort to writing biographies about artists they know nothing about . . example, here's a loose quote " . . so what is a "G" thang? Not sure exactly" - nonetheless, without knowing their subject biographers manage to put together books. Being that Jake Brown is self-published and has been doing this for awhile, he certainly takes no pride in his work so I have no qualms about saying this but I wonder how someone can be less-than-mediocre at what they do and yet still sustain a viable business. So I've looked into "Jake Brown" and tried to gather as much as I could about his business model, apparently you just put a book up about someone that who people are likely to search for and you make a few sales here and there. With all the above mentioned, I do recommend this book. Could you imagine this guy is somewhere like "just a few more of these cash grabs and then I can finally put out my life work, the book I've been working on for all these years" and it's like actually really good. Ha
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the author
Get new release updates & improved recommendations
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start over
- BIOGRAPHY OF DR. DRE: Behind the Beats – The Life and Legacy of Hip-Hop's InnovatorKyler BriggsHardcoverEUR 7.56 shipping
About the author
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2007Format: Paperback
Top reviews from other countries
- OGK AtlasReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2014
Very interesting read
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
