How to Rap is an interesting book. It’s not an instructional text, but instead creates a general outline of all the different aspects of the emcee, then fills each area with commentary from of a pool of over one hundred emcees that were interviewed by Edwards. The result is a book that reads like a talking head documentary.

Edwards breaks down the book into four sections: content, flow, writing, and delivery. Each section is broken down further, at which point the interviews fill in the gaps and provide insight as to how different emcees work. Edwards drew from a large and varied group of artists, from old school acts like Big Daddy Kane to contemporary mainstream performers like will.i.am and underground emcees like One Be Lo. This helps paint a large picture of the hip hop emcee, and helps you realize that there aren’t sharp divides between these artists, despite differences in style and levels of success. There are some moments of disconnect, though, such as when will.i.am claims that he put as much thought and time into creating “My Humps” as he did with “Where is the Love?” I don’t know what point he’s trying to make with a statement like this, but all it does for me is cheapen “Where is the Love?” While the majority of content comes from interviews, Edwards does take the opportunity to further explain some concepts himself, such as diagramming rhyme schemes and cadences. It’s at these moments when I really do wish this was on film, so that we could listen and watch at the same time.

With a title like How to Rap, one might assume that this is an elementary handbook on hip hop. To the contrary, this book shows what a difficult job is to be a successful emcee. It’s really interesting read, and I commend Edwards to putting all of this together.