This is just to let Lessonheads know that Ruffhouse Records co-founder Chris Schwartz's book, Ruffhouse, dropped today. It's got an introduction by OKP's own Questlove and a foreword by Ms. Lauryn Hill, plus endorsements from Kool Keith, Wyclef, and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. If you are a fan of Schoolly D, Nas, Cypress Hill, The Fugees, or Kriss Kross, you won't want to miss this book. Edited by yours truly.

In the book, Schwartz describes in his own words how he and his partner, Joe Nicolo, built Ruffhouse from one desk and a phone to one of the world's most successful record companies--generating global revenues of over one billion dollars--while simultaneously struggling with drug addiction and alcoholism.

Chris is doing a launch event at The Strand Bookstore in New York City next Monday (6/24) and another one at the Barnes & Noble in Rittenhouse Square in Philly next Wednesday (6/26). Hope to see some of you there.

Here's a link to a review of the book that ran today in Insomniac magazine: https://insomniacmagazine.com/review-ruffhouse-from-the-streets-of-philly-to-the-top-of-the-90s-hip-hop-charts/

You hear a lot of about Joe "The Butcher," but I'd be interested in reading about the other half of the team.

Word. It's a wild story. Did you know that Questlove interned at Ruffhouse when he was a teenager, and that it was Chris Schwartz who financed the Roots' video for Pass The Popcorn?

>Word. It's a wild story. Did you know that Questlove interned
>at Ruffhouse when he was a teenager, and that it was Chris
>Schwartz who financed the Roots' video for Pass The Popcorn?

That I didn't know. But it doesn't surprise me.

I remember ?uest telling a story about being on stage with The Goats. They get mentioned in the book?

Yes. The Goats are discussed at length in the book.

Funny you should bring them up. When I visited the Sony Music Photo Archives to do research for the book's photo insert, the archivist told me that I was the first person in the 15-years he had been working there who had ever asked to see photos of The Goats. He had a few photos to choose from, though, and one of them appears on page 9 of the insert.