Critical reception The book was positively received by the music press, both when it was originally released and when it was re-released in 2004. It regularly features in shortlists of important books about the history of bass music, including those compiled by
Mixmag, Attack Magazine, Identification of Music, and online music blogs like readsnriddims.com. When talking to
UKF music journalist Ben Murphy described
All Crews as an 'excellent' guide to
Drum and Bass.
Beatportal also referenced
All Crews as source material in an online feature about the 'definitive history of
Drum and Bass'. Nottingham arts and culture magazine
Leftlion, reviewed the 2005 edition and labelled it a 'classic'. In 2013 Romanian music magazine Awkmo published a feature about the prevalence of bootlegged copies in the
Romanian
Drum and Bass scene in
Timișoara. In 2020,
Reverb quoted interviews from
All Crews in a feature about the use of
samplers in the development of
Jungle Drum and Bass from
Breakbeat Hardcore All Crews has also been referenced in multiple other books about DJing, club culture and
Jungle Drum and Bass. In
Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton's title
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life All Crews is quoted extensively in the chapter about Jungle. Martin James also references All Crews multiple times in his title
State of Bass, as do Ben Murphy and
Carl Loben in their bass music title
Renegade Snares. From the 26th April to the 26th of August 2024 an early edition of
All Crews was featured as an artefact in the
Beyond The Bassline exhibition at the British Library curated by Aleema Gray and Mykaell Riley.
Academic reception The book has been cited as a source in articles and journals across a broad range of disciplines including:
media studies,
cultural studies,
sociology of identity,
popular dance studies,
technological studies in popular music,
psychedelic research,
histiography and even
contemporary archaeology. In late 2021, Dr Chris Christodoulou, senior lecturer at
Westminster School of Arts held an academic panel discussion about the book's importance as an academic text entitled 'The impact and significance of Brian Belle-Fortune’s ‘All Crew Muss Big Up’. ==Synopsis==