Best of Enjoy

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 26, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hot Productions
• ASIN: B000001QIX
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,316 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Superappin

2. Love Rap

3. Body Rock

4. At the Party

5. It's Magic

6. Move With the Groove

7. Funk Box Party

8. Feel the Heart Beat

9. Just Havin' Fun

10. The New Rap Language

11. Rockin' It

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old School Harlem River Rap, August 25, 2000

By 

george s mcdonald (new york, new york United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Enjoy (Audio CD)

This is the best rap collection for people, who are interestedin the true roots of this genre of music. I have spent the last ten years trying to replace all my old 12" records that disappeared at a party one night. I started playing this CD and it brought back so many memories of my youth in Harlem NY. Rap started in the Bronx and Harlem in the late 70's and many of the founding fathers are on this CD. You can equate this CD to a collection of Delta Blues records from the 30's. If you really want to understand the music and the culture from which the music arose this is the CD. I would recommend this CD for many reasons, but the best is for the sheer enjoyment of hearing Spoonie Gee and the Treacherous Three (with a teenage Kool Moe Dee)in their prime. They rap about women, money and rocking the body at a party. These are the ultimate block party records from 1979 thru 1981. The music is stripped down with low production values and quite raw. This is the way rap used to be before videos and Lil Kim. Most people around the country never got a chance to hear these pioneers of the music because they got virtually no radio air play. Even in their hometown of New York City they got no air play until a DJ named Mr. Magic got a radio program on unknown station that could only be heard from 2am to 4am on Sundays, Thursdays and Saturdays. If you were in High School you would stay up late with your tape recorder to get the latest music for school the next day. The guys on this CD were the ones that were on this show. These artists used to perform their songs at legendary places like Disco Fever, The Audubon Ballroom, T-Connection and PAL on 122nd Street. They would get on the mike and battle til 4 and 5 am. Masterdon and the Death Committee bring back fond memories because they live across the street from me... During the summer months they would bring out their equipment and put on free block party shows. Their best stuff unfortunately was never recorded on vinyl, but I am sure there are people with their audio tapes that used to sell on the street for $3. Without question the greatest and most influential solo rapper is Spoonie Gee. Get this CD just to hear him talk tales of female seduction. This is when you had to have a "Love Rap" to get play with the young ladies. This CD also should put to rest that Rap Music is rooted in violence. It is instead rooted in good times, dancing and shooting the jive. This songs are to me what the Motown sound or the Beatles are to Baby Boomers. Too bad these guys didn't get paid like the current rappers.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you have any of the "best of.." Sugarhill sets.., August 28, 2005

By 

Ferguson "blahblah" (Evolving) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Enjoy (Audio CD)

..then you also need this.

Enjoy was like the little brother label to the more commercially successful Sugarhill. Both were disco labels that got in on the rap scene in 1979. Indeed, a few artists that went on to be Sugarill's biggest players (Grandmaster Flash & Furious Five, Treacherous 3, Spoonie Gee) originally started on Enjoy, as did beatboxing legend Doug E. Fresh who later went on to have a part in the movie Beat Street, had a huge mid 80's hit with the classic "the show"/"la di da di" 12" as well as two solid solo albums in the late eighties.

This fine compilation is not only a great documeent which captures the early years of rap, transforming from disco interpolations to original composition tracks to a more proto-electro sound to a little beatboxing, but it's also just a great compilation album that bumps from front to back.

You get the very first Grandmaster Flash & Furious single "superrappin'" (they actually had another single entitled "we rap more mellow" out under the name The Younger Generation a little before this but this was was the official debut) from '79 and while it's not as good as "the message", "white lines" or "step off" it's still a great debut. Witness Melle Mel kick the "a child is born with no state of mind" verse he later used on "the message" here first. Kicking that in '79 when most rappers were rhyming about partying..? Damn, duke was years ahead of his time.

You also get very early tracks like "feel the heart beat", "at the party" and the seminal "body rock" by Kool Moe Dee's old group Treacherous 3 which would be some of their best work, crucial Fearless Four cuts like "it's magic" plus my personal favorite the body-poppin' classic "rockin' it" and the Doug E. Fresh's debut "just having fun".

Finally, and most importantly, this is the only place you can get the 2nd 12" by the first ever solo rap artist Spoonie Gee with his 1980 classic "love rap"/"new rap lauguage" 12" (a top 3 rap single of all time as it's two classics on one 12") on cd. "Love rap" is a cautionary tale about meeting the fairer sex over a minimal, funky drum beat. The beat is so good that the instrumenal intro became a party favorite that d.j's would throw on for other m.c's to rap over back in the day. The flip side "new rap language" is one of the very first posse tracks with Spoonie and his pals Treacherous 3 all kicking tongue-twisting, complex rhymes over a very taut party rockin' beat. Pure brilliance.

Enjoy fell apart after a few years but it didn't matter as the label had done what it needed to do and given the early rap scene many a classic single. I'd recommend this cd for having the two Spoonie Gee tracks alone. That you also get the likes of "body rock", "feelin' it" and "just having fun" on here makes it absolutely essential.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Real Hip Hop"- NYC Style, August 8, 2002

By 

Dee Dawkins (New York City, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Enjoy (Audio CD)

Looking at this CD bring back so many childhood memories. I could remember growing up In Harlem, going to 125th Street to puchase these records as a teenager. Now, some 20+ years later, I feel that Hip Hop has lost it's touch. A lot of these rappers can learn a lesson from the Old School guys because if you listen closely, There is no profanity, no playa hating, and you don't hear of these rappers calling women out of their names. I really wished that hip-hop could have stayed pure and fun, unlike the west coast gang-banging, and the women being disrespected. Even the videos are becoming more and more annoying. Women running around half dressed, rappers having "Light Skin" women only in the videos, these rappers walking around with the "Bling-Bling". It's a shame that most of these rappers do not invest their time or money in their community!

I hope our future generation will not follow in the footsteps of our "Gansta Rap"

Old School Hip-Hop! NOW AND FOREVER!!