Customer Reviews

Big Playback

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This compilation is a companion to "Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists". The book is about three-hundred pages of hip-hop trivia, opinion, stories, and facts, in list form. The tracks here appear frequently in the book. They are each relatively obscure hip-hop songs from the eighties. Each track is in at least one list in the book. "Holy War (live)" by Divine Force and "My Mic is on Fire" by Lord Shafiyq are part of the list of DJ Premiere's "Quarterpound of Underacknowledged Eightees Hip-Hop Cuts". There are some common rap artists whose work, either under previous names or earlier bands, appears here. "Get Retarded" by MC EZ and Troup has rapping by a young Craig G, long before he hit it big with "Flava In Your Ear". This cd has some early material by producers who would later go on to success. "Im Not Playing" by Ultimate Force has beats done by Diamond D, prior to his fame in Digin In The Crates. Other producers present include Mark the 45 King and Marley Marl. You may recognize parts of some songs as they have been sampled often. "Get Retarded" is performed live by contemporary rap group Jurassic 5 as an intro to their performance, although hey change the lyrics only by inserting their names into the song. The gem of this compilation is "Beat Bop" by K-Rob vs. Rammellzee. It is a stunning ten minutes of psychedelic instruments and good versus evil in the ghetto lyrics. The liner notes in the cd booklet sort out just what wen on between Rammellzee and the producer Jean-Michel Basquiat as the track was made. This cd is a must for hip hop junkies who liked the book by Ego Trip. Hip hop junkies and real hip hop jingoists will find this to be a great cd.

by their own ranking system (in the lists book) this c.d. would rate pretty low as hardly any of this stuff is really essential to a well rounded "history of rap" collection. But that's not the point, the good folks at ego trip (bonz malone excepted) have provided us with a nice little collection of hard to find on c.d. (where did all my vinyl go?)

if your like me, snatch it up.