Customer Reviews

Street Jams: Electric Funk 2

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a young city kid in the glory years of rap and break dancing (1983-1985), this recording takes me back to that era perfectly. The people at Rhino have brilliantly compiled a wide variety of classic, essential tunes. Upon hearing them again for the first time, you will smile, laugh, and most of all, groove out to these masters.

"Jam On It" with its "Superman" reference and famous "Chipmunk" voices, is probably the best known tune from this era and defined a sound. My personal favorite has to be the hypnotic "Egypt, Egypt" which in my opinion was the only song to do the "Egyptian" breakdance move of the time. Its super high-tempo blazing electronic hi-hat and flanged-out computer voice rap makes it an instant hit at any party I DJ at and always prompts the "Where can I get that record?" from the crowd. Other notables are "When I Hear Music" and "Let the Music Play" which was confused and actually crossed over as pop.

This entire "Street Jams: Electric Funk" collection is worth owning. I recommened the box set for value, and if you want to know where the original, unsampled, origins of rap are, this is your collection.

The CD I really wanted to get was Part 1, but the local record store was out so I bought this one instead. I really love this whole disc! There are so many good early dance, freestyle and hip-hop songs on here. My personal favorite is Debbie Deb's When I Hear Music, which is very very catchy. Egypt Egypt is another cool track. Even the more pop crossover songs like Connie's Funky Little Beat and Shannon's Let The Music Play sound good on here. This is the perfect background for a party or a dance. Of course, there aren't any exceptional lyrics or deeper meanings, but it is enjoyable none the less. I am so excited to buy Part 1 now! I would definately recommend this to anyone who likes to dance or just wants to hear some catchy music that hasn't been overplayed on the radio.

When I heard this CD I just felt like breakdancing, even though I can't. It has songs from dance party hits like reckless, which is a rap song. To Egypt,Egypt. I played this CD in my class room and everyone was laughing and nodding there heads to the beat. This is a fresh CD!

Rhino Records has their hands on the licenses of some great artists and wisely rereleased them to a hungry old school crowd. Whether it was Grandmaster Flash or the Sugar Hill Gang they made a lot of fans very happy with releases like this one. Growing up listening to breakdance music in the early 80's these discs bring back a lot of memories. Here are my thoughts and track ratings;


1. Siberian Nights - Twilight 22 8/10 (Not as good as Electric Kingdom but still decent)
2. Computer Age (Push the Button) - Newcleus 7/10 (Good music, subpar vocals)
3. Egypt, Egypt - Egyptian Lover, The 7/10 (See track 2)
4. Pack Jam (Look Out for the OVC) - Jonzun Crew, The 7/10
5. Reckless [Club Mix] - Chris "The Glove" Taylor & David Storrs ; Rap By Ice-T 5/10 (Cheesy scratch rap)
6. R-9 - Cybotron (Atkins at it again) 8/10
7. When I Hear Music - Deb, Debbie 5/10
8. Young Ladies - Fast Lane 6/10
9. 122 BPM - Jive Rhythm Trax 6/10 (Honestly this track is just minimal beats, I guess the name fits)
10. Jam on It - Newcleus 6/10 (Never been a fan of this song but it's catchy)
11. Funky Little Beat - Connie 3/10 (more chipmunks)
12. Let the Music Play - Shannon 9/10 (Classic!)


This album consists mostly of supbar old school tracks with only tracks like Siberian Nights, R-9 and Let the Music Play standing out as exceptional. The majority of the album is mediocre with some awful stuff in between. My advice is to listen to it for the classics and appreciate their sound but let your ears gloss over the rest. Note: this is Disc 2 of a 4 disc set.

If you came up in the mid 80's, I mean like in high school or something like that then you will know what I am talking about. This album and the series bring back so many memories. It was when rap was "happy" and the beats are what you paid attention to and you could actually rap the whole song with the MC. These tracks are oldschool and most younger people won't get the lyric's or beats. If you are over thirty then you have to get these and if you are younger you might learn some history.

If you like Stevie B music then this is a great cd to have, if you buy you will see, a must have...

I was so surprised how quick I got this order....Good JOB!

old school songs remind me of the good ole days of just having fun

I hear people say Newcleus, The Egyptian Lover, and all other acts from the Electronic Funk Hip-Hop age aren't true MC's. They say these guys couldn't rap if their names were Saran and Plastic. Critics say these guys simply spit nursery rhymes over really danceable beats, and because the audience was to busy dancing, they didn't notice the lack of lyrical complexity. Well, those critics are right. My 15-year-old sister can rap better than Newcleus. Thing is, when the bass beat in `Jam On It' hypnotizes your body into pop-locking, or causes a girl's butt to slam into you with a back-and-forth motion, nobody cares Cosmo D used the literary gem "like Burger King, with a stack of Big Macs." No intelligent person should try to compare The Egyptian Lover's word play and rhyme schemes to Rakim's. It goes without saying there is no comparison. However, you cannot honestly tell me `Egypt Egypt' didn't make you attempt a windmill at some point in your life, or at least bust a funky two-step to the beat. These acts used turntables, rhymed without singing - which constitutes rapping - and kicked-started jams in urban communities, with songs featuring beats only deaf people couldn't groove to. Sounds like Hip-Hop to me. If you like to dance, and you consider yourself a fan of Hip-Hop, do yourself a favor and buy all four volumes of this album.

Ice-T is the only good rapper on here, The rest is lameo stupid disco schlock. This is posuer rap. im talking total losers. Stupid kiddie beats make this sound like an episode of Mr Rogers