“Just start to chase your dreams
Up out your seats, make your body sway
Socialize, get down, let your soul lead the way
Shake it now, go ladies, it’s a livin’ dream
Love Life Live
Come play the game, our world is free
Do what you want but scream”
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force – “Planet Rock”
Nothing rocks harder than a hot hip hop song. And over the past 25 years – starting with Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” – the hip hop world has proven time and time again that there isn’t much more to life worth rocking out to than killer beats and smooth rhymes.
Rap’s never really been an album-oriented musical genre, even though there are quite a few classic CDs that any true hip hop head cannot live without. This particular art form was born on the streets and at block parties, eventually becoming an essential part of any club, concert, or mixtape. It has evolved, crossing over into rock, jazz and country; it has taken turns growing and regressing; and it has split into too many sub-genres to name, from the more comedic, to socially conscious and thoughtful, to bitches, bling & buddah-centric.
There’s a rap song for every occasion. And there have been countless mixes, compilations and box sets attempting to put the best of these songs together in a nice, neat package. Impossible, right?
Yes. Until now.
The Hip Hop Box, released by Hip-O Records, is far from perfect. But it’s the closest I’ve heard to a “definitive history” of hip hop, and it’s hard to argue that the 51 tracks included on this box set’s four discs aren’t as close to the definition of hip hop as you can get.
Let me start off by making sure to call out this box’ incredible packaging. Just over five inches tall and 11 inches wide, this gray set is laid out like an ideal two-turntable set up. Lift up the top, and lay the first panel to the left and you’re shown a necessity of any hip hop deejay: a headphone and two mic jacks. Lift up that panel and lay it to the right, and you can bear witness to the four CDs surrounded by cityscape, with a thick booklet of liner notes laid in the center of this triptych, designed to look like that other essential part of any deejay’s life: his or her case of wax.
I skimmed through the liner notes, and what I read was incredible, but I stopped myself so I could review the music without being biased by the words of elite emcee Chuck D, writers Michael A. Gonzales, Tom Terrell or compilation producer Dana G. Smart. Not that I’m not biased already.
Indisputable Fact Not Open To Debate No. 6:
Hip hop rules everything around us: movies, television, video games, advertising, fashion, sport, art, literature, dance and vernacular (check Webster’s New Edition for “blink-bling,” “dis.” Soon come: “booth call,” “flex,” “floss,” “remix,” “boombap,” “front,” “dobe,” “pound,” “homie” and “wack”). Machu Pichu to Ayers Rock, Toykyo to Tel Aviv, North to South to East to West of the Equator and all compass points in between.
Page 5, “The Hip Hop Box” liner notes
I may be a white, suburban, middle-class poseur to some, but no one’s going to tell me that I’m not qualified to review a hip hop CD (or four). Sure, I didn’t listen to rap lyrics to identify with street life, and I didn’t complement my taste in the music with any rapping, deejaying, graffiti art, break dancing… In fact, me breakin’ is NOT a pretty site. But I grew up with hip hop as it was really breaking into the mainstream, and hip hop was as much a part of my life as it is any Gen-X white-boy, and no one’s taking it away from me.
I think I’m pretty lucky to have gotten into hip hop about ten or twelve years ago, because the songs that dropped in the early nineties set the barometer pretty high, and in some ways, it seems to me that today’s emcees are in a constant struggle to match what their forefathers laid down for ’em.
“There’s one R in the alphabet
It’s a one-letter word and it’s about to get
More complex from one rhyme to the next
Eric B be easy on the flex
I’ve been from state to state, followers tailgate
Keep comin but you came too late, but I’ll wait
So back up, regroup, get a grip, come equipped
You’re the next contestant – clap ya hands, you won a trip!
The price is right – don’t make a deal too soon
How many notes could you name this tune?
Follow the Leader is the title, theme, task
Now ya know, you don’t have to ask
Rap is Rhythm And Poetry, cuts create sound effects
You might catch up if you follow the records E. wrecks
Until then keep eatin and swallowin
You better take a deep breath and keep followin
The leader.”
Eric B. & Rakim – “Follow the Leader”
It all starts with deep beats and an emcee so smooth that it takes about three and a half minutes after the song ends to realize that you just heard greatness. Emcees try and try and try, and you can talk about KRS or LL or Biggie or Nas or Jay Z or Snoop all you want… but no one can sleep on Rakim. Has any rapper had a more distinct voice than Eazy-E? Has any songwriter been more prolific, dead or alive, than Tupac? Has anyone in the history of hip hop be as chillingly funny, poignant AND smart as Eminem? Maybe not. But they all had a leader to follow, they all had influences, and no one emcee has had more of an artistic impact on hip hop than Eric B.’s better half.
While the first disc of this box does a great job setting the pace for the rest of the compilation, and gives an important history lesson, Eric B. & Rakim’s track that starts things off on Disc Two is where my personal affection starts to play an influence. BDP’s “My Philosophy,” Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” 2 Live Crew’s “Me So Horny” and Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” is what I grew up on, and just as the old school sounds of this disc start to grow on you, the classic Native Tongues sound of De La, Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah, Monie Love and A Tribe Called Quest smacks ya upside the head, taking it home with “Buddy” and “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo,” the latter of which is THE definition of rapper-as-storyteller that made the genre easy for anyone to get into. Fun, groovy, smart. Even though some might say that “Scenario” or “Check the Rhime” – or even “Me, Myself and I” for that matter – are better examples of the whole Native Tongues style, it’s hard to complain about the content of this CD.
Oh bu-bu-but wait, it gets worse! I mean… If you’re not sold on this box set at this point, Disc Three seems to have been created to bring you over to the dark side once and for all. It begins with Naughty By Nature’s “O.P.P.” and DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s “Summertime,” and the mood is set. It’s time to chill out and enjoy some of the best hip hop’s ever offered, letting the music take you to another place, where you can reminisce, as “Craig Mack kicks the brand new flava in ya ear…” and Method Man and Mary J. give you all you need to get by.
” Instinct leads me to another flow
Everytime I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a ho
Trying to make a sister feel low
You know all of that gots to go
Now everybody knows there’s exceptions to this rule
Now don’t be getting mad, when we playing, it’s cool
But don’t you be calling out my name
I bring wrath to those who disrespect me like a dame
That’s why I’m talking, one day I was walking down the block
I had my cutoff shorts on right cause it was crazy hot
I walked past these dudes when they passed me
One of ’em felt my booty, he was nasty
I turned around red, somebody was catching the wrath
Then the little one said (Yeah me bitch) and laughed
Since he was with his boys he tried to break fly
Huh, I punched him dead in his eye and said ‘Who you calling a bitch?'”
Queen Latifah – “U.N.I.T.Y.”
Unfortunately, the big negative of this box set is the lack of featured female emcees. In fact, while it’s nice to remember that Latifah had her start years before Chicago, it’s depressing that “U.N.I.T.Y.” is one of only three songs (along with a song each from Roxanne Shante and Salt-N-Peppa) the ladies of hip hop have on this compilation. I’m not saying that J.J. Fad’s “Supersonic” should have been included, but when the majority of the ladies on this set include a verse here and there (Latifah, Monie Love, Little Kim and Ladybug have the equivalent of glorified guest appearances on mostly male tracks, and Mary J. Blige and Jill Scott sing a bit), it makes you wonder if hip hop’s female side is this underwhelming or simply under-represented. But hey, Lauryn Hill doesn’t seem to be complaining about it, and she usually complains about everything, so who am I to criticize?
“You can be as good as the best of them
but as bad as the worst
so don’t test me (get money)
You better move over (get money)“
Notorious B.I.G. from Junior Mafia’s “Getting’ Money (The Get Money Remix)”
Moving on to Disc Four, I’m reminded by the second track that Biggie Smallz was one of the best things to happen to hip hop, and there’s a good argument to make that his death marked the point where rap music jumped the shark, due to the dramatic shift of lyrical content towards bling bling and violence (not that it wasn’t there before, mind you), and the emergence of Puff Daddy’s quasi pop-rap following the release of Life After Death. But I have too much faith in the art to put too much credence behind that thought, and one thing’s for sure: there will never be another rapper on the same plane as the Notorious B.I.G. Perhaps he’s simply “hip hop’s Kurt Cobain,” in the right place at the right time, and dead before he had a chance fade out of his prime. We’ll never know. And this box set could have only been better with more Biggie.
Now I’m sure that there are plenty of reasons for songs being left off of this set. One is limited space, of course, and there were probably licensing issues along the way. How else can you explain nothing from Nas, Jay Z, the Fugees, Mobb Deep, LL Cool J, Slick Rick, Eminem or the Beasties? While I’m at it, what about Vanilla Ice, Kid N Play and The Fat Boys, dammit?! Hehe.
That being said, if someone had never heard a beat of hip hop and asked me for a quick history lesson, the best I could do for them is shut up and hand them these four CDs. Color me satisfied.
Track Listing
Disc One
Sugarhill Gang – “Rapper’s Delight”
Kurtis Blow – “The Breaks”
Treacherous Three – “The Body Rock”
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force – “Planet Rock”
Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five featuring Melle Mel & Duke Bootee – “The
Message”
Run-D.M.C. – “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1)”
UTFO – “Roxanne Roxanne”
Roxanne Shante – “Roxanne’s Revenge”
Salt-N-Pepa – “Push It”
Too $hort – “Freaky Tales”
Kool Moe Dee – “Wild Wild West”
Disc Two
Eric B. & Rakim – “Follow The Leader”
Boogie Down Productions – “My Philosophy”
Ice-T – “I’m Your Pusher”
M.C. Hammer – “Turn This Mutha Out”
Public Enemy – “Fight The Power”
The 2 Live Crew – “Me So Horny”
Biz Markie – “Just A Friend”
De La Soul (featuring Jungle Brothers, Q-Tip, Phife, Queen Latifah & Monie
Love) – “Buddy”
3rd Bass – “The Gas Face”
A Tribe Called Quest – “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo”
Main Source – “Looking At The Front Door”
Chubb Rock – “Treat ‘Em Right”
Disc Three
Naughty By Nature – “O.P.P.”
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – “Summertime”
DJ Quik – “Tonite”
Black Sheep – “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)”
Arrested Development – “Tennessee”
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth – “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)”
Digable Planets – “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”
The Pharcyde – “Passin’ Me By”
Onyx – “Slam”
Queen Latifah – “U.N.I.T.Y.”
Wu-Tang Clan – “C.R.E.A.M.”
Warren G & Nate Dogg – “Regulate”
Craig Mack – “Flava In Ya Ear”
Method Man featuring Mary J. Blige – “I’ll Be There For You / You’re All I
Need To Get By”
Disc Four
Redman/Method Man – “How High”
Junior M.A.F.I.A. featuring Little Caesar, Little Kim And The Notorious
B.I.G. – “Gettin’ Money (The Get Money Remix)”
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – “Tha Crossroads”
Scarface featuring 2Pac & Johnny P – “Smile”
Busta Rhymes – “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See”
Timbaland & Magoo – “Luv 2 Luv U”
Gang Starr – “You Know My Steez”
DMX (featuring Sheek of The Lox) – “Get At Me Dog”
Noreaga – “Superthug (What, What)”
The Roots featuring Jill Scott – “You Got Me”
Common – “The Light”
2Pac – “Until The End Of Time”
50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg – “21 Questions”
Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg – “The Next Episode”
