Best Gift Shopping > Music > Old School
|
|
Best Gift Shopping > Music > Old School
|
|
Licensed to Ill(more) »rank: 1915by: Beastie Boys
Our review: essential recording:The joke of Licensed to Ill's cover--that the Beasties could crash their jet into the side of a mountain and keep on tickin'--serves as a good metaphor for a career that even some of their 1986 admirers thought might be over after the one-time-only shock of this full-length debut. That thousands of funk-junkie wannabes have since failed at re-creating its groove, breaking-the-law vibe, and ear-splitting mix of rock and rap is an even better joke. And funniest of all is the record itself, which packs dexterous boasts, aural puns, and lots and lots of yelling into a disc that can still ... Detail |
The Dana Owens Album(more) »rank: 3310by: Queen Latifah
Our review:Album Description:'...a collection of timeless classics chosen and covered by the Queen herself' :Everyone grows up... even rappers. Pioneering female MC Queen Latifah shows a newfound level of maturity on The Dana Owens Album. A set of standards the rapper/actress decided to cover, the album features a host of jazz classics and R&B favorites. Latifah is at her seductive best when playing the sultry siren on Al Green's 'Simply Beautiful.' With a little help from Green himself, Latifah's vocals slide over the warm, organ-drenched instrumental. The result is one that works today as well as it would have several years ago. Similarly, the ... Detail |
||
Solid Gold Hits(more) »rank: 4348by: Beastie Boys
Our review: : In celebration of Beastie Boys' 24th anniversary, Capitol Records has decided to pay tribute to Michael 'Mike D' Diamond, Adam 'Adrock' Horovitz and Adam 'MCA' Yauch-- known collectively as Beastie Boys, with the release of Solid Gold Hits. (No, the group is not breaking up.) The infomercial-worthy 15-track compendium distills the NYC trio's storied career into an ADD-friendly digest format: Covering the Boys' first platinum-mining expeditions with 'No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn' and 'Fight For Your Right' through west coast detours 'Shake Your Rump,' 'So What'cha Want' and 'Sabotage,' up to last year's return to #1 with the million-plus-selling To The 5 Boroughs' ... Detail |
All World: Greatest Hits(more) »rank: 6260by: LL Cool J
Our review: essential recording:The very epitome of 'been there, done that,' LL Cool J also has the distinction of having originated (or, at least, being the most proficient at) half a dozen rap styles. On the hits collection All World, all the phases are represented: he was 'hard as hell' on 1986's 'Rock the Bells' and again on 1991's 'Mama Said Knock You Out'; on 1987's 'I Need Love,' he was the painfully sappy precursor to Boyz II Men, but he had the formula down pat for 1990's 'Around the Way Girl' (and then he went sappy again on 1995's 'Hey Lover,' a collaboration ... Detail |
||
The Great Adventures of Slick Rick(more) »rank: 8454by: Slick Rick
Our review: :After he gained legendary status rapping on Doug E. Fresh's 'La Di Da Di,' it was only a matter of time before the world would clutch British-born Ricky Walters to its heart. Rick had already fancied himself a rabid storyteller (and a mighty good one) on Fresh's track 'The Show,' and Great Adventures became Slick Rick's novella. Not content with one perspective, Slick Rick often employed tag-team rhyming with himself as his own partner ('Mona Lisa,' 'Teacher Teacher'). His cautionary tales ('Hey Young World,' 'Children's Story,' 'Teenage Love') work much better than his freaky tales ('Treat Her Like a Prostitute,' 'Indian Girl'). Still, ... Detail |
Paul's Boutique(more) »rank: 5386by: Beastie Boys
Our review: : Beastie Boys Photos More from Beastie Boys The Sounds of Science Check Your Head IIll Communication Hello Nasty Awesome, I Shot That DVD Video Anthology - Criterion Collection Amazon.com essential recording:After the out-of-nowhere success of Licensed to Ill, the Beasties had to prove they were more than one-album wonders, and they hit it out of the park with this follow-up. The Boys' lyrics are a hysterical deluge of cultural allusion (Ponce De Leon, Sadaharu Oh, and Love Connection's Chuck Woolery all get name-dropped), compressed wordplay, and adenoidal snottiness, but the real stars are the Dust Brothers, whose production is ... Detail |
||
What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective(more) »rank: 12488by: Steinski
Our review:Album Description:'Brilliant.' -- URB 'A masterpiece.' -- Salon.com 'Jaw-dropping. Perfectly paced, clever, funny, and down-right funky.' -- The Wire Steinski (advertising writer, DJ, and record collector Steve Stein) produced his first record in 1983. In response to a nationwide remix contest by Tommy Boy Records, he and partner Double Dee (engineer and studio wizard Douglas DJ Franco) produced 'The Payoff Mix.' A panel of ten judges--including Afrika Bambaataa, Shep Pettibone, Jellybean Benitez, and Arthur Baker--unanimously chose the mix as the winner. Within two weeks 'The Payoff Mix' became a Top 10 request on urban radio nationwide, but the release never saw official status ... Detail |
Check Your Head(more) »rank: 4017by: Beastie Boys
Our review: essential recording:With their third album, the Beasties transformed themselves from smart-ass punks with a hip-hop jones into a playful live funk band with some solid rhymes, assisted by the extraordinary keyboardist Mark Ramos Nishita. A couple of tracks look back to their old school rap roots, and they still deploy goofy samples like nobody's business, but they're mostly making their own grooves (including some instrumentals worthy of being sampled in their own right). Their universalist world-view results in some excellent, off-the-wall fusions--the metalloid bump that forms the funk pulse of 'So What'cha Want,' Sly Stone's 'Time for Livin'' transformed into a hard-rock ... Detail |
||
Ill Communication(more) »rank: 7022by: Beastie Boys
Our review: : Beastie Boys Photos More from Beastie Boys Paul’s Boutique To The 5 Boroughs Check Your Head Sounds of Science Awesome, I Shot That DVD Video Anthology - Criterion Collection Amazon.com essential recording:By 1994 the Beasties had settled into their cultural role as the grand arbiters of cool, and Ill Communication is pretty much a catalog of coolness: live funk, a bit of hardcore, ingenious samples of obscure records, keyboards by analogue master Money Mark, guest shots by Q-Tip and Biz Markie, MCA's cop-show metal number 'Sabotage,' and the inevitable cascade of witty old-school rhymes. But it's also a surprisingly ... Detail |
The Best Of SugarHill Gang: Rapper's Delight(more) »rank: 12930by: The Sugarhill Gang
Our review:Album Description:1995 compilation on Castle's Sequel label featuring 12 of these rap pioneer's phattes, including 'Rapper's Delight' (Album Version & Ben Leibrand DMC Remix), 'Apache' and 'KickIt Live From 9 To 5'. :It's not quite the first rap record, or the best, but Rapper's Delight--15 glorious minutes of the bass line from Chic's 'Good Times,' with a New Jersey crew spieling goofy routines about Superman and bad food on top--is one king hell of a party-starter. After that, they could have filled the rest of the disc with crowd noise and gotten away with it, but the Sugarhill Gang had a bunch of ... Detail |