Search - Various Artists :: Tommy Boy's Greatest Beats 1

One of the seminal hip-hop labels, Tommy Boy has turned to the successful MTV Party to Go and ESPN Jock Jams series as cash cows, but increasingly the label is also turning to its vaults. Following the Perfect Beats series, a four-volume collection of New York electro-funk and dance music of the early and mid 1980s, comes Greatest Beats, a four-volume series of the label's finest hip-hop, with a sprinkling of R&B. They've left the chronological approach to Ken Burns and his ilk and sought to make mixes that are equal parts historical documents and party tapes. Volume 1 launches with Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force doing "Planet Rock," a song that defined summer 1982. Then the disc seamlessly jumps into the 1990s for Naughty by Nature's "Everything's Going to Be Alright" and Digital Underground's "Doowhutchyalike." In all, it's surprising to see how well Latifah's "Ladies First" and K7's "Move It Like This" aged and how much better the Bambaataa-James Brown collaboration "Unity" sounds without the nearby shadow of "Planet Rock." The mixture of radio, 12-inch, and LP versions creates an interesting combination of funk, rap, and soul. --Martin Johnson