Various Artists - HipHop Essentials Vol 1 (14 tracks) +Album Reviews

Not bad but...

Nappyone | Minneapolis, MN | 08/26/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Here are the real track listings:

1)Rockin It - Fearless Four

2)Hey Ladies - Beastie Boys

3)South Bronx - Boogie Down Productions

4)Egypt Egypt - Egyptian Lover

5)Tramp - Salt N Pepa

6)The Symphony - Marly Marl

7)La Di Da Di - Doug E. Fresh

8)Rapper's Delight - Sugar Hill Gang

9)Genius Rap - Dr. Jeckel

10)The Ghetto - Too Short

11)Scorpio - Grand Master Flash & The Furious 5

12)Supersonic - JJ Fad

...i was pretty dissapointed 'cause i was really looking forward to getting Cypress HIll's "How Could I Just Kill a Man""

An ok series, but not without flaws...

Albert Smith Jr. | 11/27/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The cd's in the series has some cool jams, but any song with explicit language is "reversed" out, so you don't get the original cut, very much mix show friendly tracks, so if you want the unedited stuff, you'll have to look elsewhere. The biggest shock on volume one is JJ FAD's Supersonic, which sounds like it was recorded off a worn out record. The producer of this cd could have easily been taken it off the cd that came out in the late 80's, and given us a clean sounding recording. This is not the version that had the original 5 girls in the group, but the remake with Dr. Dre with the remaining 3."

Average, could be better

R. Preciado | West Coast, USA | 01/24/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First and foremost, this is the correct track listing:

1. Rockin' It - Fearless Four

2. Hey Ladies - Beastie Boys

3. South Bronx - Boogie Down Productions

4. Egypt Egypt - Egyptian Lover

5. Tramp - Salt 'N Pepa

6. Symphony, The - Marly Marl

7. La Di Da Di - Doug E. Fresh

8. Rapper's Delight - Sugar Hill Gang

9. Genius Rap - Dr. Jeckel

10. Ghetto, The - Too Short

11. Scorpio - Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five

12. Supersonic - J.J. Fad

Even with the notable omissions of "How I Could Just Kill a Man" (do your self a favor and get the original Cypress Hill CD) and "Ya Got's Ta Chill" (again grab EPMD's Strictly Business CD, you will not be disappointed), this set does have its nuggets. Now the disappointment: these are clean edited versions. The biggest disappointment, in my opinion, is "La Di Da Di", when Slick Rick raps,"And with your wrinkled ***** you can't be my lover". A shame, because most of us that have listened to hip hop/rap understand that explicit lyrics are part of that genre. I am from the school of thought of letting lyricists express themselves however they wish, from Pigeon John's non-swearing style to Eazy-E's hardcore gangsta rap lyrics. The last disappointment, as mentioned before, is the quality of the J.J. Fad track. Yes, you can hear the crackle of the vinyl from which this track was ripped from. A better quality choice would be found on Ruthless Record's A Decade Of Game 2 CD set. You will enjoy the rest of the tracks with gems from Marley Marl's "The Symphony" to Too Short's "The Ghetto" (editing was not necessary for this track)."

Disappointing series on several levels

Aaron K | Dallas, TX | 04/05/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I had high hopes for this series when it first came out. However, upon purchasing the first four volumes, I was very disappointed, and I will not be buying any further volumes.

As another reviewer has pointed out, the song "Supersonic" by JJ Fad was taken off of a vinyl record. He wasn't exaggerating about the poor sound quality. The record they used for this one sounds like it was very worn, while I have two or three other CDs where this song has no crackles or record noise whatsover. This is a common theme that shows up throughout the series, and in fact, volume one has another track from vinyl: "Rockin' It." It's not as bad sounding as "Supersonic," but you can still hear the vinyl noise if listening on a good sound system.

The second problem with this series, as other reviewers have pointed out, is the editing. While I personally have no problem listening to (and often times prefer) the clean versions, the producers of this series have not taken the time to track down the ORIGINAL clean versions of these tracks. Instead, they have used an explicit album version and "reversed" the objectionable words. While volume one doesn't have too many of these "reversed" edits (only "La Di Da Di"), volume three, for instance, has practically half of the AMG song playing backwards. It would've made much more sense either to put a PA sticker on the album or to have chosen a different track.

My last issue with the series, although minor, is the random order of the tracks. It would've been nice to see chronological order across the entire series, or at least on each disc. Also, there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason as to why each track was selected. On this first installment, we get "Hey Ladies" followed by "South Bronx" followed by "Egypt Egypt." Admittedly, randomness can be fun while playing your iPod on shuffle mode; however, I like listening to albums that flow well. I want to know that the producer put some throught into the album and didn't just throw a bunch of random songs on the disc.

Overall, it sounds like someone came up with a great idea (this series), but rushed putting it together and made several goof-ups. Given more time and thought this series could've been a 5/5."

Search - Various Artists :: Hip-Hop Essentials Vol. 1

CD Details

Synopsis

Similar CDs

CD Reviews