Urbanlit

An excellent compilation that encapsulates much of what made Yo! MTV Raps such an invaluable part of hip-hop culture, Rhino's Yo! MTV Raps: A Journey Back in Rhyme focuses on some of the most memorable singles that the show helped make popular with urbanites and suburbanites alike. (During the era covered here, most U.S. cities had no radio stations devoted to playing these songs; if you were lucky, you'd get to hear some of them very late at night on one-hour specialty programs.) All of these tracks are unassailable classics, making it an unforgettable history course for younger rap fans. It starts off with late-'80s East Coast (Boogie Down Productions' "South Bronx," Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It," Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's "It Takes Two"), rolls through South Central (the D.O.C.'s "It's Funky Enough," N.W.A's "Express Yourself"), hits upon the Native Tongues (De La Soul's "Me, Myself and I," A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It"), and closes out with an equally solid selection of early-to-mid-'90s faves (Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M.," Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones, Pt. 2," Craig Mack's "Flava in Ya Ear"). There was such a wealth of great material floating around during Yo! MTV Raps' run that there's no way this could possibly cover all of the ground. Needless to say, it wouldn't be hard for Rhino to turn this into a six-volume series with nothing in the way of filler.