Hip Hop Essentials, Vol. 4

Various Artists
1 disc

1. White Lines - Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five
2. Roxanne, Roxanne - U.T.F.O.
3. Don't Believe the Hype - Public Enemy
4. Ego Trippin' - Ultramagnetic MC's
5. Raw - Big Daddy Kane
6. Mentirosa - Mellow Man Ace
7. Around the Way Girl - LL Cool J
8. It's Yours - T la Rock
9. Sucker Mcs - Run-D.M.C.
10. 8 Million Stories - Kurtis Blow
11. Go See the Doctor - Kool Moe Dee
12. Me So Horny - 2 Live Crew
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 1637

Credits

Producer	Ced Gee; Pete Q.; David "Mr. Mixx" Hobbs; Larry Smith; Mohandas Dewese; Eric "Vietnam" Sadler; Robert Arthur Jr. Ford; Carl Ryder; Full Force; J.B. Moore; Marley Marl; Rick Rubin; Russell Simmons; Tony G; Stu Fine (Compilation); Victor Lee (Compilation)
Engineer

Audio Mixer: Hernn Santiago.
Liner Note Authors: Bill Adler; Nelson George.
Photographer: Martha Cooper.
On the fourth volume of Tommy Boy's 12-volume Hip Hop Essentials series, some of rap's most memorable figures counsel listeners about the dangers of drugs (Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "White Lines") and promiscuity (Kool Moe Dee's "Go See the Doctor"), detail some of the grim issues of inner city life (Kurtis Blow's "8 Million Stories"), drop some serious izzle-speak (U.T.F.O.'s "Roxanne, Roxanne," three years after Frankie Smith's "Double Dutch" and decades before the debate about whether Snoop Dogg or E-40 originated the colloquialism), and take pride in pairing strange bedfellows (Mellow Man Ace's "Mentirosa," with its combination of polar opposites Kraftwerk and Santana). Though LL Cool J's "Around the Way Girl" is a questionable inclusion and appears only two volumes after "Goin' Back to Cali," the disc makes up for it with a series of some of the rawest, most urgent tracks from the mid-to-late '80s: Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype," Ultramagnetic's "Ego Trippin'," T La Rock's "It's Yours," Big Daddy Kane's "Raw," and Run-D.M.C.'s "Sucker MCs." Parents should know that this is one of the cleanest volumes of the series. And yes, that applies to the version of 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny," the one that exchanges a euphemism for sexual preparedness with "watching Arsenio Hall" and a euphemism for sexual fulfillment with "being a nut." ~ Andy Kellman