Street Jams: Hip Hop From the Top Part 4 – Various

Posted on Jan 7, 2010

Song Listing

Reviews

The Street Jams series is overall an excellent collection and Part 4 is no different. Dana Dane’s “Nightmares” is a classic storytelling rhyme. “La-Di-Da-Di” is one of the most sampled tracks in history (including the Snoop remake in the mid 90’s). A must have for any collection. Doug Fresh and Ricky D both display their best traits- beat boxing and storytelling respectively. This is not the fully recording of the song though, which is not easy to find. Super Nature is the early incarnation of the soon to be supergroup Salt ‘N Pepa. Nothing startling going here, but an interesting beginning to a huge career. They call each other by their first names and only refer to each other as “the salt and pepa emcees.” It was one of the first answer records to Doug E Fresh’s “The Show.” Run DMC and the Fat Boys additions are all welcome and good tracks themselves. “No Show” is a straight dis record on Doug and Ricky D. “Gordy’s Groove” uses some interesting backing tracks but the overall effect is actually pretty good, with the exception of the last annoying minute. Fresh Gordon does have a cool voice. If Spyder-D would rap as himself and skip the Buckwheat garbage this song would be greatly improved. Instead he tries to go back and forth and make the song a duet with Spyder D and his alter ego Buckwheat. Listen to “King Kut” and check out DJ Cheese. He makes this seven minute track worth it. It always seems that Roxanne Shante has a problem with everybody and “Bite This” is no exception. She disses Run DMC, LL Cool J, and Kurtis Blow on this Marley Marl produced track. Overall an interesting listen. – JohnG

Whatcha see is not whatcha get on this compilation, especially if your hunting down the original version of Doug E. Fresh and Slick Ricks’ “La Di Da Di” on CD. I was so happy to find this song on CD when I first played it I began bobbing my head and singing with MC Ricky D but then all of a sudden when he came to the part of “what’s wrong because she looked upset” what came next was an edit of when he starts singing “it’s all because of you…” I was very disappointed in this purcahse since this was the second time I was dissed with this song. It just doesn’t sound right when your used to singing a part and it’s cut out. As for the rest of the album, if you want hard to find old school tracks I think you’ll be pretty satisfied, espcailly with Run-DMC’s “Together Forever,” King Kut’s “Word of Mouth,” Roxanne Shante’s “Bite This, “the Fat Boys Anthem “Fat Boys are Back,” and the best track besides the terribly edited “La Di Da Di” is “Nightmares” by Dana Dane. If your looking to get the full-length version of “La Di Da Di” then don’t look here because you won’t find it in it’s original form. – Reviewed by BrunoYO

Check Out More Posts From OldSchoolHipHop.Com

Street Jams: Hip Hop From the Top (Box) – Various Street Jams: Hip Hop From the Top Part 3 – Various Spyder D Street Jams: Hip Hop From the Top Part 2 – Various Sparky D