HIP HOP GREATS:  CLASSIC RAPS   -   Various Artists

YEAR:  1990
LABEL:  Rhino
TRACK LISTING:  Rapper's Delight  -  Sugarhill Gang,  Fat Boys  -  Fat Boys,  White Lines (Don't Do It)  -  Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel,  Roxanne Roxanne  -  UTFO,  Jam On It  -  Newcleus,  It's Like That  -  Run-DMC,  The Message  -  Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five featuring Melle Mel & Duke Bootee,  Funk You Up  -  Sequence,  The Breaks  -  Kurtis Blow,  8th Wonder  -  Sugarhill Gang
IMPRESSIONS:  I originally had this album on cassette, y'all!  Can you believe that?!?  This was before I got my first cd player a year later.  Here we have rap back when it was fun!  When it was new.  Before it got tired and predictable.  The only problem with it is it's brevity; there are quite a lot of important and seminal rap songs missing from this album.  However, what's here is cherce.  And an extra added bonus is that it also features "Jam On It":  the song that gave me my nickname when Lynne M. dubbed me "Ricky Ricky Ricky" the first night I worked at my first job at Rustler Steak House.  Perhaps something like the later Rhino compilation "THE SUGAR HILL RECORDS STORY" is more comprehensive but this cd with it's colourful-striped cover has the nostalgic power for me. 
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Rapper's Delight  -  Sugarhill Gang,  White Lines (Don't Do It)  -  Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel,  Roxanne Roxanne  -  UTFO,  Jam On It  -  Newcleus,  It's Like That  -  Run-DMC,  The Message  -  Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five featuring Melle Mel & Duke Bootee,  The Breaks  -  Kurtis Blow,  8th Wonder  -  Sugarhill Gang
FACT SHEET:  HIP HOP GREATS:  CLASSIC RAPS is a Rhino compilation of early rap hits from the late 70's to the early 80's.