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. 

MOJO MUSIC GUIDE VOL. 2:  ROOTS OF HIP HOP   -   Various Artists

YEAR:  2003
LABEL:  Mojo
TRACK LISTING:  Adventures of Flash on the Wheels of Steel  -  Grandmaster Flash,  Get Out of My Life Woman  -  Lee Dorsey,  Tramp  -  Lowell Fulson,  Itch and Scratch (Part 1),  In the Whole  -  The Bar-Kays,  No Strings Attached  -  The Mad Lads,  Give It Up or Turnit A Loose  -  James Brown,  Lucretia Mac Evil  -  Blood Sweat & Tears,  The Grunt (Parts 1 & 2)  -  the JB's,  Get Up & Get Down  -  The Dramatics,  Here I Am (Come & Take Me)  -  Al Green,  Gotta Get Away  -  Flaming Ember,  It's Just Begun  -  The Jimmy Castor Bunch,  NT  -  Kool & the Gang,  Bra  -  Cymande,  Flash Light  -  Parliament,  King Tim III  -  The Fatback Band,  That's the Joint  -  Funky 4 + 1
IMPRESSIONS:  One of the better cover-mounted cds produced by MOJO magazine over the years, this one provides the funk, all right.  Funk funk funk and some soul and rap as well.  Particularly fun to listen to is the cd opener of Grandmaster Flash's remix 12" EP utilizing his various past productions combined into an autobiographical turntable classic.  There's the much-sampled drum beat from Lee Dorsey's "Get Out of My Life Woman" as well as James Brown's "Give It Up or Turnit A Loose".  The early days of rap can be glimpsed with fun tracks "King Tim III" and "That's the Joint" by the Fatback Band and Funky 4 + 1 respectively.  This is one of Mojo's most satisfying listens from start to finish as it keeps the groove on the move!
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Adventures of Flash on the Wheels of Steel, Get Out of My Life Woman  -  Lee Dorsey,  Itch and Scratch (Part 1)  -  Rufus Thomas,  In the Whole  -  The Bar-Kays,  No Strings Attached  -  The Mad Lads,  Give It Up or Turnit A Loose  -  James Brown,  The Grunt (Parts 1 & 2)  -  The JB's,  Get Up & Get Down  -  The Dramatics,  Here I Am (Come & Take Me)  -  Al Green,  Gotta Get Away  -  The Flaming Ember,  It's Just Begun  -  The Jimmy Castor Bunch,  NT  -  Kool & the Gang,  Flash Light  -  Parliament,  King Tim III  -  The Fatback Band,  That's the Joint  -  Funky 4 + 1 
FACT SHEET:  MOJO MUSIC GUIDE VOL. 2:  ROOTS OF HIP HOP is a cd given away free with the September 2003 issue of Great Britain's music magazine MOJO.  It is the second in a series of 4 "music guide" volumes released at the time:  the others were Vol. 1: Instant Garage, Vol. 3: Raw Soul and Vol. 4: Blues Power.