Tag Archives: 8th Wonder

50 Years of Hip Hop Album Review: Wild Style Original Soundtrack, Fat Boys

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Last year was the 50th anniversary of hip hop, And in honor of this anniversary, the idea bloomed in my mind that I should review the top 50 albums of that 50 years. As I crunched together a list from various sources, 50 proved to be too restrictive- many of the classics were getting squeezed out. So, to make a little more room, I opted for 100 albums, two for each of hip hop’s 50 years.

For its formative years, hip hop was a live entertainment form, with the first recorded songs not emerging until 1979, and the first albums in 1980. So my review will cover 1980-2023, with 50 posts of two albums each. The only ground rule I made for myself (besides looking for 2×50, aka 100, albums that were widely well-regarded) was that I had to have at least one from each year. As you’ll see by and by, some years get multiple albums, but since we have 100 spots for 43 years, it tends to all work out.

And with that, let’s embark on our next installment!

Various Artists, Wild Style Original Soundtrack (1983)– This is the soundtrack of Wild Style, a groundbreaking film from/in celebration of the New York hip hop culture of the early 80s. If the film is considered seminal, the album is even more so. It features a variety of styles, often harder-hitting than the “feel good party music” side of hip hop that had mostly appeared on albums up until then, is replete with the sounds of early turntabilism, and has contributions from a host of artists who were key figures in early hip hop but didn’t release their own albums in that era (including production work from Fab Five Freddy). It’s also a bit of a difficult album to lay your (virtual) hands on- there’s the original 1983 version, but what you’ll mostly find on streaming is a 1997 re-issue that drops a few tracks and adds a few more, or the 25th anniversary two volume edition that has almost but not quite the original as disc one and then a bunch of additional material and alternate tracks as disc two. Whichever way you end up going, though, it’s well worth the listen!

The Fat Boys, Fat Boys (1984)- If you remember mid-80s hip-hop from the mid-80s, you perhaps remember that it was often, for want of a better word, goofy. The Fat Boys as a general phenomenon, and this album in particular are an exhibit par excellence of that principle. Which is not by any means to say it is bad- it’s 1984 after all, so are we any goofier here than Huey Lewis? And in fact, this album has a lot to recommend it- it’s maybe the first album to introduce the beatboxing sound, is loaded with clever and playful sound production, and even manages some genuinely subversive coded messaging in the opening track about ending up in jail due to eating too much. The excellence is no accident- in addition to the native charm and talent of the Brooklyn trio, the album brings Kurtis Blow on board as producer and enlists pioneering drum machine and bass producers Larry Smith and Davy DMX (who also worked with Run-D.M.C.) in creating the sound. It’s also one of the first albums, along with several other members of the class of 1984 (more on this coming up next time) to shake the genre’s early insecurity and put out an all rap album from start to finish.

If you’re curious about the sources I used to compile my list, you can check them out here:

And if you want to catch up on the previous installments, here they are!

  1. Sugarhill Gang (1980)/Kurtis Blow (1980)
  2. 8th Wonder (1981)/The Message (1982)

50 Years of Hip Hop Album Review: 8th Wonder, The Message

20 Replies

Last year was the 50th anniversary of hip hop, And in honor of this anniversary, the idea bloomed in my mind that I should review the top 50 albums of that 50 years. As I crunched together a list from various sources, 50 proved to be too restrictive- many of the classics were getting squeezed out. So, to make a little more room, I opted for 100 albums, two for each of hip hop’s 50 years.

For its formative years, hip hop was a live entertainment form, with the first recorded songs not emerging until 1979, and the first albums in 1980. So my review will cover 1980-2023, with 50 posts of two albums each. The only ground rule I made for myself (besides looking for 2×50, aka 100, albums that were widely well-regarded) was that I had to have at least one from each year. As you’ll see by and by, some years get multiple albums, but since we have 100 spots for 43 years, it tends to all work out.

And with that, let’s embark on our next installment!

The Sugarhill Gang, 8th Wonder (1981)– The critics were not too kind to this album. So what, you might ask, is it doing here? One thing to keep in mind is just how in its infancy the genre was at this point. In 1980-82 there were a total of eight hip hop albums released. Just eight! So we’ve actually reviewed half of all the hip hop albums then in existence in this post and the previous one. The other relevant fact is that the critics are blue meanies who can kiss my tuchus. I find the sound here to be wall to wall fun! As with their debut album which we reviewed last time, there’s a lot here that isn’t exactly hip hop. On the other hand, it’s not exactly not. The funk/soul/disco sounds here have much more sizzle compared to last time, and are freely combined with rap, instruments and mixing and drum machines blending back and forth track by track. This is the electro genre being born. And , while there are some cringy things about “Apache” from a modern cultural sensitivity point of view, sonically it’s brilliant sampling of the classic 60s instrumental, and the album contains maybe the first honest to goodness rap battle, “Showdown” which has Sugarhill facing off with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All-in-all, a worthy time capsule of hip hop in its early days.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, The Message (1982)- If the Sugarhill Gang was a bit of a pre-fab group, Grandmaster Flash was the real deal- he was a leading DJ, foundational in creating cutting and scratching and had his own group going before signing on to Sugarhill Records. That being said, the opening track, “She’s Fresh” has a lot in common with 8th Wonder, in the sense that it’s a song that could serve as an early 80s soul/funk number, but is also rap- once again, it’s the electro style being born. And this carries through several subsequent tracks. There is of course the masterful “The Message”, which is often considered the birth of the genre’s capacity for social realism and political consciousness. The standard story is that the group was reluctant to include it on the album because of the serious turn, but I observe that “It’s a Shame” has a social focus as well, and “You Are” does a straight-up religious theme, so they don’t seem to have been shy about tackling substance. There’s also some great sampling of “Genius of Love” and “It’s A Shame” along the way, brilliant cutting and mixing of a dozen records on “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheel of Steel” (from the UK version of the album) and a track that’s a touching tribute to Stevie Wonder. All the way around, this album well deserves its classic status.

If you’re curious about the sources I used to compile my list, you can check them out here:

And if you want to catch up on the previous installments, you can find them here!

  1. Sugarhill Gang (1980)/Kurtis Blow (1980)