Search - Various Artists :: Old School Rap 3

Classic songs treated with very little respect

marc83 | 09/16/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I was really looking foward to getting this CD soley for Slick Rick & Doug E Fresh's "La Di Da Di",undeniably one of the greatest hip-hop songs ever written.As I listened,I was horrified to realise that "La Di Da Di" was cut down from it's original length to just 2 minutes 54 seconds.Ricky D's entire spoken word intro was cut out and,even worse,the entire second half of the song with the Biggie Smalls sampled 'Hypnotise' verse was cut!On this CD,the song ends with Rick saying;"If I can't have you,she can't neither".Which is disgraceful.That's nowhere near the end of the song.
I was very disappointed with this album.Almost all of the other songs were cut short from their original length too.What is the point in compiling a collection of old skool classics if they're not going to be played in their entirety?
For some inexplicable reason,Eric B & Rakim's "My Melody" is shortened too and is really speeded up.Rakim sounds like he's inhaled helium.Don't waste your money on this CD..."

What a Waste of Time & Money--Major Disappointment

M. Melton | Maryland USA | 02/25/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I purchased the 4-CD Box Set of this collection, but regarding disc 3, I was disappointed beyond words. Yet, I'll try to express myself in this review. It's really very simple. I'm quite sure most people buying this CD are interested in listening to these classic, old school rap songs. Instead, you get Grandmaster Flash basically mixing & scratching every single song at the beginning, and cutting the length of each song from the beginning to the end!! I can't believe that the label who put this out (THUMP) felt the target audience would be interested in hearing a mix sesssion that sounds like it was done by ME in my bedroom when I was 12 years old. People want to hear these songs in an uncut, original capacity, not sounding like they've been transfered from a Saturday night rap-oriented radio mixshow. This is absolutely terrible!!!"

Faux Mix Tape Format Falls Flat

PrinceNikodeem | 07/15/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Unlike the rest of the Old School Rap series, which presents these classic, must have hip hop cuts in their full glory, Vol. 3 ruins them by slicing and dicing them into truncated versions. Some genius decided that simply presenting these immortal songs in their entirety wasn't good enough, and they hired the legendary Grandmaster Flash to chop them up and present them mix tape style. You only get the middle of La-Di-Da-Di, for example. The intro and the last verse are missing. On top of that, the CD is only about 40 minutes or so instead of the usual 60-70 minute length utilized in the rest of the series. The one major benefit of authentic mixtapes (or CDs) is that they're much longer than official releases and can present up to 90 truncated songs. Not so here. You get all of the detriments of the format with none of the benefits. A word to the brilliant mind that envisioned this atrocity: When I want a mixtape (or CD) I'll hit up the bootleggin' brotha on the corner. When I'm buying an official release on amazon or from some other major retailer, I expect to get the full length cuts."