Various - Def Jam 12”s

Universal’s reissue of hip-hop’s Most Valuable Player 12”s continues. Whereas their first batch was a slightly messy mix of the classic and the not so (Beastie Boys vs Sisqo? Get outta here), this second stream focuses mostly on the classics and the big beats, going back to the first 12” to bear the Def Jam logo (T La Rock’s It’s Yours), early LL Cool J breakouts I Can’t Live Without My Radio and I Need A Beat, Hollis Crew, the Beasties (of course) and Jazzy Jay’s Def Jam (though the less said about that irony, the better). Method Man’s Release Yo’ Delf breaks the chain, but he was as Def a poet as any of them, and in ’94 his solo debut was something to holler about.