Let me kick this piece off by quoting Buckshot of Black Moon/Boot Camp Clik fame and “Let’s take a sec to think back”…
Remember trading cards?
Remember when MTV actually played music videos?
Remember when rap music was good? Well… at least consistently good?
I got taken on a trip down memory lane recently when I was given a couple of packs of Yo! MTV Raps trading cards and all the memories above quickly came flooding back to me… aaahhh NOSTALGIA.
Now even though there was no chance of me winning the trip to New York City to see Yo! MTV Raps live or one of the other 10,000 great prizes based on the fact the packs were from circa 1991, I was still pretty excited to see who I’d score in the packs.
As I broke the seal on the first pack I was instantly transported to my childhood .. back in the day it was all about NBA basketball cards and I flashed straight back to the memory of my cards being confiscated and a grounding being put in affect after I got busted for nicking money out of Dad’s wallet to fuel my habit. Still to this day I remember my parents shocked faces when I owned up to the crime at the family meeting as they were convinced it was my older sister fueling something more sinister - her underage drinking/smoking antics… Nope, just their pimply faced 14 year old son trying to get that Shaquille O'Neal rookie card or illusive Upper Deck Michael Jordan hologram insert.
Anyway… Back to the rap pack… who was inside?
Public Enemy! Big Daddy Kane! Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One in the same pack! Slick Rick! 3rd Bass! L.L. Cool J! EPMD! RUN DMC! Stetsasonic!
Onto the second pack…
De La Soul! Eric B. & Rakim! a few guilty-ish pleasures by way of Young MC, Bell Biv Devoe & Tone Loc! Digital Underground! Kool Moe Dee! Fab Five Freddy! Vanilla Ice! HOLD UP A MINUTE Vanilla Ice??… I might as well have got a Luc Longley card! and lastly old mate MC Hammer made an appearance :( oh well 18 out of 20 ain’t bad!
After a solid amount of time spent reminiscing/reading all the Yo! Facts on the back of the cards I thought it would be cool to build a playlist based around the artists I got (excluding Robert Van Winkle & Hammer) and my favourite track of each which you can find below and here are the pick of the bunch in all their late eighties/early nineties glory.
-Maccy
Bonus bit - As if this Mark Drew flip of the MTV logo isn’t absolutely perfect.