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MC Shan may be unfairly remembered as the loser of the BDP-instigated mid-'80s war that pitted Queensbridge vs. the South Bronx. But nothing can take away the achievement of "The Bridge," a record that changed hip-hop with Marley Marl's towering drums and arena-sized reverb, and Shan's audacious tribute to old-school parties in the Queensbridge Projects. While the story of mid-'80s hip-hop is often told in terms of LL Cool J and Run DMC, the Juice Crew held the crown in the underground, and Shan was the rhyme-fighter of choice. "Down By Law," "Beat Biter," and "Juice Crew Law" are full of adrenalin-injected battle rhymes over Marl's early sampling experiments. The Best of Cold Chillin' collects the best of Shan's first two albums, Down By Law and Born to Be Wild, and a track from the Colors soundtrack. After the epic Battle of the Bridge, the ground changed quickly for Shan and Marl, as Public Enemy speeded up the tempos and began kicking Afrocentric themes. On "I Pioneered This," Shan rocks a favorite (unproven) conspiracy of the time: "Puma's the brand 'cause the Klan makes Troops." A fine document of the mid-'80s underground. |
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