Consumer Guide Album

Millennium Hip-Hop Party [Rhino, 1999]
Following rap crossover from Flash to Dre, this deflates big time. Hard to believe some find "Baby Got Back" and "Now That We've Found Love" as much fun as, not "It Takes Two" (what is?), but "Bust a Move" or "U Can't Touch This." Circa 1991, as aspiration gives way to calculation and entertainment becomes subculturally suspect, shame enters game--though if the compilers had stuck in "Jump" and "Shoop," who'd notice? A-