East Coast Hip-Hop

Sure, it's presumptuous to say one scene invented a sound. May we simply mention, then, that hip-hop has thrived over on the East Coast? In New York City alone, the genre has splintered into enough significant subgenres to complete a record collection. To hear what we mean, belly up to a buffet sampling of the old school and the new school, starting with Biggie and Fiddy. These are the prime movers, but there's some "Top Billin" in Next Steps.

So, now you know the difference between "The Breaks" of Kurtis Blow and "The Message" of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Keep listening — you're about to learn the place of old soul samples (Audio Two), peace signs (A Tribe Called Quest), incense (Lauryn Hill), glitz (Mase), and operatic ultra-violence (Mobb Deep) in the East Coast canon. Street bards, beat masters, sample scientists . . . follow our East Coast rap stars to Deep Cuts.

Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon ("Incarcerated Scarfaces") is just one of the East Coast's acclaimed but sometimes under-appreciated street poets. Dig a little deeper, and you'll dust off the choice social commentaries of Brand Nubian ("Slow Down") and Jeru the Damaja ("Rap Wars"). Can't forget the nonstop house party of 3rd Bass ("Cats In the Cradle") and Onyx ("Slam") either.

Were he alive today, Frank Sinatra might experience cardiac arrest upon exploring the distorted rap borough of his beloved New York, New York. There's simply too much to appreciate in one sitting. Our playlist is at least a start — the history of hip-hop as told from the streets on up, including the shell-top-and-track-suit era of Run-DMC, militant sloganeering of Public Enemy, chopstick pastiches of Wu-Tang Clan, and button-pushing rivalries of Nas and Jay-Z.