1995 Flashback: Every One Of Your Favorite MC's Drops By For The Final Episode of Yo! MTV Raps

Today's post was inspired by my friend Paul Walker, who yelled at me to write more about hip-hop. To all of you, I present this, what I believe holds up as easily the greatest musical moment on MTV (and I will argue this to the death). A wonderful send-off for the beloved Yo! MTV Raps, this huge cypher session represents a bygone era of hip-hop, which during 1995 was still hitting numerous artistic peaks, a couple years before the infamous "shiny-suit" era would predict a rather dire downturn in the genre's creative fortunes. One need look no further than the lineup in these videos as evidence that hip-hop was rather unbreakable. A special nod goes to the choice of the Pete Rock remix to Das EFX's "Real Hip-Hop" to serve as the backdrop to the majority of the session, surely one of PR's very best productions; the swirling beat is such a perfect fit for the rappers that it's no wonder they keep it going and going and going.

I was still an awkward, sullen adolescent in 1995, but it's stuff like this that makes me miss those days pretty heavily sometimes:

Arguably the two best MC's of all-time start things off, with Rakim still in the midst of an unfortunate hiatus rocking over EPMD's "It's My Thing" while KRS-ONE, who having released his excellent self-titled LP that year was still in the midst of a personal peak, lets off over his collaboration with proteges Channel Live from that year, "Mad Izm". Elsewhere, Erick Sermon forgoes his usual laid-back swagger for a surprisingly amped-up turn on the mic, Chubb Rock proves that he was one of the most unfortunately underrated MC's in the game (check out his verse on "Return Of The Crooklyn Dodgers" if you need further proof), MC Serch takes time from his A&R duties to drop a verse, a blunted, backpacking Meth reps for the Wu, super-beatmaker Large Professor drops some rhymes which would end up on his "IJUSWANNACHILL" single a year later (his excellent solo record of course would frustratingly languish in major label limbo), Special Ed attests to how overlooked he is, and Craig Mack is Craig Mack, perhaps not on par with the rest of his cohorts on the MTV studio that day, but in comparison to what passes for MC'ing these days, he has a sharp skill that many of us overlooked at the time. But in this sea of superb performances, Redman takes the crown, relentlessly spitting hilariously deft punchlines and put-downs as only he can do; lest his Cheech & Chong antics make us forget, the man is one of the best to ever do it.



And as a little bonus, here's Ol' Dirty rocking some inherbriated wreck on Yo! circa probably the same year. His public meltdowns might often overshadow his music, but here's why we miss him immensely: