What Does It All Mean? - 1983-2006 Retrospective

Great old school mixes from the early 80's breakdance scene that at one time was hard to find. It's a greatest hits of sorts of every good breakbeat that was ever used by any and all hip hop artists from the 80's until the present day.

Long before label mate Girl Talk became known as the King of Mashup, hell, even before M/A/R/R/S sliced together the inimitable "Pump Up The Volume", two advertising dudes named Steve "Steinski" Stein and Douglas "Double Dee" Di Franco put together a mix of the most used hip-hop breaks for a contest, one judged by the likes of Afrika Bambaataa. They won, and thus was born the first in their series of "The Lessons" (Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow would later recreate these live using the original vinyl). This two-disc explores every genre, dropping beats over everything from Humphrey Bogart, Looney Toones, Clint Eastwood and The Zapruder Film samples, the myriad James Brown breaks, Led Zeppelin's "The Crunge" and a whole ton of stuff you have to Google to figure out. Simply put, this collection is the mix-tape dreams are made of, an equal blend of humor, cool and certifiable bada$$ collage-work by the master.

"Hey, I recognize that sample from..." If you're into the whole cut-up and dub genre of music, you've probably heard Steinski for years. Maybe it was a Steinski cut, maybe it was Steinski mixed into someone else's work. Many of the actual cuts on this disk floated up to the surface over the years, but saw limited or no release. Now, amazingly, they have a wide release to the masses--what magic happened to clear all of the samples and material is unknown. Any fan will long for more, but this is a great collection that covers the ground back to the infancy of digital sampling, and inspired countless musicians. Buy this 2 disk set, its a great history, and strong sales may pave the way for more treasures.

Oh what a lovely collection. Like taking a dictionary to a desert island because it has all the classics in it, just out of order, this is a true desert island disk. I keep expecting the RIAA to break my car window and bust me for the uncleared samples. But it would be worth it.

But wither "Hang on St. Christopher?"