Various ‎– Street Sounds Hip Hop Electro 11

If you can't remember where you were when you first heard Africa Bambaataas - Planet Rock, you weren't either a break dancer in the 80's or an Electro album buyer. The series boasted fresh sounds and energy into an underground scene where many of the raps over the records were accompanied by melodic choruses fit for spinning on your body parts to. When the series moved into Hip Hop Electro some of that magic was lost as things gear closer towards lyrics which rapped about how big a gangster you were. The key releases in this series are all the early ones and the UK Fresh 86 one (Electro 13), if you are going start your collection off anywhere go straight in for UK Electro (which has mainly instrumentals) and the Crucial Electros.

I'm sure there are countless thirty-somethings who fondly remember the early era of the Electro series, many of whom will have stopped collecting them after a few years as times changed and the series ceased to be as fresh as it once was. No doubt in my mind the late eighties where a bit naff regarding the incorporation of electro/hip-hop within the mainstream. It just wasn't underground or original anymore. But that said, In 1986 I still enjoyed the series right up till HipHop/Electro 15. By 1987 it was done. Although Electro 11 was perhaps the beggining of the end of a good thang - it was, for a while, my personal favourite as it has some pretty hard hitting tunes on there.