Notes & Personnel Info |  | Includes liner notes by Pamela Turbov. | | Liner Note Authors: Pamela Turbov; Barry Benson. | | Illustrator: Richard Louderback. | | Photographer: Salomon. | | Delicious Vinyl came busting out of the gates in the late '80s with huges hits by Tone Loc ("Wild Thing," "Funky Cold Medina") and Young MC ("Bust A Move"), plus critically acclaimed records by the Pharcyde and Brand New Heavies. They never quite had another stretch like that, but that particular era was pretty terrific, as DV-10: A Decade of Delicious Vinyl proves. The 14-track collection concentrates on the late '80s and early '90s, when the label was at their peak. Some may complain that some latter-day cuts are missing, but the fact of the matter is, this results in a better, entertaining listen, and gives an accurate portrait of the label's strengths. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine | | Delicious Vinyl was one of the great independent labels of the late '80s, cultivating a roster of quirky rap, hip-hop, and urban soul artists who proudly operated outside of the mainstream. That doesn't mean that they didn't hit the mainstream, of course, since their two biggest artists, Tone-Loc and Young MC, provided the label with not just their biggest hits ("Wild Thing," "Funky Cold Medina," and "Bust a Move," respectively), but helped break down the doors to the pop charts for hip-hop. Still, those were quirky, clever songs, given productions so funky and hooks so catchy that they couldn't help but be big hits. The rest of Delicious Vinyl was comprised of artists equally off-kilter, and they ranged from the smooth acid jazz of the Brand New Heavies to the Latin-rap of Masta Ace Incorporated and the Whoridas, to Born Jamericans and the incomparable delightful bizarreness of Pharcyde and Fatlip. Though Rhino's 15-track Waxing Off: Delicious Vinyl's Greatest Hits doesn't contain all of the label's biggest hits (Young MC's "Principal's Office" is conspicuously missing, for instance), it does provide an excellent overview of the label's peak years of the late '80s/early '90s, while touching often enough on highlights from the late '90s to illustrate that the label hadn't lost its touch -- times simply had changed, and Delicious Vinyl's deliberately, cheerfully quirky vibe had seemed more underground than ever. This collection captures all of that, and while it's not perfect, its songs have more character and personality than much of the hip-hop of the '90s -- just like the label itself. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine |
Producer: Chuck Thompson; Def Jef; Bob Durham; J-Swift; Mike Floss; Ase Man; Matt Dike; Michael C. Ross; Salaam Remi; The Brand New Heavies; The Dust Brothers; The Pharcyde; Don Reed; Edy Crahp; Born Jamericans |
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