Artist	Song
RUN-D.M.C. feat. Aerosmith	Walk This Way
Schooly D	Gucci Time
Kool G. Rap	It's A Demo
Stetsasonic	Go Stetsa I
Just-Ice	Cold Gettin' Dumb
Sweet Tee	It's My Beat
Gwen Guthrie	Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But the Rent
Sly Fox	Let's Go All the Way
Pet Shop Boys	West End Girls
Cameo	Word Up
Peter Gabriel	Sledgehammer
Talk Talk	Life's What You Make It
David & David	Welcome to the Boomtown
Green River	Together We'll Never
Soul Asylum	No Man's Land
The Pretenders	Don't Get Me Wrong

Comment:

It's all about beginnings and ends here- emphasis on beginnings. Sure, there's the last huge hit performed by James Brown (with more synths and drum machines than the man deserves, yet it's still funky). There's also Peter Gabriel's last big hit (thanks in part to the memorably bizarre video that accompanied it). But there's also the first signs of things to come in the next few years: Before the Blues Explosion there was Pussy Galore; before Mudhoney and Pearl Jam there was Green River; before Prince Paul's classic production work on De La Soul's first few albums there was his DJ work for Stetsasonic. Throw in a few one-hit wonders (emphasis on the 'wonder'- "Bang Zoom (Let's Go Go)" and "Welcome to the Boomtown" are pretty damned good, actually) and some Brit hits by Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg and others, and you've got a handful of lost classics.

UPDATE, 12-18-02: More hip-hop, and more evidence that while James Brown himself wasn't doing so hot with his own stuff (I have recently realized that "Living In America" actually really kinda sucks), he was getting some good results from being sampled.

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