Someone in the Ministry of Sound offices needs to either be A) forced to do a course in Hip-Hop 101; B) fired immediately; or, C) hung from the closest tree. See, a major crime has been committed against the hip-hop genre. While Ministry of Sound normally gets in spot-on with their Dance Music Anthologies, they have had a major stuff-up with their Anthems: Hip Hop, which is supposed to consist of the 54 greatest hip-hop tracks ever recorded. But while their 3-Disc celebration of the last 30 years of hip-hop of music is a great idea, the person behind the project has missed the mark by a mile.
Ministry of Sound Anthems: Hip-Hop Completly Misses the Mark
One of two things has happened here: Either the team behind putting together the list of songs to be included on the album had no idea about hip-hop music, or they just couldn’t get the rights to the songs that wanted to include. Of the 54 so-called Greatest Hip-Hop songs of all time, only a very few of them deserve to have the word "greatest" put anywhere near them … many aren’t even hits. Some artists are severally misrepresented … I mean who in their right mind would say that “Joints & Jam" by the Black Eyed Peas or “Forgot About Dre” by Eminem are either artist's best songs? Surely songs like “Stan” should have been a shoe-in.
But perhaps the biggest disservice to hip-hop is that one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time doesn’t even get one track included. Did anyone in the Ministry of Sound offices ever remember a certain artist called 2Pac? If they did, then they might have thought of including a track like “California Love,” one of the best-selling singles of all time. These kinds of omissions are unforgivable and make the album look like a joke.
Poor Song Selection Ruins Ministry of Sound Anthems: Hip Hop
The poor song selection makes each of the three discs very hit-and-miss indeed. Disc One is chock full of ordinary tracks that even the most hardcore hip-hop fan would struggle with. “Ms. Jackson” by OutKast and “Get UR Freak On” by Missy Elliott are the only worthy mentions, but what’s the point of just two tracks out of eighteen being any good?
Disc Two lifts the game a little with some commericial hits by the likes of Nelly, Salt-N-Pepa, the Notorious B.I.G., Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, 50 Cent and Ice Cube, making it more than serviceable. But all that good work is undone by a very ordinary Disc Three that is only saved by some classics by Run-DMC, Tone Loc and Kelis.
Summing Up
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter whether it is simply poor song selection or the fact that Ministry of Sound couldn’t afford the rights to the songs they wanted, all that matters is that the album is an insult to hip-hop music and no one in their right mind would fork out $30 for it. A complete disaster!
David Griffiths - Dave Griffiths is an award winning film & music journalist from Melbourne, Australia
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