Back to the Old School

It shows you how fast hip-hop was moving in its early years that an album called Back To The Old School was released in 1986. It’s even odder when one considers that Just-Ice was an early pioneer of hardcore/gangsta rap in New York, marking an evolutionary point for the genre. But his fondness for disco breaks, courtesy of genius producer Kurtis Mantronik, did connect him to hip-hop’s late ’70s and early ’80s roots. The title track and “Cold Gettin’ Dumb” are astonishing, floor-shaking electro-rap records, and Just-Ice’s vocals are treated with reverb and echo to sound like he’s addressing you from a mountaintop. On other tracks (“Latoya,” “Gangster Of Hip Hop”), the music is mostly provided by human beatbox DMX, the ultra-minimal mouth beats sounding simultaneously stark and blown-out.