Various Artists: Delicious Vinyl—Waxing Off: The First Decade

Delicious Vinyl hasn't been a force in hip-hop for ages, but one of the nice things about the optimistically titled Waxing Off: The First Decade is that it illustrates just what a crucial, if limited, role the label has played in hip-hop's development. It first rose to national prominence with the massive success of hip-pop forerunner Tone-Loc, whose two massive hits ("Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina," both included here) proved that you didn't need Aerosmith's participation to ride rock-guitar-based grooves to crossover fame. In the process, he helped pave the way for everything from the pop-rap of Hammer to rap-rock acts like Limp Bizkit. Loc's late-'80s appearance on the cover of Newsweek is duly noted in the album's unrevealing liner notes, though its context isn't: The gruff-voiced, lighthearted rapper was dubiously depicted as the face of "rap rage," no doubt due to the racial tensions spawned by the release of Loc-ed After Dark. Loc's ghostwriter Young MC is represented here by "Bust A Move," while the rest of the album veers from featherweight dancehall (The Born Jamericans) to sleepy acid-jazz (The Brand New Heavies), to old-school cheese (Def Jef), to transcendent, Spanglish-spiced old-school cheese (Mellow Man Ace's insanely catchy "Mentirosa"). The pioneering work of The Pharcyde, Delicious Vinyl's most important act, helped make the West Coast safe for bohemian iconoclasts, but is represented by only two tracks: "Passing Me By," from the band's universally loved debut, and "Runnin'," from its underrated second album, the blissed-out Labcabincalifornia. Waxing Off would have benefited from more tracks by the MIA Pharcyde, whose five-year silence is attributable mainly to the group's squabbles with the label, but instead it closes with ex-Pharcyder Fatlip's "Goldmine," an uncharacteristically dark, dull track betraying an unbecoming Luke fixation. Waxing Off is far from perfect, but for those seeking vital guilty pleasures like "Mentirosa" and Masta Ace Incorporated's endearingly bratty cruising anthem "Born To Roll" without having to buy an album by either artist, it serves a worthwhile purpose.