Various Artists: Street Jams: Back 2 The Old Skool, Volumes 1-3

Slave, Brick, Zapp, Fatback, Dazz, Mtume: The funk of the late '70s and early '80s never really seems to get its due, overlooked as merely a holding pattern between the P-Funk reign that preceded it and the hip hop revolution that followed it. Rhino's three-volume Back 2 the Old Skool helps right this wrong, collecting the best of the time when electronics started to creep in on the funk. With songs like Dazz's "Brick," Twennynine's "Peanut Butter" and Zapp's talk-box classic "More Bounce to the Ounce," volume one is probably the best of the three. Then again, the second has Tom Browne's "Funkin' For Jamaica (N.Y.)" and Chic's "Good Times." Even the stuff you think you don't know, you probably do, thanks to the countless rappers who've plundered the songs for grooves: For example, volume two's Ronnie Hudson & The Street People's "West Coast Poplock" this year became the 2Pac hit "California Love." Much of this stuff already exists on Rhino's older Phat Trax compilation, but you get a lot more songs per disc here and nicer packaging to boot. (The low rider on the cover bounces when you tilt the CD case… Yeah!)