25 YEARS OF HIP-HOP

Tommy Boy Records is celebrating its 25th anniversary with the release of a 12-CD retrospective called Hip-Hop Essentials 1979-1991, with the first four volumes in stores now, to be followed by another four volumes on January 24th, wrapping up the collection with the final four on March 7th. Among the artists on the first set are the Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Beastie Boys, Grandmaster Flash, N.W.A, Salt-N-Pepa and Eric B. & Rakim.