Big L – Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous LP

Columbia / Legacy (2026, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Big L is one of those MCs whose reputation as an elite lyricist has only grown since his tragic murder in 1999. His only full album released while he was still allive was 1995's Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous.  While it is an exceeding popular album with those in the know, this is one of those albums that I was completely oblivious to when it originally came out as there wasn't much in the world of hip hop that I was following after 1994 wrapped up.  I've written about it a million times, but the sounds were changing and I wasn't on board.

In later years, I first discovered Big L via a guest appearance on the Showbiz and AG song "Represent."  It's the sort of appearance that makes you immediately head to the internet to see what is out there and that's how I discovered Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous.  For a 1995 album, this is way more up my alley than a lot of records released that year.  It almost always boils down to the production, and there's enough upbeat tracks with soulful samples to keep me engaged.  Yeah, there's some slower ones on here, but even then Big L has an energetic flow that can transcend the few beats on here that aren't my particular cup of tea.  His style and cadence are firmly rooted in the early 90s and it's obvious that many of the songs here were gestating long before 1995.

It took me a while to get my hands on this album as it's been out of print since 2019 and the price had gotten pretty out of control.  It was nice to finally be able to get a copy at a reasonable price, but it is kind of lame that it's a single LP instead of the double LP reissues that came out in the 2010s.  But when the price different is plural hundreds of dollars, the single LP will do just fine by me.  I'm just happy to have a copy for the collection and am always excited when I can find another post-1994 record that clicks with me.

Big L – Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kZ8B8ikaWoDlSe0ZVV7AXduy8qFKt-Q_8

Various Artists - Music From The Motion Picture Judgment Night - Red Vinyl (/3150 - Record Store Day 2023)

Legacy / Epic Soundtrax (2023, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years. 

A few years back I wrote a lengthy missive about the Judgment Night Soundtrack as I had picked up the Music On Vinyl version that had come out in 2020.  One of the key things of that release, and also of the original vinyl release in 1993, is that the track listing is different from the CD version.  The vinyl starts of with the Sonic Youth/Cypress Hill collaboration "I Love You Mary Jane," while the CD begins with "Just Another Victim" from House of Pain and Helmet.  I just couldn't stand the variance in track order because the CD version is what I had in 1993 and was what I was most familiar with, so I didn't listen to the LP much.

In 2023, the Judgment Night Soundtrack was released on vinyl for Record Store Day in honor of its 30th anniversary.  Truthfully, I didn't pay much attention to it as I already had the Music On Vinyl version.  Little did I know that the Record Store Day version corrected my biggest issue with the vinyl and used the original track order from the CD version.  I figured that out a couple of weeks ago and almost immediately grabbed the newer RSD version.

And it is an absolute delight to have this on vinyl in a way that I can listen to without being grumpy.  Aside from when the Slayer and Ice T collab comes on, that's never a song that puts anyone in a good mood.  I still stand by what I wrote the last time about the music on this album and you can check that out here:  https://www.ibuywaytoomanyrecords.com/2021/03/various-artists-music-from-motion.html so I won't rehash too much of that.  But I will reiterate that this was a really important record to me back in 1993.  So many hip hop groups that I liked were on it and to this day the Dinosaur Jr./Del The Funky Homosapien track "Missing Link" ranks pretty high among my favorite Del songs.  If you want this record on vinyl, this is the version to get.  

Roy Orbison - The Ultimate Collection 2xLP

Monument / Legacy / Roy's Boys (2016)

A couple of months ago I was flipping through the stations on TV and I stumbled across a Roy Orbison concert on PBS.  It was filmed in black & white even though it was from the 80s and featured Roy along with some other musicians playing Roy's hits. On board were an impossibly young Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen.  Needless to say it was a pretty captivating watch and it got me thinking that I didn't have any Roy Orbison records in my collection despite being pretty familiar with a huge swath of his work.

I didn't think I wanted to go crazy and track down every Orbison release, so I was hopeful to find a serviceable greatest hits collection.  This double LP is way more than serviceable and compiles pretty much every Roy hit that I was looking for and even tacks on a couple of Traveling Wilburys songs for good measure.  From "Oh, Pretty Woman" to " Drove All Night" to "You Got It" (and those are just the first three songs on the album) all of Roy's most popular songs seem to be present or at least the ones I'm most familiar with.  I really wish Electric Light Orchestra would have a hits record this comprehensive as they have too many LPs to hunt down.

Sound quality is great and I really have no criticisms at all about this record.  There was a gap in my record collection and The Ultimate Collection stepped in a filled the gap.  I couldn't ask for more.