Pro Set used to be cool.
Another old pack of cards has been liberated from the stacks of chaos on my decks. I believe I bought this pack for way too much money at an Austin area record store a number of years ago. While I must have bought at least a box's worth of Pro Set MusiCards back in the day, I never got into their Yo! MTV Raps set from around the same time. This is weird, of course, because the ratio of artists in the rap set that I was familiar with, if not actually a fan of, was much greater than that MusicCards release. Was this because of availability or something? It's hard to say at this point.
56 - M.C. Hammer - Was anyone bigger than Hammer in 1991? Of course the critics were already out in droves by this period, but he was selling a ridiculous amount of records and was simply unavoidable for a period. There was an entire generation of music listeners who probably hadn't been exposed to a hit song based around a sample (Rick James' "Super Freak") prior to M.C. Hammer biggest hit.
37 - Heavy D. and the Boyz - Heavy D (RIP) was best known to me at the time for being behind the theme song (both versions) to FOX's Black-oriented sketchy comedy "In Living Color". And don't forget The Boyz!
64 - Public Enemy - I'm listening to PE's "It Takes a Nation of Millions..." right now as I write this. It holds up! Chuck D is a great social media follow, especially if you like basketball.
15 - Digital Underground - Humpty Hump (RIP) and his crew were sort of a party-rap collective that employed Tupac as a fringe member/dancer at one point.
20 - Doctor Dre and Ed Lover - It's the guys who (mostly) hosted the Yo! MTV Raps tv show! Dre, of course, is of no relationship to that other Dr. Dre, the one who abbreviates his title.
95 - Young Black Teenagers - Have I mentioned how perfectly '90s the design of these cards is? It's wonderful. This is the only card in the pack where I can't specifically recall one of their songs.
4 - Bell Biv DeVoe - Here's what the backs of the cards look like.
82 - Tone Loc - Tone had two huge hits that were collaborations with Young MC (of "Bust a Move" fame) and would appear in various television shows and movies in the '90s and beyond.
28 - Eric B. & Rakim - Ah yes, your favorite rapper's favorite rappers. Only Public Enemy could join them in the A tier from this pack.
35 - Fab Five Freddy - My recollection of Fab Five Freddy, aside from being name-checked in a 1980 Blondie hit due to his status as an early hip hop scene pioneer, was his showing up for lengthy on-the-street interviews during late night Yo! episodes. I bet he has a ton of cool stories to tell.
Of course, it can't be a proper Pro Set pack without one of these sweepstakes card things. Let me get in my time machine and win one of these things...
A. The only two artists in this post that I've seen live were MC Hammer and Bell Biv Devoe. Both performed at KMEL's Summer Jam back in 1990.
ReplyDeleteB. Out of all of these artists... Public Enemy is the one I still listen to on a regular basis. Bring the Noise is one of my favorite songs from them... although I do enjoy the version with Anthrax more than the original.
C. One of my friends was a dancer for Digital Underground. She said those concerts back in the early 90's were crazy.