Super Breaks Vol. 2

Like volume one of Super Breaks, this features funk songs from the late '60s to the late '70s that have been sampled for hip-hop productions. Whether that's the launching point of your interest in this material or not, it can be enjoyed as a crawl through some underexposed vintage funk music, some by fairly famous artists, some by unknowns. Actually, William De Vaughan's "Be Thankful for What You Got" was a megahit, but that's the only track of the sort on the CD (though Tex's "Papa Was, Too" was a fairly big R&B single). Isaac Hayes, Freda Payne, Rufus Thomas, Joe Tex, the Fatback Band, the Detroit Emeralds, and the Emotions are all heard from, though the tracks bound to arouse the greatest pique from collectors are the ones no one's really heard, like Baby Huey's cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Hard Times." Some of this is only average stuff for the style, to be honest, but there are more exciting tracks as well, like Payne's "Unhooked Generation," which will please anyone who liked "Band of Gold," even if it never got even a thousandth of the attention. All the People's "Cramp Your Style" and Wilbur Bascomb and the Zodiac's "Just a Groove in G" are decent obscure early-'70s funk workouts, of the kind that fill up those compilations of artists who James Brown worked with or produced, though Brown didn't happen to collaborate with these folks. Detailed liner notes explain which hip-hoppers used bits of these songs in later days, for those who are interested. [This U.K. import is not available for sale in North America.] ~ Richie Unterberger