Hip-hop and rap are now a dominant force in contemporary music and have constantly adapted to stay relevant, drawing on and absorbing all around them. Rock It… Don’t Stop It! goes back over 30 years to their collective big bang moment. It features a selection of forgotten or relatively obscure rap singles from the ’79-‘83 period, universally known as ‘old school’, which fall into this category. Inspiration for these vignettes from hip-hop’s evolution range from classic party rockers by Cheryl Lynn, through to Yazoo (and, no doubt, ‘Rapper’s Delight’) and the featured MCs give it their best shot with humour, earnestness and everything in-between...

Rock It... Don't Stop It takes a fond look back at boogiefied rap from Brooklyn, Boston and beyond between the period 1979-83. Sean P has collected some obscure tracks that encapsulate the movement. Whether you enjoy this album or not will depend on whether you're a fan of rap - and more importantly if you're a 40/50 year-old that grew up loving this stuff.

It was while listening to this collection that I suddenly realised how self absorbed most MCs of the time used to be. They profess how great they are at numerous aspects of street life - most notably rapping and getting it on with the ladies.

'The People-s Message - Take Two' opens with an ear splitting scream and then moves into Bee Gees territory; 'Rappin-Partee Groove' borrows from Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust'; and 'Sweat -The B Side' includes a very famous '80s riff, but for the life of me I can't place the original song.

I was slightly disappointed that the MP3 files we received for review didn't include the artists details, but I'm assuming that's not a problem that the retail release will suffer from.

For some this will be side-splittingly hilarious, for others a nostalgic trip down memory lane, but whatever your thoughts, there's no escaping the fact that historically this is an important collection of tracks that once were cutting edge.

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Nick Smithson