Episodes

B. Cox and Domo review Jay-Z 's third album Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life as it turns 25. Looking to improve on his commercial success from Vol. 1...In My Lifetime , Jay-Z looked to bring on new producers to give his album the commercial shine without the sound being overglossed. In for this album, production wise was the likes of Swizz Beats and Timbaland to go along with mainstays DJ Premier, Irv Gotti, Erick Sermon and others. The album featured a distinct commercial sound more appropriate for his...

B. Cox and J.Owe look back at Oakland rap group Souls of Mischief debut album 93 Til Infinity as it turns 30. In the midst of a coastal emergence and commercial recognition in both southern California and the Bay-Area, the teenage group became major players in the Oakland underground scene. After their demos became the talk of certain rap circles and their music was circulated on the legendary "Wake Up Show" with Sway and Tech, the group secured a record deal and started working on their debut a...

In this bonus episode, B. Cox looks back at one of the greatest and consequential hip-hop release dates on the last 25 years: September 29, 1998. On this date, five highly anticipated hip-hop albums hit the stores: Jay-Z 's Vol 2...Hard Knock Life , Outkast 's Aquemini , A Tribe Called Quest 's The Love Movement , Black Star 's Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are... and Brand Nubian 's comeback album Foundation . Each album had its reasons among fans to be highly anticipated. B. Cox looks into these rea...

B Cox reviews Lauryn Hill 's classic debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as turns 25. After a a breakout classic album The Score with The Fugees and a worldwide successful tour, the singer-emcee found herself at a crossroads as she found herself not only in a new relationship with Rohan Marley, but also pregnant. During pregnancy, she took a hiatus from touring and recording and spent time writing for what would be her debut album. After giving birth to her son Zion, she began the proces...

B. Cox reviews West Coast hip-hop trio Tha Alkaholiks debut album 21 & Over , as it turns 30. The trio, made up of emcees Tash, E-Swift and J-Ro , formed in the late 1980s and were mentored by legend King Tee . After signing to Loud/RCA, the group started recording their debut album. The album would be a compact, but power-packed 35 minute effort that introduced this eclectic, but a serious group of emcess to the hip-hop game. The group's style, which was based around a fun-loving times filled w...

B. Cox pays homage to hip-hop as it turns 50 years old. For much of the year, the recognized beginning of the genre, culture and societal phenomenon called hip-hop has been celebrated, lauded and congratulated worldwide for changing the world as we see it. He goes over a brief history of hip-hop's beginnings, the different periods we've experienced over 50 years and how the music, culture and trends have change with them. He also goes over his favorite hip-hop album by decade with some honorable...

B. Cox and Domo fondly recollect on Toni Braxton 's classic self-titled debut album as it turns 30. The Maryland native, who started in an R&B group with her now famous sisters, made her name first known after her standout performances on the wildly popular Boomerang Original Soundtrack the previous year with her debut on "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" and "Give U My Heart" featuring Babyface . Signed to LaFace Records, she began recording her debut album under the tutelage of Babyface and Anto...

B. Cox is joined once again by Alise and JR of the R&B Representers to reminisce on Maxwell's sophomore album Embrya as it turns 25. After amazing the music industry with his classic debut Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite just two years earlier, the prodigious soul singer linked back up with producer and musician Stuart Matthewman, just as he he had on Urban Hang Suite, looking to push the envelope stylistically than he had on his debut. In a departure of the more acoustically melody drive jazz sound ...

B. Cox reviews Tony! Toni! Tone! 's classic third album Sons of Soul as it turns 30. After their mega hit sophomore album, 1990s The Revival , the group and this album continued on its predecessors success with experimentation on their sound. Seeking different sound without a change in musical philosophy, the album featured the group's signature soul roots from Oakland, but also interpolated hip-hop drums and elements into some tracks, utilizing the Akai MPC60 and E-mu SP-1200 to create drum loo...

In this bonus episode, B. Cox is joined by Kahlil Wonda ( Reggae Lover Podcast & Highlanda Sound System ) to discuss dancehall reggae in the summer of 2003 and how several hit songs and artists happened to cross over into the American and international market to huge success. It was a phenomenon that had been on the build for almost a decade culminating in a summer 20 years ago that was heavily influenced by dancehall on the radios and in the club scene. Reggae artists and acts like Sean Paul, E...

B. Cox and Domo review Brandy 's classic sophomore album Never Say Never as it turns 25. After her smash eponymous debut album helped make her a household name among R&B fans, Brandy began to diversify her portfolio as an entertainer, starring her own sitcom Moesha , the Cinderella remake and I (Still) Know What You Did Last Summer . In late 1997, she began recording her second album now linked with an upcoming producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins . Jerkins along with his production and writing t...

In a bonus segment of "Pop Culture Corner", B. Cox & J. Owe look back at Menace II Society as it turns 30. The film starred Tyrin Turner, Larenz Tate, Jada Pinkett Smith, Charles S. Dutton and rapper MC Eiht among others, It was directed by brothers Allen and Albert Hughes . The cult classic, whose story about young black men struggling to overcome their environment, became an instant hit within the young black, urban and hip-hop communities. Featuring a raw, violent and gripping tale of hood li...

B. Cox and J. Owe review DMX 's classic debut album It's Dark And Hell It's Hot as it turns 25. After spending years in the underground and paying his dues on the scene, the late Yonkers emcee burst onto the public scene in 1997 with a string of high profile and powerful feature verses for the likes of LL Cool J, the LOX and Ma$e . Signed to Def Jam as a part of their "revival", he sought to bring a street edge back to hip-hop, which was trending fully into the commercial and corporate era. Prod...

In a bonus episode of "Cards, Dominoes, Drinks & Smoke", B. Cox muses on the albums from 1993, 1998 and 2003 that could qualify as albums that "defined a generation". On the heels of the announcement of WMX's inaugural season of the visual podcast "Iconic Records: Albums That Defined A Generation" covering the Notorious B.I.G 's classic album Life After Death , he wonders if there were albums in the aforementioned year that would be deserving of it's own series chronicling how it shifted the cul...

The crew talks the late Big Pun 's debut classic Capital Punishment as it turns 25. After making waves in the underground and on the Beatnuts "Off the Books" the previous year, the Bronx-bred Puerto Rican emcee lead off with this massive debut. Touting a ferocious multisyllabic rhyme still dressed with punchlines, humor and swagger, he sought to achieve a first: become the first Latino rapper with an album sporting a platinum plaque. The album was produced by a capable committee producers includ...

B. Cox reviews Onyx' s classic debut album Bacdafucup as it turns 30. After linking up with the late Jam Master Jay of Run DMC fame, the Queens group signed to his label JMJ Records. Under his watchful eye and tutelage, they recorded their debut album. The then-quartet made up of Fredro Starr, the late Big DS, Sonsee (aka Sonny Seeza or Suave) and Sticky Fingaz sought to bring their style of rugged hardcore hip-hop to the forefront. Punctuated by a high energy, rambunctious and in your face styl...

B. Cox and J. Owe take a look back at Goodie Mob 's sophomore album Still Standing as it turns 25. Three years after their landmark classic debut album Soul Food , the Atlanta quartet of Big Gipp, Khujo, T-Mo and CeeLo Green was still on a mission to let the world know about life in the "Dirty South". Despite releasing their album in a southern hip-hop arena that was dominated at the time by their New Orleans counterparts from No Limit, the Mob was ready to show the world that they were a testam...

B. Cox reviews hip-hop duo Gang Starr 's fifth album Moment of Truth as it turns 25. After a four year hiatus from their acclaimed 4th album 1994's Hard To Earn, Guru and DJ Premier returned to to the lab to craft their latest album among a changing landscape. Hip-hop, once thought to be a fringe fad when they debuted and when they first left, was now starting to explode commercially and was being sought after beyond the urban communities and into corporate America. In between albums, the two ha...

In a bonus episode, B. Cox sorts through some of his favorite and memorable hip-hop posse cuts of the 1990s. *We did not include Wu-Tang Clan and its individual members' albums that could have memorable posse cuts as we determined that they could warrant a standalone bonus episode in the future. Stay tuned! * Visit The Vault Classic Music Reviews Online www.vaultclassicpod.com Check Out Our Clothing and Merch Shop and Cop Some Gear! www.vaultclassicpod.com/store Build Your Own Amazing Podcast We...

B. Cox is joined by Chris Mitchell ( Kinetik ) of the Breaking Atoms Podcast to review Little Brother 's classic debut studio album The Listening as it turns 20. The group, which was formerly made up of the trio of emcees Phonte and Big Pooh and producer 9th Wonder , met as students on the campus of North Carolina Central University. They bonded over their shared love and passion of hip-hop and formed a collective with other North Carolina college students who were hip-hop artists and producers ...

B. Cox looks back at hip-hop trio Digable Planet 's debut album Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) as it turns 30. The Brooklyn-based group made up of emcees Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler , Mariana "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving met through what seemed to be fate in the late 80s. After signing to Pendulum Records in 1992, they began crafting their debut album under the production supervision of Butterfly and the likes of Shane "The Doctor" Faber and Mike "Lanching An...

B. Cox & J. Owe review 50 Cent 's explosive debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin' as it turns 20. After a successful run as a protege of Run DMC's Jam Master Jay, the Queens youth turned drug dealer turned emcee was set to make his mark after series of setbacks including being shot multiple times, being dropped by his label while having his debut album scrapped and being blacklisted from the industry. After getting back on his feet and releasing several independent mixtapes, his free agency prompte...

In a special bonus edition of Pop Culture Corner , B.Cox explores the dynamics of the many layers and styles of hip-hop and urban fashion in the 90s. After experiencing a very colorful and avant garde fashion sense in the 80s, the hip-hop and urban music scene in the 1990s was defined by three segments: (1) The elite and luxury fashion brands that dominated the fashion world whose status symbols found its niche among artists and their fans (2) the mainstream brands that the hip-hop community emb...

B. Cox reflects on the year that was 2003. In a year that saw Western Powers kick their war against dictatorships in the Middle East into full gear and saw the U.S. biggest state in political turmoil, the music scene was successfully and commercially thriving. It was highlighted by the emergence of the unlikeliest of superstars in 50 Cent , who served as triumphant comeback story: from underground sensation to on his death bed to global music superstar in the span of two years. Meanwhile, the bi...