Hip-hop's sense of history has never been its strong point; while everyone samples drum breaks from James Brown, they're paying tribute to the first guy to use the sample, not Brown's funky drummers. No, hip-hop's always been about what's new, what's next, what's about to break. So tributes to the genre's early greats always feel a little weird, even when the tribute is to as venerable an institution as the Sugar Hill label--the early home of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, the Sugarhill Gang, the Funky 4+1, and many others. But Sugar Hill's legacy isn't all great; the label started strong with "Rapper's Delight" (1979) and continued on strong through "The Message" (1982) but had started to falter by the time of "White Lines (Don't Do It)" in 1983, and was done by 1986. This collection has all the hits that appear on the extensive The Sugar Hill Records Story box set and even pops in a couple of tracks not found in the box; while some of the songs now sound dated ("Scorpio," "Funk You Up"), others are still referenced to this day ("Rapper's Delight," "That's the Joint," "Break Dance-Electric Boogie"). Though it's occasionally uneven, Best of Sugar Hill Records is ultimately a great look back at the pre-gangsta, pre-electronica, post-disco early days of a nascent sound.--Randy Silver