The Long Island Sound
Let’s get this straight right out of the gate — Queens is not Long Island. It is a borough of NYC, and as much as this Long Island boy would love to count Queens as part of LI, I cannot. So no, LL Cool J and ATCQ will not show up in this playlist. Nor with Method Man who famously split his time between Shaolin and Hempstead. Secondly, there is a dearth of De La Soul tracks on Spotify because of sampling issues that you can learn about here in this handy video we made when we honored the trio at The Webby Awards in 2014.
Otherwise, I’m very proud to have been raised in a place that could output so much legendary skill on the microphone. It was nearly impossible for me to pair down tracks from Public Enemy, EPMD and Eric B. & Rakim. And then to see all of these legends together — Busta Rhymes, Prince Paul, Keith Murray, Craig Mack, Leaders of the New School, KMD, Biz Markie, Roc Marciano — filled me with the type of Strong Island pride that powers many of these tracks, many of which were omnipresent growing up, even when I was listening to mostly indie rock and other stuff. Much of this playlist was just around, the sound of growing up in Nassau County in the 80s and 90s. It’s been a nostalgic trip to familiarize myself again with so many of these cuts.
This is just the first of three planned Long Island tracks because the punk, hardcore and metal scenes will have to be repped at some point in a forthcoming playlist.
