Jurassic 5 - Work It Out

Monie Love - It's a Shame

Still among the best of the Brits...

Queen Latifah (ft. Monie Love) - Ladies First

Both ladies were members of the Native Tongues collective, and both were nineteen when this was released. The track is from All Hail the Queen.

The Roots - The Seed (2.0)

Originally called The Square Roots (should have kept that name). This track is from Phrenology.

Jungle Brothers - Straight out the Jungle

Founding members (together with De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest) of the Native Tongues Collective...

A Tribe Called Quest - Check the Rhyme

This track is from The Low End Theory, reviewed by Dave Heaton here. The following extract from Heaton's review is on the band's Wikipedia page:

Any 30-second snippet of The Low End Theory will go further to convince of the album's greatness than anything I can write. I could easily write an entire book on this one album and still feel like I've hardly said anything... The Low End Theory is a remarkable experience, as aesthetically and emotionally rewarding as any work of music I can think of.

And here's the album's brilliant opening track, Excursions:

De La Soul - The Magic Number

Among the greatest hip-hop innovators of all time. I bought 3 Feet High and Rising at the time of its release in 1989 and remember being startled by it. Now I'm going back to discover all the bands that were inspired by De La Soul. There are quite a few geniuses in that crowd, as you'll see this month.

Brace yourself...