New Ministry Of Sound compilation celebrates hip-hop in all its glory

If you had to condense the history of hip-hop into a compilation album to express its sheer diversity, this collection would pretty much fulfil the function. Anthems Hip-Hop Volume II spans three decades of classic cuts, divvied up over three sections.

Disc 1 goes under the umbrella title of For The Party, kicking off with Skee-Lo’s I Wish, segueing nicely into Naughty By Nature’s OPP, Tone Loc’s Funky Cold Medina, Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, Run-DMC’s Tricky – and that’s just the first five of the perennial 19 on it!

Disc 2 is dubbed For The Heads and features your more hardcore style of hip-hop from notorious acts such as NWA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Cypress Hill, Ice T and, of course, The Notorious B.I.G.

Disc 3 slows the tempo down with For The Lovers featuring Snoop Dogg, Wiz Kalifa and Bruno Mars’ Young Wild & Free, Black Eyed Peas’ For The Weekend, Salt’N’Pepa’s Whatta Man, Drake’s Headlines alongside tracks by Outkast, Arrested Development, A Tribe Called Quest, Ja Rule and Pharcyde.

Like we said, this collection is all about the sheer diversity of a genre of music that’s too often otherwise pigeonholed. Relish hip-hop in all its forms.

Anthems: Hip-Hop II is out through Ministry Of Sound / EMI Music.