I used to look forward to the inevitable posse cut on nearly every hip-hop album I copped from approximately 1988 – 1995. They were both regular (one on nearly every album) and rare (only one on any album). 

And they were almost always dope: MCs you hadn’t otherwise heard, guys like “Baby Chris” Lighty, rest in power, spitting a bit, guest appearances from dudes you didn’t realize were down with that particular artist. Or in the case of “It’s a Party” by Ice T and the Syndicate Underground, roughly half the population of LA, including a decidedly less rugged-looking Everlast rocking a whiteboy soccer dude peniscut. They launched careers of insanely hungry, once in a lifetime talents as Main Source’s “Live at the BBQ” did for Nas. Sometimes, as in the case of “Scenario” and “Flava In Ya Ear”, they spawned remixes that were somehow, as impossible as it seemed, even doper than the original. They are, or were anyway, the epitome of flavor.

I think I have heard one posse cut in the past 10 years that was anywhere approaching any good, the utterly high test “Suspect” by modern hip-hop messiah Joey Bada$$ and his cohorts of Pro Era. Amen for Joey. One of about 4 cats out worth listening to right now, in my humble, increasingly arthritic, old man opinion. 

So I’ll just leave this masterwork right here, for y’all. Hours of 80s & 90s posse cut enjoyment courtesy of Cosmo Baker.

Pass the 40, cuz my mother’s not lookin’.