Big Daddy Kane - It's a Big Daddy Thing (iTunes Version)

If Big Daddy Kane's debut album painted him as an enormously talented battle MC, his follow-up, It's a Big Daddy Thing, finds him aggressively expanding into new territory and gunning for a wider audience outside the hip-hop faithful. Unlike later efforts, most of it is rousingly successful, making for an album that's arguably just as strong as his near-classic debut. This is where Kane starts to take his place as one of hip-hop's first sex symbols, thanks to the gliding "Smooth Operator," the somewhat dated ballad "To Be Your Man," and the Teddy Riley-produced new jack swing track "I Get the Job Done." If the latter is a blatant attempt at crossing over, with a vastly different sound than anything else on the album, it's also a player's statement of purpose. Elsewhere, Kane plays the anti-drug, pro-education social commentator, bringing his Nation of Islam beliefs further into the spotlight on tracks like "Another Victory," "Children R the Future...

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Track List:
01 It's a Big Daddy Thing
02 Another Victory
03 Mortal Combat
04 Children R the Future
05 Young, Gifted and Black
06 Smooth Operator
07 Callin' Mr. Welfare
08 Wrath of Kane (Live)
09 I Get the Job Done
10 Ain't No Stoppin Us Now
11 Pimpin' Ain't Easy
12 Big Daddy's Theme
13 To Be Your Man
14 The House That Cee Built
15 On the Move
16 Warm It Up, Kane
17 Rap Summary (Lean On Me) [Remix]

Big Daddy Kane - Long Live the Kane (iTunes Version)

Even though he spends a good 90% of the album boasting about his skills and abilities on the microphone, and cutting those of other MCs, Big Daddy Kane consistently proves himself a thrilling artist on his debut album, Long Live the Kane, one of the most appealing creations from the original new school of rap. This debut captures the Big Daddy Kane who rocked the house at hip-hop clubs and verbally cut up any and all comers in the late '80s with his articulate precision and locomotive power — the Big Daddy Kane who became an underground legend, the Big Daddy Kane who had the sheer verbal facility and razor-clean dexterity to ambush any MC and exhilarate anyone who witnessed or heard him perform. There are missteps here, to be sure — especially "The Day You're Mine," on which Kane casts himself as a loverman over a stilted drum machine and lackluster, cheesily seductive singing (offering a glimpse of the particular corner into which he would eventually paint himself). But there are also plenty of legitimate early hip-hop classics, none of which have lost an ounce of their power.

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Track List:

01 Long Live the Kane
02 Raw (Remix)
03 Set It Off
04 The Day You're Mine
05 On the Bugged Tip
06 Ain't No Half-Steppin'
07 I'll Take You There
08 Just Rhymin' With Biz
09 Mister Cee's Master Plan
10 Word to the Mother (Land)