Well, it looks like my hipster musician friend Robin was wrong when – in early 1982 – she declared hip-hop was over the hill, which at that moment made me shut up about the satchel full of 12-inches I'd scored that day at Leopold's on Durant. She backed off a few months later, the first time she heard Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five testify about dead-end living in the smash hit "The Message" (disc one, track five of The Hip-Hop Box – no hip-hop history would be worth a dime without it). Of course, success meant that almost overnight hip-hop was everywhere, and now, thousand of albums and many thousands of tracks later, there's no way any compilation could do justice to a music as rich, diverse, and explosive as it proved to be.

So I want to go on record as saying that hip-hop didn't die and that this four-CD set is loaded with fabulous music and comes with a great booklet with interesting thoughts by interesting writers. Hip-hop OG's will smile at the memories and curse bitterly about the essential cuts that aren't here – and that's what happens when, well, a sound that rocked the house and then got so big that, after a while, it bought the house turns 25. The anniversary is further complicated by the fact that hip-hop isn't just a sound – it's a scene, a way of life, and boxing it up keeps some things alive as surely as it buries others. So where are all the cuts you'd add if it were your compilation? Shut up and enjoy yourself, because there's some great music to be heard, especially if you sidestep Arrested Development's "Tennessee."