Throwbacks: Partners-N-Crime - 'Pump the Party'

Right in the middle of a 13-track, 41-minute CD from 1995 sits "Pump Tha Party," a four-and-a-half-minute exercise in raw momentum. When you look at the tracklist for Partners-N-Crime’s album of the same name, you immediately know exactly what kind of time they were on.

They didn't leave room for ambiguity. The project kicks off with a quick intro called "Handle Tha" before diving straight into the sprawling, five-minute aggression of "Talk That Shit Now (Fuck U & LV)." There is a blunt force to that sequencing that modern rap algorithms would completely reject. That is exactly why this time capsule matters. By the time you navigate past the grit of "Bitch Get Off Me" and hit track six, "Pump Tha Party" arrives as the undeniable centerpiece. Some mid-90s rap records sound trapped in their release year. This one survives because it captures a group operating without a filter, building a CD meant for front-to-back listening. Press play up top.