Big Daddy Kane's 1988 debut still stands as a raw classic from one of hip-hop's most fruitful years. The production is end to end brilliant, with Juice Crew guru Marley Marl soundtracking Kane through nine furious cuts (and one absolute stinker, the slow jam "The Day You're Mine"). Marl's production has rarely sounded finer, a gritty chorus of drums and funk-soul samples that have since been immortalized. "Raw," "Just Rhymin' with Biz," and "Ain't No Half-Steppin'" are the certified anthems, but they're not the only highlights. Check the furious "Long Live the Kane" and "Set It Off" for Kane's up-tempo odes to himself. "I'll Take You There" and "Word to the Mother(Land)" were the obligatory (yet heartfelt) Nation nods, mandatory during this brief late-'80s period of Afrocentricity. Though his image would soon switch to that of a smoothed-out new jack playa, the memory of Kane as one of hip-hop's supreme lyrical rulers lives long on this masterpiece. --Hua Hsu