Though they were ostensibly a part of the latter-day extended Native Tongues posse (a loose association of groups that involved De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers, and Queen Latifah), Naughty by Nature always were a square peg for that round hole. Looking back on NBN's career on the eve of the release of Nature's Finest, it makes more sense to see them as harbingers of a new era of hip-hop: their mix of hardcore posing (lead MC Treach waved a machete around onstage) and pop hooks foreshadowed the rise of Puff Daddy and Jay-Z. They had only two bona fide hits--"O.P.P." and "Hip Hop Hooray," both of which were huge--and the rest of the 17 tracks here follow much the same formula, matching a pop-hook backing track with a big chorus. If there were truth in advertising, Nature's Finest would have been released as a single, but fans may enjoy having all these songs together on one collection. --Bucky Wunderlick