THE HIP HOP BOX MONUMENTAL FOUR-CD RETROSPECTIVE The Hip Hop Box CELEBRATES THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF RAP'S FIRST MAJOR HITS WITH HIP HOP CLASSICS FROM MORE THAN 50 OF ITS GREATEST ARTISTS Twenty-five years after 1979's "Rapper's Delight" broke open the floodgates, hip hop's influence is everywhere--from music to movies, fashion to vocabulary. Now, honoring the past, celebrating the present and anticipating the future, the four-CD The Hip Hop Box (Hip-O Records/UMe), released April 20, 2004, brings together 51 of the genre's greatest turning points, highlights, landmarks and breakthroughs, each digitally remastered. Starring most of hip hop's greatest artists, from the Sugarhill Gang of 1979 to the 50 Cent of 2003, the tracks were culled from dozens of record labels. The Hip Hop Box allows fans to "follow the drumbeat from Genesis to Revelation, innocence to hedonism, playfulness to violence, happiness to bitterness, self-hate to self-love." --Tom Terrell, music journalist, from The Hip Hop Box liner notes