Are De La Soul the greatest rap group ever to grace the mike? The Long Island trio's first anthology certainly makes the case, from De La's early days in 1988 as dazzling hippie scholars ("Potholes in My Lawn," "Plug Tunin' ") to their jaded-cynics period ("Ring Ring Ring [Ha Ha Hey]") to their ascendance to legend status, able to command the respect of a hard-core rhymer like Redman ("Oooh") and an old-school soul diva like Chaka Khan ("All Good?") alike. De La had fun, too — reliving young lust on "Jenifa (Taught Me)" and whiling the hours away on "A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays' " — but they were best with claws drawn. On midcareer gems such as "Stakes Is High" and "Ego Trippin' (Part Two)," they delivered maybe the most potent internal critiques hip-hop has ever seen, and did so in just as catchy a manner as the artists they were quietly pushing out of the way.

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.