Throwback Jamz - Mix of R&B, urban hits, and old-school rap.

Instead of the stark rhymes and basic funk of old-school rap, some hip-hop embraces melody, digressions and introspection.

House of Pain has taken up slow, boasting old-school rap with the same eager clumsiness that 1960's British rockers brought to 1950's Chicago blues.

Now the reunited Gang is an old-school rap oldies act, enthusiastically performing its own raps along with material from its late-1970's and early-1980's contemporaries.

Their new single, "Itch U Can't Scratch," slows things down a bit, mixing disco and peppy old-school rap.

De La Soul spent part of its set at Tramps on Wednesday night praising original, old-school rap, the music of big boasts and simple drumbeats.

The odd thing was that when De La Soul released its debut album in 1989, the group broke away from old-school rap.

The Roots combine the skeletal backups and boasts of old-school rap and the relaxed, easy-rolling grooves of acid-jazz.

All an old-school rap needed was a drumbeat and a riff behind a slow, straightforward rap; dense productions and speedy syncopated delivery would come later.

White, suburban and female, these young Long Islanders give a new twist to old-school rap; 4:30 p.m.