9. Prince Paul (feat. Mr. Dead and Newkirk), “Boston Top”
[audio:http://largeup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/12-The-Boston-Top.mp3|titles=12 The Boston Top]
Prince Paul is a producer known for, among other things, inventing the hip-hop skit (with De La Soul’s 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising), and his solo LPs, which include the original hip-hop opera Prince Among Thieves, tend to be more notable for their comedy than their musicality. Among the “cases” on 2005’s itsTRUmental, a parody of Law and Order-style cop shows, was “Boston Top,” a song, Paul told me in a 2005 interview for XLR8R, that was inspired by a “true story of buying a Boston cream donut where the icing came off like a magic shell in one piece.” It’s not clear why Paul (or, more specifically, guest vocalists Mr. Dead and Newkirk) decided to relate this story in patois over a dancehall riddim, but with lines like “Oh lawwwdd…another cream is dying,” we’re glad they did.