Pro Set used to be cool.
Another old pack of cards has been liberated from the stacks of chaos on my decks. I believe I bought this pack for way too much money at an Austin area record store a number of years ago. While I must have bought at least a box's worth of Pro Set MusiCards back in the day, I never got into their Yo! MTV Raps set from around the same time. This is weird, of course, because the ratio of artists in the rap set that I was familiar with, if not actually a fan of, was much greater than that MusicCards release. Was this because of availability or something? It's hard to say at this point.
56 - M.C. Hammer - Was anyone bigger than Hammer in 1991? Of course the critics were already out in droves by this period, but he was selling a ridiculous amount of records and was simply unavoidable for a period. There was an entire generation of music listeners who probably hadn't been exposed to a hit song based around a sample (Rick James'"Super Freak") prior to M.C. Hammer biggest hit.
37 - Heavy D. and the Boyz - Heavy D (RIP) was best known to me at the time for being behind the theme song (both versions) to FOX's Black-oriented sketchy comedy "In Living Color". And don't forget The Boyz!
64 - Public Enemy - I'm listening to PE's "It Takes a Nation of Millions..." right now as I write this. It holds up! Chuck D is a great social media follow, especially if you like basketball.
15 - Digital Underground - Humpty Hump (RIP) and his crew were sort of a party-rap collective that employed Tupac as a fringe member/dancer at one point.
20 - Doctor Dre and Ed Lover - It's the guys who (mostly) hosted the Yo! MTV Raps tv show! Dre, of course, is of no relationship to that other Dr. Dre, the one who abbreviates his title.
95 - Young Black Teenagers - Have I mentioned how perfectly '90s the design of these cards is? It's wonderful. This is the only card in the pack where I can't specifically recall one of their songs.
4 - Bell Biv DeVoe - Here's what the backs of the cards look like.
82 - Tone Loc - Tone had two huge hits that were collaborations with Young MC (of "Bust a Move" fame) and would appear in various television shows and movies in the '90s and beyond.
28 - Eric B. & Rakim - Ah yes, your favorite rapper's favorite rappers. Only Public Enemy could join them in the A tier from this pack.
35 - Fab Five Freddy - My recollection of Fab Five Freddy, aside from being name-checked in a 1980 Blondie hit due to his status as an early hip hop scene pioneer, was his showing up for lengthy on-the-street interviews during late night Yo! episodes. I bet he has a ton of cool stories to tell.
Of course, it can't be a proper Pro Set pack without one of these sweepstakes card things. Let me get in my time machine and win one of these things...