I’m, like, weeks and weeks late to this party, but Cipha made a great list/time capsule of “The 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers” and it is about as phenomenal as you could hope. For the uninitiated, The Tunnel was the legendary New York club that hosted an even legendary-er Sunday night hip hop party and the crowd was a highly discerning mix of drug dealers and other clientele who really, really went nuts for hard drums and street rap anthems.
And for anyone who was a hip hop head in the 90s, this list is great nostalgia. I never went to The Tunnel myself (only moved to NYC in 2000 and it was shut down permanently within a year), but more so than some of these songs still being great today (many still are), the visceral feeling of first hearing joints like “Simon Says,” “Ante Up,” “Wild Out” and “My Mind Right” is something that stays with you. There’s really no way to describe them other than “banger.” Most importantly, while clicking through this whole list over the past five hours was the first time I’d listened to NORE’s “Superthug” in like five years. Regrettable, I know, but at least it happened.
Thanks, Cipha.
The reason this is being posted on an NBA blog is that Complex did a follow-up post featuring some of the many flyers they used to put out to promote the Sunday Tunnel parties. And one of them was the flyer below for a Sunday night party after the 1998 NBA All-Star Game in Madison Square Garden.
Wonder if Cipha (or anyone else) has any stories from that night. I’d sure like to hear one.
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