3. Jefferson Ink, "You Should Be Dancin:'" This supremely funky local record was put out on Houston International in 1978. It's heavy-duty dance-floor material, with a bouncy handclap-style backbeat that clearly anticipates the rise of hip-hop. These days it's a fairly rare collector's item among funk obsessives.

Don't let anybody tell you that Houstonians weren't on the cutting edge of the hip-hop sound from the very beginning -- you can check out the proof at the UH Library's archive.

2. Milli Vanilli, "Girl You Know it's True:" Today, Milli Vanilli is remembered as one of the recording industry's cruelest jokes, but in 1988, nobody was laughing. "Girl You Know It's True" was a massive smash, peaking at No. 2 on the U.S. chart on its way to becoming the faux group's first platinum single.

By the time the duo was tabbed as "Best New Artist" at the 1990 Grammys, their lip-synching ruse was destined to be exposed. But until then, people were diggin' it. The thought of DJ Screw bumping a slowed-down version of this tune at a party or a club is pretty fucking great.

1. Kris Kross, "Da Bomb:" Kris Kross was pretty gimmicky even by the standards of early-'90s rap. But hey, the gimmick worked. The teen duo was discovered in an Atlanta shopping mall by an also-teenaged Jermaine Dupri, who coached Kris Kross to hitting the quadruple platinum mark with their debut album, Totally Krossed Out.

By the time Da Bomb was released in '93, the phenomenon was all but over. Still, Kris Kross were a major mainstream breakthrough for Southern hip-hop, and it's altogether fitting that their music be preserved as part of one of the world's most definitive collections of 20th Century Dirty South recordings.