To our non-Canadian readers, Maestro Fresh Wes's "Let Your Backbone Slide" is our "Rapper's Delight," "Sucker MC's," and "Raw" all rolled into one. Released in 1989, the song, and the subsequent album Symphony in Effect, broke through the then-fledgling Canadian hip-hop underground and became a massive hit on radio. Its video was also in heavy rotation on Much Music. In short, "Let Your Backbone Slide" influenced a generation of Canadian hip-hop artists and forced record labels to take notice. The album and single version are easy enough to find, however, an alternate mix available only on the 12" exists, and is arguably the better of the two.
You decide...
