If your idea of maximum fun is feeling like you're stuck in a time period when C&C Music Factory and Technotronic ruled the charts, then you're gonna love Rapmania.

To its credit, there are actually some damn fine artists present here; from the likes of Afrika Bambaataa, the Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow, through to Everlast and Run DMC, quite a bit of historical hip-hop ground was covered during this unprecedented super-bill. But then there's the matter of performances like that of Young MC. Strutting his stuff in a tragic pair of 'Hammer' pants, complete with a hysterical set of canary yellow back-up dancers, to an almost entirely nonchalant crowd. The best, and probably nicest, way to describe these moments is just plain sad. The success of Young MC, and likewise artists on the bill, was so fleeting that it's almost a backhanded statement on the culture having them perform amongst the legends.

Though some of the... let's call them cooks, do spoil the broth somewhat, we're really talking about a broth that was pretty bland in the first place. There's only so much funky rap one can take, and Rapmania exceeds that level in near lethal doses. We're not talking funky like James Brown either. With a few exceptions, we're talking the Fresh Prince, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and garish parachute pants kind of funky. And lord knows we're all trying to forget those days... desperately.

It's quite distressing to say it, but Rapmania is just too nice. Where are the bad boys of rap? Well, most likely off doing bad things one supposes. Even the once dependable fire-starter Ice-T barely manages to flail even an inkling of an aggressive limb. Frankly, for anyone who truly enjoys their hip-hop, this is a bit of an embarrassment. Most of the true legends here are way past their prime and should go down in history with this scratched from their record.

God knows when this was recorded, but you could swear you were watching something from 1990, or even earlier. Colour reproduction throughout is largely dull and washed out, but certainly some of the terrifying outfits on display don't help. Likewise, the sharpness and image detail isn't at what most would consider a desirable level. In fact, the only thing that really holds this transfer together is the comparatively low level of artefacts and contaminants.

Unfortunately, the audio transfer doesn't fair much better. Despite the brazen flag of 'Dolby Digital 5.1' across the top of the package, there actually isn't much in the way of directional mixing going on here. You'll certainly be excused if, at first, this seems like blatant false advertising. The fact is, the soundtrack technically is mixed in 5.1, it's just that it's ever so slight. Now, I'm all for subtlety but this is just silly. The surrounds sound more like they're emitting glitches rather than reproducing actual sound from the concert. All this is kind of irrelevant in the end, because there's really not much else special about this soundtrack either. Pretty much lacklustre in almost all areas, it's definitely audible, but that's about the nicest thing you could say about it.

Feeling slightly unfulfilled by the 100 minutes of splendorous rap music you've just watched? Well fret no more, because there's an extra 30 minutes of additional footage here for you to delight in.

While it's all in good fun, the cons of Rapmania far outweigh the pros, and for anyone other than those who consider this to be the penultimate representation of rap music, the exercise of watching this concert in its entirety quickly becomes nauseous. The below average quality of this DVD doesn't help matters either.