Kid 'n Play's "Face the Nation" Released 20 Years Ago Today.

All this week, Grant Miller Media has examined the legacy and impact of Kid 'n Play's "Face the Nation" which was released 20 years ago this week. The album exploded the duo's glorious comedy hip-hop music and angular hair styles into the popular consciousness.

Much as Bob Dylan disavowed any label as voice of the 1960s generation, Play resisted claims to the epochal significance of his songs. Cultural expressions like Kid 'n Play's seminal "Rollin' with Kid 'n Play" contain discrete nuggets of truth about a particular moment rather than encompass the totality of experience for an entire age cohort.

Now, at the tell tale 20-year mark, it's more necessary than ever to pierce through the media-driven platitudes about Kid 'n Play emerging fully formed overnight to transform music and the angular hair style industry.

Prior to the "Face the Nation," Kid 'n Play honed their craft, playing gigs at dingy bars to disinterested audiences, opening for bigger acts and touring circuits throughout the nation.

Though "Gittin' Funky" compelled a wider audience, it did not immediately bestow the title of "voice of a generation" that has since been applied to Play. His discomfort with fame, outrageously baggy pants and angular hair were symptomatic of currents that ran deeper throughout the culture.

"We had no idea 'Face the Nation' would sell less than 200,000 albums. We never went out and said, 'Let's record an album that receives just two stars from All Music.com,'" Kid said recently.

To mark the occasion, Elektra Records has released a remastered box set of the album containing more than 80 unreleased tracks, a live DVD and liner notes written by Michael Azerrad. The Martin Scorsese documentary, "Kid n Play: Don't Look Wack," opens in select theaters on Friday.