BmoreGorilla
Veteran
And the thing is having a gimmick really isn’t a bad thing if it isn’t corny and sets you apart from the competition. Even the Wu had a gimmick with the king fu shyt
90's Rap misconceptions?
- Thread starter Asicz
- Start date
I remember Biggie kinda shytting on their second album in The Source (I love that album btw) but he said they should've never switched their style up because it was working. Their second album was a big fall off commercially from their debut.
Yeah P signed a lot of local talent that would've been unsigned otherwise. Still, there were No Limit artists who were lyricists. It just wasn't showcased on the songs that were actually popular.
Mystikal had star power and even though Silkk isn't viewed in a positive light now, he definitely had star power during No Limit's peak.
BmoreGorilla
Veteran
I liked that second album too. I remember asking my mama to get it for Christmas and when I told her the name go the album she thought I was saying Straight Up Suicide
But their careers followed the same arc a lot of acts did back then. Classic debut, followed by a sophomore slump, followed by a third album that was better than the second but nowhere as good as the first and they were pretty much out the game
BmoreGorilla
Veteran
A lot of my nikkas loved that No Limit shyt but outside of a track here or there I never saw the appeal. P gets my upmost respect tho. He’s a true self made man and saved a lot of lives in the process. shyt I doubt we even have the Snoop we have today if it wasn’t for P
Yup, I was thinking of Wu in general and especially Dirty, but left them out cause I wanted to focus on less skilled rappers. Heck, Pac's thug persona was a gimmick too. Snoop had the gimmick around his name and the drug use, Slim Shady was a mental illness gimmick, Jay Z had the kingpin/mogul wealth gimmick.
But the first list I made was some straight mediocre-to-unskilled rappers who came up big in that time.
Taadow
The StarchBishop™️
Before The Chronic, the game was wide open because rappers was chilling out.
Cube & LL were probably the most popular, but their chit was more chill...The Predator
was more laid back, 14 Shots was cool but it wasn’t hard like the last one. This was also the
pocket when Hit Squad, Heavy D, Pete & CL, and Grand Puba was hittin’.
Techniec
Drugs and Kalashnikovs
Oh ya for sure, Hammer different, Hammer had my immigrant ass dancing in 90
He had his own cartoon that we all watched lmao.
Techniec
Drugs and Kalashnikovs
Yup I remember the Hammer cartoon looool.
Hammer and New Kids on the Block is what I remember from 90
Sorry I had to spoiler that shyt, just unwatchable
Honorable mention to Fresh Prince, MC Hammer, Kris Kross, Insane Clown Posse, Vanilla Ice, Puff Daddy, and Twista.
They sold units but weren't seen as the best in the game. They had the popularity but not the respect. You know there's a difference between then and now.
And Fresh Prince and Twista was wack?
im saying..meth and rza got a grammy for it
#facts
LunaticVillage415
All Star
It took tremendous hustle to be an independent rapper in the 90's. 
You either had to pay like $100-200+ an hour to use a professional studio or have all your own studio recording equipment which was hella more expensive in the 90's, buy blank tapes and CDs in bulk like weight, sell your tapes hand to hand or out the back of your trunk or convince mom and pop record stores to carry your music. You can't discount the hustle of independent underground rap because that's what the careers of Master P, No Limit and Cash Money were based on.
Nowadays, you have more rappers than fans because anyone with a laptop and camera can produce their own music, videos and upload them to YouTube and Soundcloud and start getting views and streams. Back in the day, an early 90's No Limit tape literally had to make its way from Richmond, CA all the way to Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Kansas City or New Orleans. And independent rappers had little to no professional promotion or consistent major radio play. No album reviews in major magazines to generate hype either.
Even becoming a local rap legend was a feat back in the 90's. So when you see independent rappers from the 90's getting millions of views on old songs on Youtube, especially when their songs haven't been referenced by a recent rapper or new school source, it really means something.
On top of that, independent rappers from the 90's tended to be knee deep in the street life or living in the depths of the hood back when the crime rates in the cities were at an all time high, so they juggled the street life and trying to make music on a unimaginable level. They weren't signed to major record labels getting fat advance checks or getting flown out to Manhattan or Hollywood to record their albums and most didn't enjoy nationwide tours to escape the hood after their albums dropped either. For instance, Totally Insane recorded and released their debut album back when their hometown of East Palo Alto was the murder capital of the country back in 1992.
It meant something to be a struggle rapper in the 90's.
You either had to pay like $100-200+ an hour to use a professional studio or have all your own studio recording equipment which was hella more expensive in the 90's, buy blank tapes and CDs in bulk like weight, sell your tapes hand to hand or out the back of your trunk or convince mom and pop record stores to carry your music. You can't discount the hustle of independent underground rap because that's what the careers of Master P, No Limit and Cash Money were based on.Nowadays, you have more rappers than fans because anyone with a laptop and camera can produce their own music, videos and upload them to YouTube and Soundcloud and start getting views and streams. Back in the day, an early 90's No Limit tape literally had to make its way from Richmond, CA all the way to Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Kansas City or New Orleans. And independent rappers had little to no professional promotion or consistent major radio play. No album reviews in major magazines to generate hype either.
Even becoming a local rap legend was a feat back in the 90's. So when you see independent rappers from the 90's getting millions of views on old songs on Youtube, especially when their songs haven't been referenced by a recent rapper or new school source, it really means something.
On top of that, independent rappers from the 90's tended to be knee deep in the street life or living in the depths of the hood back when the crime rates in the cities were at an all time high, so they juggled the street life and trying to make music on a unimaginable level. They weren't signed to major record labels getting fat advance checks or getting flown out to Manhattan or Hollywood to record their albums and most didn't enjoy nationwide tours to escape the hood after their albums dropped either. For instance, Totally Insane recorded and released their debut album back when their hometown of East Palo Alto was the murder capital of the country back in 1992.
It meant something to be a struggle rapper in the 90's.
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The Amerikkkan Idol
The Amerikkkan Nightmare
I never said there was no trash being out, just that Hip-Hop was better at self-policing.
You don't even hear songs like "Paparazzi" or "Stakes Is High" anymore because nobody gives a shyt
Which is why Hip-Hop is in the state it's in.
Tribe were really big in Hip-Hop, they were selling around gold back then, which was really good for East Coast rap in the early '90s, but they were nowhere near the multiplatinum status that West Coast guys like say NWA were.
The Pharcyde was kind of seen as a joke group because of "Passing Me By" and "Yo Mama", which were moderate hits.
Mobb Deep blew up off the backs of Biggie & Nas in '94-'95. Now, they weren't Bone Thugs or Outkast levels of big, but New York/East Coast big.
It's funny you'd bring up The Chronic as this delineation, because it really was that.
Everything changed after The Chronic
Before The Chronic, Hip-Hop didn't know if it was going to go in the direction of Vanilla Ice & Hammer (who by far outsold anybody who ever did Hip-Hop up to that point) or be conscious like Public Enemy, KRS-One, Brand Nubian, or if gangsta rap was going to carry the day.
It started out in say '89/'90 being Hammer & Vanilla Ice killing all sales records and breaking into the pop charts with LL & guys like Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane & Eric B. & Rakim representing for "real" Hip-Hop, but by '91, NWA & Ice Cube & Ice-T started to push that pendulum in the direction of the West Coast gangsta shyt.
The takeover was real
A half-White, Canadian, child actor, who makes simp music that he doesn't even write himself?I gotta disagree.
It was a brief takeover '91-94, but while it was going on, it was a WASH
Snoop was selling 8 million, while guys like LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane, and De La Soul were happy to sell a million.
Ice Cube double platinum, NWA double platinum, Too Short platinum, Spice 1 gold, E-40 gold
MC Hammer DIAMOND
East Coast guys were getting wore the fukk out in the early '90s.
Even Nas' Illmatic took 10 years to go platinum.
Biggie's Ready To Die kind of ended the West Coast dominance, but even that sold ike 1.5 million in the first year.
Snoop sold 800,000 in a week.
Sorry I had to spoiler that shyt, just unwatchable
Honorable mention to Fresh Prince, MC Hammer, Kris Kross, Insane Clown Posse, Vanilla Ice, Puff Daddy, and Twista.
The Beastie Boys were '80s and were pranksters And Kriss Kross were a hell of a lot better than a lot of dudes today, lyrically
Insane Clown Posse were not ever a respected Hip-Hop group in the '90s
Vanilla Ice was a pop star that no one in Hip-Hop respected
Puff Daddy was a producer and record label owner, who wasn't seen as an MC, kind of like Eazy-E
And what's wrong with Twista? Dude can spit
I wouldn't call those gimmicks, just a style.
What's wrong with having a unique style?
A gimmick is something that isn't real.
Every Outkast record has at least gone platinum.
How is that not huge?
And Biggie & Pac were HUGE sellers from '94-'97.