90's Rap misconceptions?
- Thread starter Asicz
- Start date
I like this topic..
Biggie and Pac were widely loved by everybody. No different than the top rappers at any given time in history, fans/other artists were mixed about them. Some people loved them, some people hated them.
There was a bunch of different rap acts getting major play. If you watched Video Music Box and other local/smaller Hip Hop shows, you'd definitely get mid-tier underground acts videos getting played but the bigger Hip Hop shows on MTV and BET pretty much only played what was popular or what the label was pushing. Mainstream Hip Hop media has always been about numbers. Don't let these nikkas lie to you.
Biggie and Pac were widely loved by everybody. No different than the top rappers at any given time in history, fans/other artists were mixed about them. Some people loved them, some people hated them.
There was a bunch of different rap acts getting major play. If you watched Video Music Box and other local/smaller Hip Hop shows, you'd definitely get mid-tier underground acts videos getting played but the bigger Hip Hop shows on MTV and BET pretty much only played what was popular or what the label was pushing. Mainstream Hip Hop media has always been about numbers. Don't let these nikkas lie to you.
I'd say this about Yo! and MTV Jams, but Rap City not so much. Rap City (pre-Basement) was playing pretty much anything that was out there, sometimes to a fault
One of the biggest misconceptions is that "back then you had to have lyrical skills/be original to get signed" and shyt along those lines. There was a LOT of wack/subpar nikkas out there. Not only did you not need skills/originality to get signed, you didn't need it to make a hit or get airplay either. There was a fair share of gimmickry, biting, and mediocrity. We don't celebrate any of those MFs today (OR then), but if you were there, you know they existed.
I always say there's a reason why songs like "I Used To Love HER", "Paparazzi", "Time's Up", "Come Clean", etc. existed... they were all more or less commentaries on the wack shyt that was going on in hip-hop. It wasn't just ALL dope shyt ALL the time as folks would like to believe.
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everyone sold, and it was easy to go platinum
norfwestdc
All Star
Everyone was gangster and lived their raps.
Tou had to be super lyrical to get radio play.
Tou had to be super lyrical to get radio play.
True for Rap City during the Mayor and Joe Claire years, but yeah by Basement era it was a wrap for anything that wasn't commercial or at least getting majorly pushed.I'd say this about Yo! and MTV Jams, but Rap City not so much. Rap City (pre-Basement) was playing pretty much anything that was out there, sometimes to a fault
One of the biggest misconceptions is that "back then you had to have lyrical skills/be original to get signed" and shyt along those lines. There was a LOT of wack/subpar nikkas out there. Not only did you not need skills/originality to get signed, you didn't need it to make a hit or get airplay either. There was a fair share of gimmickry, biting, and mediocrity. We don't celebrate any of those MFs today, but if you were there, you know they existed.
I always say there's a reason why songs like "I Used To Love HER", "Paparazzi", "Time's Up", "Come Clean", etc. existed... they were all more or less commentaries on the wack shyt that was going on in hip-hop. It wasn't just ALL dope shyt ALL the time as folks would like to believe.
And exactly, there was a lot of corny/biting just downright bad Hip Hop music. There was literally rap groups that were straight up copy-cats of popular acts or sometimes acts that were poppin at a point a lost their buzz would conform to whatever sound/style was popular at the time. A lot of generic gangster rap music was made in the mid 90s. Even generic conscious rap.
Big L prominence. Big L was not a well known rapper or prominently featured or referenced when he was alive.
Yes he rubbed shoulders with likes of Rocafella artist, Twista etc but he was not highly regarded alive as he was after death especially more than a decade later by 90s babies and others
Yes he rubbed shoulders with likes of Rocafella artist, Twista etc but he was not highly regarded alive as he was after death especially more than a decade later by 90s babies and others
Absolutely correct in that Big L was not that big an artist when he was alive. Big L was one of those very regional east coast rappers (Really NY) that was incredibly dope but wasn't in the talks of ever being a GOAT when he was alive. Big L wasn't regularly brought up in conversations of who was the nicest at the time to the general public. You had to REALLY be into Hip Hop to even know L like that. Once he died you have a lot of teenagers/younger people enamored with the mythology of Big L more than anything. Big L had 1 album before he passed, and it was 4 Mics at best. The beats were kinda dated by time it dropped and even some of the raps were, to no fault of his own, a lot of it was recorded in 92-93 and it didn't drop til March 1995.
Not to take away from L, he was an elite MC. However, how he's regarded now from people that weren't outside during that era is nowhere near how he was regarded when he was alive.
BulletProof
Just a B@stard Living in a Suit
That's why I was surprised he was getting a biopic based on him despite the fact I love L.
Yeah I believe the bio-pic is more because of how big he has become post-death. There's like folklore attached to him now. It's surreal because I love Big L so it's weird for me to feel like I'm downplaying his greatness or shytting on him, but I like being right and exact about the history of rap. And I just can't let people rewrite history that I was there for.
jelanitsunami
i got like 6 names I can be anybody
Rappers having more “substance” than this generation. A lot of those 90s rappers had the same money, hoes, and clothes material rappers talk about now. And then there were the super lyrical miracle rappers who spent their whole careers rapping about how good they rapped and thought that made them more righteous than the money, hoes, and clothes rappers.
The Amerikkkan Idol
The Amerikkkan Nightmare
Yup, this hs a HUGE misconception. They were definitely not universally loved like they are now
Big had beef with Jeru Tha Damaja and Ghostface & Rae dissed him on Cuban Link for a reason.
A lot of "real Hip-Hop heads" did not like the beginnings of the champagne jiggy raps that Biggie & Puffy were bringing to the East Coast in '94-'95
When Pac was in jail, Q-Tip and tons of East Coast artists dissed him.
Why do you think he went so hard at New York?
With the exception of Boot Camp & Wu-Tang cats who always fukked with Pac
The Jersey people also held him down. Treach, Queen Latifah, and the Outlawz held him down.
I'd say this about Yo! and MTV Jams, but Rap City not so much. Rap City (pre-Basement) was playing pretty much anything that was out there, sometimes to a fault
One of the biggest misconceptions is that "back then you had to have lyrical skills/be original to get signed" and shyt along those lines. There was a LOT of wack/subpar nikkas out there. Not only did you not need skills/originality to get signed, you didn't need it to make a hit or get airplay either. There was a fair share of gimmickry, biting, and mediocrity. We don't celebrate any of those MFs today, but if you were there, you know they existed.
I always say there's a reason why songs like "I Used To Love HER", "Paparazzi", "Time's Up", "Come Clean", etc. existed... they were all more or less commentaries on the wack shyt that was going on in hip-hop. It wasn't just ALL dope shyt ALL the time as folks would like to believe.
I don't think anybody said that everybody had to be dope, just that you had a higher standard in general.
The Common, Xzibit, Jeru stuff was about about them trying to uphold a standard.
I mean, Jeru dissed Biggie for being to commercial and now we'd kill to have a guy like Biggie today.
He would be considered an underground New York rapper or something
Common was dissing the popularity of gangsta rap, but we'd kill to have anybody as good as NWA or Ice Cube or Ice-T today in the mainstream
Now, when Xzibit puts out "Paparazzi", that right there was where Hip-Hop was starting to go off the rails
People like Wendy Williams and Vibe Magazine had created this "East Coast/West Coast" war that they overdramatized and rappers were playing into it.
We'd be better off if we had guys policing the culture like we had back then. Calling out cats for selling out instead of saying, "Well, so & so wasn't perfect, so now none of us have to have any standards", which is where we're at now
Rapping about how good you are at rapping does make you more righteous than being a heathen
And making music for the hood instead of the suburban white kids does make you does make you more righteous than those shucking and jiving so CACs and Mexicans will buy their records.
Yeah every generation kinda cycled through the same topics generally. I think the only real difference is Hip Hop had more storytelling to it back then which lended itself to more things, but overall, you are correct. Especially once we got to 95 onward.
Homeboy Runny-Ray
From Around The Way
you say this as if twista was a big star. he was in the same boat as big l.
not sure why twista is mentioned anyway. i dont even recall them rubbing shoulders. is that a typo or some kind of plug?
Biggest misconception I see some of the younger users have is they look at the 90's as one long era.
as far as rap and fashion etc you have early nineties, mid 90's.. and then up to like 97 was cool and then it slowly went to trash the last few years which turned into the early 2000's. They were all pretty different.
as far as rap and fashion etc you have early nineties, mid 90's.. and then up to like 97 was cool and then it slowly went to trash the last few years which turned into the early 2000's. They were all pretty different.
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