god shamgod
Veteran
Nas was hyped in nyc before his debut album based off live at the bbq ,guard your grill & local buzz he was mentioned on tribes album and was on hard to earn skit before his album dropped. Still doesn’t change what I said
90's Rap misconceptions?
- Thread starter Asicz
- Start date
Nas was hyped in nyc before his debut album based off live at the bbq ,guard your grill & local buzz he was mentioned on tribes album and was on hard to earn skit before his album dropped. Still doesn’t change what I said
BulletProof
Just a B@stard Living in a Suit
I stand corrected.
You're right.
But illmatic was described as something more incredible than they ever heard.
FunkDoc1112
Heavily Armed
Yes...but Illmatic made a huge immediate impact on the East Coast and opened the doors for Mobb Deep and other acts. That's all indisputable.
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
NYK Loyalist
All Star
A big misconception is most of 90s rap was "boom bap" this is all the way false. There was way more rap from the 90s that doesn't fall in that category than does.
1st: shakes fist @ @Houston911 for not pushing my chair in here sooner. 
2nd: 5 pages in and no real mention of how Naughty owned sh*t for several summers. Treach still underrated, even here.
I'll get back to some of the other comments but I will say, Region bias shaped some of our perceptions for sure.
Good thread.
2nd: 5 pages in and no real mention of how Naughty owned sh*t for several summers. Treach still underrated, even here.
I'll get back to some of the other comments but I will say, Region bias shaped some of our perceptions for sure.
Good thread.
I was speaking on the government and their pressure at the major labels to end so-called gangsta rap. It's why you had a song by Scarface and Ice Cube called "Hand on a Dead Body" addressing the issue. Also, mainstream was hesitant to embrace so-called gangsta rap. It used to be a huge deal to have a rap song on MTV that's not Yo! MTV Raps and there were a lot of hardcore acts that were actually banned. Death Row was really one of the rarities because of Dr. Dre and because of how Jimmy Iovine backed it and had the connect to make it up there. It was ONLY when so-called gangsta rap was selling SO BIG that all the record labels want a piece of that money, because again... sex, drugs and violence in America SELLS. It always has.
What you are talking about is something totally different which lead to the East Coast/West Coast civil war which 2pac and Biggie ended up the unfortunate face of. Because hip hop began in New York, most of its industry reside in that region and there was a strong bias within that and animosity towards anything outside of the FOUR boroughs (because Staten Island until Wu-Tang blew wasn't getting love and across the bridge, Jersey wasn't getting that kind of love). So, you have hip hop, from there that wasn't promoting much hip hop that's from different regions and parts of the country, and you have journalism from the East Coast, especially when it come to rap reviews that review most albums outside their region MORE critical than they do within that region. And this was within the hip hop circle. Critics within the industry from New York couldn't understand the phenom of anything outside their own bubble. They couldn't understand how and why a lot of these, selling tapes from the trunk indie labels like Sick-Wid-It, like Cash Money & No Limit, like Suave House, and so on were banking MILLIONS underground but aren't rapping the way that pleases them because "it ain't hip hop". And they refuse to promote their music and blackball them from any function because most of them held the keys. Therefore, a lot of those out of state rap artists had to become successful DESPITE getting that East Coast acceptance. It wasn't because a Southern Rapper or a West Coast Rapper wasn't "lyrical". There were a lot of non-lyrical rappers in New York at the time too (which is another big misconception) and there were getting more love and promo. It was mainly because New York being the Mecca, you have the radio stations, rap magazines, A&R's and rap promoters mostly from there, they had a bias which lead to a beef because a lot of west coast artists felt some kind of way of not getting that much love from the East.
Now with all of hip hop throughout the decades, things evolved. The reason why you have something like East Coast rappers today rapping on so-called "trap beats" is because of the internet. The internet made everything A LOT smaller and A LOT assessible to where you can be from anywhere and interact with anyone no matter where you are from or where they are from. Back in the 90's it wasn't at all like that because the internet was in its infancy and social media non-existent. That meant a lot of rap was regional and with that was their signature regional sound that represented it. You rap how your peers or pioneers of your region rap. Your music sound more like how all the music from that region would sound. So, music from New York of that period would be more jazz-sampled influenced vs that from the West Coast which tends to be more funk-laced vs that from the South which is more soul/bluesy influenced. Hip hop started in NYC which means ALL influences originated there, but as it spread across the country, many of their own music cultures get mixed in to carve their own sound. So, of course those from the East Coast wouldn't be as open minded from the styles coming from outside that region, because it's almost alien to them in how those rappers from out west and out south rapped and how the music sounded.
Rell Lauren
Banned
Everyone had their own sound is another misconception.
Mobb Deep came out before Illmatic. Juvenile Hell came outin 1993, Illmatic came out in 1994. Nas didn't open ANY DOORS for Mobb Deep. Just because they both from Queensbridge doesn't Nas got them through. Mobb Deep was signed initially because there was a trend in the early 90's of kid rappers thanks to the successes of ABC's one hit and Kriss Kross. That got all of these rap execs trying to jump on that bandwagon and suddenly a slew of young kid acts emerged, some better than others, groups like Da Youngstaz, Illegal or rappers like Chi Ali, Shyhiem, even Black Moon initially was a teenaged group with "Who Got the Props". Mobb Deep was one of those group that caught the wave. Then in 1994, they got dropped from their deal and were growing into who we know and love with the mentorship of Q-Tip. Even ANYTHING, Q-Tip was the one responsible.
Nas at the time had all the hype, but Illmatic wasn't at all an immediate impact. This was why It was Written was so different from Illmatic, because Nas wanted more mainstream success the same that Biggie got. It was actually Ready to Die that push the East Coast back into respectable eyes, but it cannot be ignored that albums like Midnight Marauders, Hard to Earn, Enter the Wutang 36 Chambers, The Sun Rises to the East that ALL put a huge impact back to the East Coast. Illmatic had the hype, the 5-mics, but it's impact and it's continued impact to this day came later and probably because of how well received It was Written was to new listeners that want to go back to listen to the 1st album. But during that time, Illmatic was slept on. The album didn't even go platinum until 2001!
1st: shakes fist @ @Houston911 for not pushing my chair in here sooner.
2nd: 5 pages in and no real mention of how Naughty owned sh*t for several summers. Treach still underrated, even here.
I'll get back to some of the other comments but I will say, Region bias shaped some of our perceptions for sure.
Good thread.
good looks
this is a good thread
FunkDoc1112
Heavily Armed
Bruh, you're not telling me anything I didn't already know. My whole argument is that even though Illmatic didn't sell, it made a critical impact with hip-hop heads on the East Coast which was why Nas was revered and It Was Written was looked at sideways by the heads...that's ALL I'm saying.
The Amerikkkan Idol
The Amerikkkan Nightmare
Dude, nobody listened to Juvenile Hell outside of Queens.
When "Shook Ones" came out, a lot of people thought they were a new group.
Nas's "Illmatic" was as my man said above, a critical success from day one, and "The World Is Yours" and "It Aint Hard To Tell" ruled the "Rap City Top 10" for all of '93-'94, which was a huge deal at the time because BET, like The Source was still respected.
That's how I got into it, far from New York.
What Biggie did was make East Coast Rap pop, simple as that.
Puffy admitted, him and Biggie listened to what Dre & Ice Cube were doing on the West Coast and copied it because that's what was selling at the time.
Wu-Tang didn't go platinum immediately either, neither did "Midnight Marauders" or "Enta Da Stage" by Black Moon, which had more successful singles than all of those records (outside of Biggie of course).
"It Was Written" was written about as a failure when it happened, musically at least.
It was seen as Nas "selling out" and that's the record that's standing has improved over time.
"It Was Written" was seen as a pop sellout, now it's viewed as classic.
"Illmatic" was classic before it came out.
That rappers today are weirdos and drug addicts and all that but in the 90's everyone was just a dealer and thoro, etc...
Do you know how many undercover, DL punks there was in the 90's man? And do you know how many of them 90's dudes was smokin coke blunts and runnin thru pain killers and all that shyt? It just wasn't as out in the open and "cool" as it is today...and they weren't wearing tight pants and nail polish while doing all their funboy sucka shyt,
. 90's cats rockin skullys and beef and broccolis with Avirex's and shyt with a whole tranny in the whip at 1am in Midtown and shyt like that, behind the tints. 
.
And they was rattin then too, lol, it's not just the chumps today doing it
Do you know how many undercover, DL punks there was in the 90's man? And do you know how many of them 90's dudes was smokin coke blunts and runnin thru pain killers and all that shyt? It just wasn't as out in the open and "cool" as it is today...and they weren't wearing tight pants and nail polish while doing all their funboy sucka shyt,
. 90's cats rockin skullys and beef and broccolis with Avirex's and shyt with a whole tranny in the whip at 1am in Midtown and shyt like that, behind the tints. .And they was rattin then too, lol, it's not just the chumps today doing it
No it's not.
You had De La, Wu, Nas, BCC, BIG, Mobb Deep, Redman, Rakim, Gangstarr, LL, etc.
You had Hiero, Death Row, The Coup, Ras Kass, etc.
I could do the same for the south. The midwest wasn't really popping at the time so it's a moot point.
Anyway, none of them sounded the same, despite being from the same regions.
If you want argue a few rappers went on tangents where they tried to mimic a style or gimmick (like the DAS EFX shyt, or several rappers turning hard core over night) ok cool but to say "everyone had their own sound is a misconception"....is flat out false. Hell, even the mimicry was a response to new sounds in hip-hop.
Fred.