Arrested Development was one of the corniest gimmicks ever
- Thread starter Whitty Hutton
- Start date
Novody that samples music is a genius.
Westbama Heartthrob
Irregular Zero
Be on a hip hop forum and make such a statement brehs
@thephatmack
Can I hear some of your original beats?
Can I hear some of your original beats?
Bruce LeRoy
All Star
This is revisionist history.
They weren't disliked because they were positive, they [along with other acts like Me Phi Me, PM Dawn, etc..]were disliked because they were corny ,easily, digestible "alternative rap" artists that white liberal yuppy critics tried to prop up while sh-tting on actual hip hop artists.
BDP, Paris, Pharcyde, Pete Rock n CL Smooth, Gangstarr and others all dropped the same year and none of those albums classify as what you call the "black KKLANSMAN" gimmick.
DontEemTry
Superstar
Always respected what they were trying to do but I never liked their execution of it.
They went too far down the corny path
They went too far down the corny path
It's ridiculous.
People seem to forget that in the 80s and early 90s conscious HipHop was on top.. Arrested Development, P. M Dawn, Fugees, Public Enemy, Tupac (pre Deathrow), Brand Nubian, A Tribe called Quest, etc.
DontEemTry
Superstar
Nah, out of the shyt you listed we fukked with Fugees, PE, Pac, Nubian, Tribe mad heavy. So nikkas didn't have a problem with conscious rap. We had a problem with wack conscious rap.
If you hated them mofos you def hated PM Dawn too 
Revolution was a good song imo. They overplayed the image and Speech wasn't a great songwriter but i love that there was a time in hop hop where we dictated the creative direction of the culture,not the other way around.
I never really thought they were corny. I liked "Tennessee" and "People Everyday". I didn't really like "Mr. Wendall". Listening to these songs years later, the lyrics came off as preachy and condescending, so I see how that put people off of them. Not to mention, we never really knew who or wasn't in the group.
It never seemed like they were set up for long term success.
It never seemed like they were set up for long term success.
Yeap. And that's it in a nutshell. People get so caught up in what the music represents than what the music actually IS... Arrested Development gave us a couple dope songs but an overall corny package. PE, Brand Nubian, Tribe, etc. weren't watering plants on stage n shyt like that. Chuck D, Puba, Pac, Tip, etc were actually dope on the mic... Speech and breh from PM Dawn were mediocre at best. Nobody said shyt about conscious rap bein' wack, we said THEY in particular were wack.
Last edited:
What's even more confounding is that Arrested Development never reached out to any other conscious hip hop artists. They never reached out to PE, BDP,
Tribe, De La, Jungle Brothers, X-Clan, Brand Nubian, Paris, Common, or even 2Pac. Nor did they reach out to other hip hop collectives like Pharcyde, Heiro, PRT, Gangstarr, Freestyle Fellowship, Flavor Unit, and others. They were like the kids in the cafeteria who had their own table, so when the pop audience, who bought their records, left, they had no one to back them up. No core hip hop audience, No homegrown fanbase, No hometown support. No label representation. No nothing, Just media created hype.
Tribe, De La, Jungle Brothers, X-Clan, Brand Nubian, Paris, Common, or even 2Pac. Nor did they reach out to other hip hop collectives like Pharcyde, Heiro, PRT, Gangstarr, Freestyle Fellowship, Flavor Unit, and others. They were like the kids in the cafeteria who had their own table, so when the pop audience, who bought their records, left, they had no one to back them up. No core hip hop audience, No homegrown fanbase, No hometown support. No label representation. No nothing, Just media created hype.
Bruce LeRoy
All Star
Because they were "Industry plants", they had no grass roots following or any credibility in hip hop culture. They were a safe "pro black" group that 90's white yuppies could safely listen to without feeling "attacked". The difference is today there are no gatekeepers and now those same "yuppies" who failed to prop up these "altenrative rap" acts to hip hop heads are now "hipsters" or whatever you want to call them today... they are the tastemakers and are dictating what's "hot" in rap, fashion, "urban culture", etc.