T.he I.nformant
1st Ballot HOF Teller
Biggie slander is out of fukking control lately 
Biggie is/was the real blueprint for sellout/commercial rap that is still being made today
- Thread starter IllmaticDelta
- Start date
Infamous45
All Star
If biggie 'sold out' then,
this man was the first one to do it.
shytty thread btw
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
If biggie 'sold out' then,
this man was the first one to do it.
shytty thread btw
MC hammer was/is always known as hip-pop....Im talking about for real supposed GOAT candidates
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Infamous45
All Star
KravenMorehead™
Barrel Brothers.®
i remember phonte's myspace blog on the little brother page, is it still up or did you get this from somewhere else?Phonte from Little Brother and Foreign Exchange had a whole piece on how IWW (and Biggie too) started the entire commercial and underground split.
This was a blog from his Myspace
'The three albums that 'killed' hip-hop.....
Notice 'killed' is in quotation marks, 'cause the shyt is still obviously alive...but yeah.....here's my theory.....and this is not a dis against any of these records, as I am a fan of all three, but just a theory on the way these albums
The Three Albums That "Killed" Hip-Hop
by Dr. Tigallonious Wolfgang Flowers III, M.D. B.A., MS, PhD, BS, LLC
1.Nas- "It Was Written"
Columbia Records
Rating: @@@@
When compared to the lackluster albums that came later in his career ("I Am," "Nastradamus", "It Was Written" shines like a diamond. At the time of its release, however, "IWW" was viewed as a slightly disappointing follow-up to a classic LP that showed so much promise. Jigga was right. The people had spoken and voiced their collective opinions: "Ehhhh......"
To me, this is the album that is mostly responsible for the ridiculous "underground" v. "commericial" split in hip-hop. In the summer of '96 you had two artists, De La Soul
It's not that "IWW" was a bad album, it was just an ugly foreshadowing of things to come. Although if you're gonna blame "IWW," its only fair to take a step back and place an even B.I.G.ger blame on the album that inspired it. Yep.....you guessed it......I'm talking about....
2. The Notorious B.I.G.- "Ready To Die"
Bad Boy/Arista Records, 1995
Rating: @@@@@
Although death is unquestionably the greatest promotional tool any artist could have, you'd be a fool to deny Biggie's place among the greats for fear of posthumously overrating him.
Dude had it all: charisma, intelligence, a knack for storytelling, and a melodious flow that is still imitated and mimicked to this day. (If there is any question as to whether or not Biggie has influenced any of today's MC's, just listen to ANY song from "Get Rich or Die Trying" and imagine Biggie doing the hook instead. Scary ain't it?)
In addition to his talents as an MC, Biggie also had Puffy behind the boards (or shyt, BESIDE the boards to let a Hitman tell it....). While Puff may not have been the traditional hands-on hip hop
The thing that was so amazing about "RTD" was Biggie's ability to do a radio joint like "Juicy" or "One More Chance" without sounding forced or gimmicky. He could go from "Warning" to "Big Poppa" and not miss a step. His personality and charisma held it all together. Even Nas, for all his 80's loops and blatantly commercial aspirations on "IWW," simply could not compete with Biggie's natural charm as an MC. This was the simple fact that many MC's who unsuccessfully tried to duplicate "RTD's" formula (see: Mic Geronimo) failed to realize.
So Nas is making love songs, and Biggie is looping up disco. Where did the average head looking for some "true" hip-hop seek refuge? Even deeper "underground," of course.........
3. Company Flow- "Funcrusher Plus"
Official Recordings, 1997
Rating: @@@ anna half
The backpack generation is born.
I must admit that when I first heard "FP" I was alternately repulsed and amazed. The three-man team of El-P, Big Juss, and DJ Mr. Len made an album that was dirty, distorted, and "indy as fukk."
The thing I admired most about "FP," and many other El-P associated projects, was that it had BALLS:
"What'chu mean a sitar loop ain't hip-hop? fukkTHAT!!!!"
("Fire In Which You Burn"
"What'chu mean these horns in the hook are offbeat and mixed too loud?" fukk THAT!!!!!!"
("Krazy Kings"
This was not sweet, soulful music that you could play at your family reunion. This was music to piss your girlfriend off. Music to self-destruct to. And it worked.
With the release of "FP," Company Flow earned a cult following AND critical acclaim with 3.5 mics in the Source. Suddenly, a new breed of MC was born. Nerdy white boys had a place in hip hop. I can just imagine what must've been said at those A&R meetings:
"So you can't dance? Cool."
"You don't want to actually rhyme ON BEAT? No problem."
"You want to produce yourself even though you just bought an MPC, like, 2 weeks ago? Fabulous! You're UNDERGROUND, baby!!!!!"
Eventually, crews like Anticon, Rhymesayers, and even El-P's own Def Jux (RJD2 nonwithstanding....), came to symbolize "underground" hip-hop, or as most heads referred to it: "that backpacker shyt." As a result, cats like Mos Def, The Roots, and Talib Kweli were running to work with "commericial" acts like Jay-Z, Jadakiss, and Kanye West
The end result?
Hip-hop became even more polarized and the music, sadly enough on both sides of the spectrum, grew even wacker.
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
Art Barr
INVADING SOHH CHAMPION
The whole album was commercial and actually created the wack.
it is only one primo placement major label wack records run too.
Art Barr
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
IWW doesn't have songs outside If I Ruled The World That you would think to put into mainstream ready rotation and even that was stretch outside of the hook.The lyrics/content weren't mainstream at all. The album isn't blatantly commercial in any way.
Art Barr
INVADING SOHH CHAMPION
This is said in revisionist history and a lack of being culturally cognitive during that time.
Don't try to play new nas fan in 96 with me..as it completely obvious you are a new nas fan from MTV oversaturation runs of iww/if I ruled.
Art Barr
Boonapalist
Superstar
The Message, Street Dreams, Nas is Coming, Watch dem nikkas, Affirmative action, Black Girl Lost, and If I ruled the world all had commercial sounding beats.
I don't know what these nikkas talking bout. They try to give passes to sell out shyt all day on here, than complain about how rap is today when they made it this way by co signing shyt that's not acceptable.
bigbadbossup2012
Biggest baddest boss
I blame Nas. Puff led the charge with biggie. But Nas was newly crowned as some form of messiah and had many drinking the kool aid from ny,then he turned coated his supporters and Became a Mafioso rapper. If you saw big' s success and wanted it but was on the fence,Nas the new false profit convinced many that it was a hip hop thing to do
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
IWW was thought to sound commercial because they compared it to Illmatic, the holy bible of Rap albums. IWW doesn't sound commercial when you compare to many of the albums of the same period and even ones as early as 91.
yeah, compare the commercialness of
to
"If I Ruled The World" (1996) was in no way more commercial than those Biggie songs (1994) from lyrics/content to musically. It only sounds commercial when you compare to 1994 Nas
dont even get me started on the commercialness of 1997 Biggie
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TheDarceKnight
Veteran
Man, I just searched "Phonte It Was Written Company Flow" because I remembered some of the albums involved.
A lot of his blogs are cache'd from the LAWN or MySpace, but it's hard to find them directly.
A formula many followed, including Tupac.
I'd say the worst thing Badboy brought to the culture was that bay area 'playa hater' bullshyt, after that it seemed like the parameters of hip hop were forever destroyed, since then it hasn't been cool to call out wackness.
