Did Hip Hop get better or worse once NY lost it?

[Mac Ten]

Ngl but The South was making some catchy tunes... In 2006, cats were no longer wearing baggy Jeans with some Timbaland boots with derr pants leg rolled up wearing a backpack.

Let's be real.

On a another note, the South was pushing their product independently and didn't need to depend on some NY DJs to play their songs.

In the South era, we had

D4L
Shawty Lo
Lil Wayne(he revamped his look due to hanging around Jim and Juelz)
Gucci Mane
Young Jeezy
Rich Boy

 

[Mac Ten]

NY did not run the early '00's. They recaptured Hip Hop in like 1997 and by 2000, there was the Midwest and The South.

They did..

You must have slept on the mixtape game back then.

G-Unit and Dipset were running the mixtape game.

Nas and Jay-Z were still top sellers

LL Cool J still put out albums with some catchy singles

Jada and Styles were body8ng every damn feature

 

[Awesome Wells]

Going from monumental albums being dropped several times a year to ADD digital songs that get played out in a week.

Truth.

It's like Premier said recently, "When NY was setting the standard, Hip Hop was at its best". There's nothing advanced or evolving about what's happened to Hip Hop since NY and the West Coast fell back. The music got wacker, and the rappers got dumber. It went from pushing black empowerment and flyness, to championing ignorance and being proud of not being able to speak intelligently. Dudes were literally bragging about how they didn't have to even be good at rapping, to be successful.

None of this helped the culture. It made it look worse. So no, we all know that when NY and the West Coast were out front, the culture was being held up high and was thriving. Both creatively and musically. Once those two spots took a backseat, we saw rappers regress back to acting like being dumb and ignorant was a badge of honor. The worst of us was on full display and being highlighted in mockery and they didn't even seem to notice or care. Sh*t turned into a Boondocks parody and all the inferiority-complex losers who hated NY and Cali started feeling like they were winning because they got some attention, not realizing that the labels were using them all to devalue what Hip Hop was and stood for, so that they could cash in on their stupidity and laugh at them in the process.

So nah, Hip Hop is best when it's in the hands of artists and regions that will push it forward. That hasn't happened since the East and West Coast started slowing down on the output. We all see the decline. It's no coincidence whose been in the front during the demise of this whole sh*t.

 

[Wild self]

Truth.

It's like Premier said recently, "When NY was setting the standard, Hip Hop was at its best". There's nothing advanced or evolving about what's happened to Hip Hop since NY and the West Coast fell back. The music got wacker, and the rappers got dumber. It went from pushing black empowerment and flyness, to championing ignorance and being proud of not being able to speak intelligently. Dudes were literally bragging about how they didn't have to even be good at rapping, to be successful.

None of this helped the culture. It made it look worse. So no, we all know that when NY and the West Coast were out front, the culture was being held up high and was thriving. Both creatively and musically. Once those two spots took a backseat, we saw rappers regress back to acting like being dumb and ignorant was a badge of honor. The worst of us was on full display and being highlighted in mockery and they didn't even seem to notice or care. Sh*t turned into a Boondocks parody and all the inferiority-complex losers who hated NY and Cali started feeling like they were winning because they got some attention, not realizing that the labels were using them all to devalue what Hip Hop was and stood for, so that they could cash in on their stupidity and laugh at them in the process.

So nah, Hip Hop is best when it's in the hands of artists and regions that will push it forward. That hasn't happened since the East and West Coast started slowing down on the output. We all see the decline. It's no coincidence whose been in the front during the demise of this whole sh*t.

Look at Birdman being all in that recent interview that the 50th Anniversary Hip Hop concerts didn't feature much of any southern rappers. He bragged about then South running the scene for 20 years, but still sounded guilty for the downfall of mainstream quality . How you brag about that, and feel at the same time?

A lot of people who made money off of dumbed down music ain't gonna get praised in the history books. That in itself made them complicit in the downfall of a beautiful art form.

 

[DarkmanX]

Worse IMO. Even tho growing up i was more of a westcoast head.

The issue became that NY obviously has (or had?) a strong demand for skills, which required nikkas to be able to
spit, move the crowd or something. They wouldnt let nikkas get off doin mumble raps..at least at one point.

But NY's bias also fukked it up. They'd let Laffy Taffy dudes get in, Mims get hot & so on.

 

[REAL6]

NY never lost it thou.

Blame the radio stations and their handlers for putting out the music you hear now.

 

[Ozymandeas]

To me, the issue wasn't NY "losing it". I had no issues with the south being in the forefront.

But as someone that is a huge fan of the "NY sound" lyrically and beats, I hated when they gravitated away from that

Rap hasn't been the same since NY fell off.

I'll admit that when Drake/J Cole/Kendrick first came out in that 2009 to 2012 era, it briefly felt like the old days but, nothing can beat the 90s/2000s.

 

[Shadow King]

Mostly referring to after BIG died. The shiny suit era when puff was on top.

Theres of course many factors, but I see puff as the main decline of nyc and hip hop overall. It's not just bc NYC lost its position of top either, there are plenty of dope artists around from all regions, just less and less as the years go on and everything is mostly commercialized. The major commercialization push was with puff after Biggie passed

I know it's after Big died, but the point is making your lyrics pop-friendly with him was never a requirement.

 

[Bondye Vodou]

All regions contributed to the watering down of hip hop, even the Mecca. Let’s act like these didn’t exist:










Ain’t Diddy didn’t “force” none of these nikkas to shyt.

 

[Ghost Utmost]

Not to contest with you at all because I also believe the late 80s - mid 90s reigns king, but

The Recession (2008)
DS2 (2015)
Victory Lap (2019)
Graduation (2007)

Are all classic albums in their own right.

I can't even say shyt cause I have only heard one of these. Graduation.

But for instance: the Future album DS2.

What's a hit song off there? Do people still play whatever the big hit was? Post the most popular song from that album.

Mainly what I'm saying is: there's songs off the albums I posted that still ring now. Most of the more recent stuff comes and goes and people never go back to it.

 

[JustCKing]

They did..

You must have slept on the mixtape game back then.

G-Unit and Dipset were running the mixtape game.

Nas and Jay-Z were still top sellers

LL Cool J still put out albums with some catchy singles

Jada and Styles were body8ng every damn feature

Nas is my favorite rapper, but neither he or Jay Z were top sellers in the '00's.

Sure Jada and Styles were bodying featurea, but so was Luda. And Luda really was a top seller in the 00's.

So you're telling me LL was still putting out albums with catchy singles, he was this running anything.

Furthermore, NY lost its sound in the early 00's. Everything shifted towards the Timbaland and The Neptunes and even the West Coast. If you want to look at NY losing its sound, look no further than Jay Z's albums. Its like Jay moved to VA and LA. Its a bunch of Timbaland, Neptunes, Rick Rock, and Bink! on everything from Dynasty to The Black Album. Fabolous debuted with a song that was far more West Coast than NY. "Can't Deny It" is produced by Rick Rock and features Nate Dogg. Look at Busta. His biggest songs from the early 00's are produced by Dre, The Neptunes, and Rick Rock. Let's talk LL Cool J. Top 10 hands down, but again, Timbaland and The Neptunes all over his albums. Jadakiss came with a Neptunes banger in "Knock Yourself Out". 50 Cent's biggeat songs have Dre production and Nate Dogg features.

Nas and maybe a couple of others were the only NY MC's that were successful while keeping it NY.

Mixtapes, I'll give you.

 

[CP3.]

*90s LA , 2010s ATL >

How?!

Illmatic, 36 Chambers, The Infamous, Ready To Die, Liquid Swords, Black On Both Sides, Reasonable Doubt, Midnight Marauders/Low End Theory, Paid In Full, Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums, DOOM/Madvillainy, Cuban Linx and so many more...

NYC has given us the best music by far and it's not even close.

Who tf wants to listen to all that funky shyt

 

[Fanservice]

Whoever said Hip Hop is better now

Name me just one album from the 2000s that you consider to be in the category of

Illmatic
36 Chambers
The Infamous
Midnight Marauders
The Score

Sonically (not lyrically) Ye’s first 3 albums shyt on all those

 

[boskey]

Biggest lie ever is that hip hop "went global" in recent years. Hip hop has been global since the early 90's.

Hip hop became POP in the last 20 years...

 

[Pop123]

all I know is when the City had it on smash, having other people write your rhymes was disgusting and you couldn’t live…unless you was a girl or some dancing shucking and jiving pop type person…you couldn’t just wear that proudly like they do now, . Now some of the people y’all consider literally the best rappers ever/currently ain’t even scolded for having ghostwriters (Drake, Kanye, Snoop, etc…

The South (the Bubba Gumps of the South I mean) and others turned this shh into a circus lol, literally…it was like a Colosseum for Gladiators in a sense, shh was serious…now it’s a bunch of clowns and bearded ladies and tigers on unicycles and shh…it’s silly now…it turned the fans goofy too, the whole game feels like actual hip hop is being trolled