Man these guys were impactful. nikkas really in here debating 20 years later. True Impact. This is what makes that generation so classic. Not just the music, but because the culture was very much alive. You can feel how authentic it was simply because we're still here talking about this shyt 20'years after the fact.
Yea man, I mean just watching that Dead Presidents video reminded me of how real it all was then. Obviously the industry was still pulling strings, but these dudes were real street dudes who built themselves up, then built their own imprints/empires (Roc, Bad Boy, Murder Inc., Ruff Ryders, etc., they all signed to big labels but it was partnerships and that's how they made real money).
Nowadays there's a few dudes who may have really lived some street shyt and had their little hustles, but nothing like the movements in the 90s, and I'm not glorifying any of that shyt, just speaking on how these dudes today really are the new slaves where as it at least felt like back then those artists were their own bosses. It really felt like the new school, street version of the American dream, now for the most part artists just gota hope to build a buzz through social media or meet the right person and become an industry plant.
at calling him a weed carrier when he in jail for weed
to me... guarantee you, none of it woulda stuck, and by the time he was off Death Row, he'd have been cool with half the nikkas he was callin' out. It's only because he died that y'all think that shyt was real and legit.