"i wish we could get the 90's back" discussion

[OnlyInCalifornia]

It's all subjective, friends.
Nostalgia is a powerful thing.

Not to mention that certain crap gets filtered out after years and years.

For example, people completely forgot about these types of songs/videos:

 

[J-Fire]

Not to mention that certain crap gets filtered out after years and years.

For example, people completely forgot about these types of songs/videos:

that's part of the reason i Like the 90's. everyone rapped! it was a huge undercurrent and you could see the popularity rise.

then puffy and them capped it off being on speed boats and living the good life. Like you could see black progression into riches like we were finally getting respect after dealing with police brutality of the 80's and early 90's. Million man march in 96 and puffy living the good life....it was powerful for a 10yr old cause it was like black people were making crazy moves in the 90's and were making the most and best entertainment.

 

[rantanamo]

Recently watched a block of videos including In The Ghetto (Eric an Ra), Just to Get a Rep and Supa Star (Group Home). All of the videos were shot in the artists neighborhood and depicted them in a realistic fashion. The artists didn't look like untouchable drug kingpins, they looked like average people from the neighborhood (ok. Eric B had on a lot of fukking gold, but other than that!). Also, the subject matter was about things that people from similar environments could relate to. And Ra was getting on some crazy metaphysical pro black shyt.

To compare, this generation has a video with Jay Z rapping about modern art in an art gallery.

I have a bunch of old rap city and Yo! episodes that I watch once in a while. Was thinking the same thing. Videos looked raw and grounded, and that really spoke to the more organic sounds that were generally sampled or mixed from soul at that time. Great era of relatable artistry. As destructive as I think the Chicago music can be, their videos have a bit of that feel. Puffy seemed to be the one to push us out of that era I thought, with all that shiny suit stuff.

 

[BlackDroog]

Bought my first rap album (on cassette) in 1990 and was buying new music almost every Tuesday. Not to mention dubbing stuff from friends so Hip Hop Music has been part of my life since I was old enough to even appreciate music. and I have a pretty wide variety of stuff I like (East Coast, West Coast, Mid West, Down South, Trap, Gangsta, Pop, Underground, Backpack, Conscious, and so on...)

But what I think people don't think about is the fact that there was a lot of pop garbage rap in the 90's too. and when people act like the 90's was superior, they only recall the stuff they liked from the 90's. I have been guilty of this myself. it really takes time to pass to see what lasts to get an appreciation for a particular era.honestly there was a lot of bullshyt released in the late 90's and early 2000's but people get caught up in the "Retro is better" state of mind and blindly make these declarations. My point is there is great music and bad music from every genre in every generation.

And for the sake of discussion...I'll give my personal rankings of the era's that I have experienced and collected music from. Based on the quality of my favorite albums from each era and their replay value. And for what it's worth...I'm not basing this only on what's played on the radio and what's popular or obscure underground mix tapes from unknown people. But stuff you can get from iTunes or buy on CD from an actual store.

Early 90's
Late 80's
Late 2000's
Early 2010's
Late 90's
Early 2000's
Early 80's

(Early = Years 0-5, Late= Years 6-9)


Also for reference here is a pretty extensive list of reviews of 90's albums. I don't necessarily agree with all of dude's rankings, but it is a pretty extensive and well thought out list. You can go to each year.

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/Jespon/90s_hip_hop__what_is_the_best___under_construction_/

 

[rantanamo]

and laugh at Marky Mark all you want, but his life was more real than about 200% of these rappers today.

 

[OnlyInCalifornia]

that's part of the reason i Like the 90's. everyone rapped! it was a huge undercurrent and you could see the popularity rise.

then puffy and them capped it off being on speed boats and living the good life. Like you could see black progression into riches like we were finally getting respect after dealing with police brutality of the 80's and early 90's. Million man march in 96 and puffy living the good life....it was powerful for a 10yr old cause it was like black people were making crazy moves in the 90's and were making the most and best entertainment.

What has changed about what you like then?

Black people still make the biggest moves, Jay-z and 50 Cent for example have taken it to a level no rapper did in the 90s as far as advancing Hip Hop's reach into other avenues. Samsung and Vitamin Water? And we are not talking about a cameo in a soft drink commercial. They are dictating the deals and have real control.

Everyone raps now and you literally can follow the talent on a day by day basis via social media. Same with your other favorite rappers. In fact, in the 90s you really couldn't watch them from the very bottom up. By the time they were at a point where most people could access their music they had been on for a minute.

Also, the frequency in which artist you like putting out music has sped up quite a bit. No longer do people get away with 2 and 3 years between albums which is awesome if you truly love an artist or sound.

 

[Art Barr]

Murs and Awsop Rock weren't 90s artists.

murs and aesop rock are 90's artist.

Hiphopsite.com was a huge supporter of them in the late 90's.
It is how their larger underground draw became a reality.
They are the two original guard of the internet draw built underground rapper.



Art Barr

 

[K.O.N.Y]

The 90's dont need to comeback, just new york needs to comeback. Snap music,ringtone rap,dance rap etc all comes from the south. The south is the reason music is so underwhelming nowadays

 

[god shamgod]

The 90's were better.I use to cop multiple tapes every tuesday

 

[Art Barr]

that's part of the reason i Like the 90's. everyone rapped! it was a huge undercurrent and you could see the popularity rise.

then puffy and them capped it off being on speed boats and living the good life. Like you could see black progression into riches like we were finally getting respect after dealing with police brutality of the 80's and early 90's. Million man march in 96 and puffy living the good life....it was powerful for a 10yr old cause it was like black people were making crazy moves in the 90's and were making the most and best entertainment.

Puffy being connected to the million man march, is about as asinine as jayz being the rapper Obama publically embraces above all.

Puff was the reason why shyt is fukked up, beyound repair.

You are a victim of that hypnotize speedboat scene and MTV oversaturation.
Which started as a discovery,one to destroy on naughty's ghetto b*stard saturation marketing.
After, the discoveryzone knowledge was converted into the agenda based applied knowledge.


Art Barr
E

 

[King Sun]

People want the rawness of the 90's back not the entire sound back. At least I do.

 

[Art Barr]

It really is not about the nineties.
As the nineties spawned this level of ya mama's on crack rock mixed with mc brains oochie coochie level lyricism.
Plus, perpetrated the horrific legal mishandling of recording contracts.
That descended the industry into the conflict of business era based 360 deals.
What needs to be established are the mores of the culture of hiphop, with the rap industry.
When commerce goes unchecked,..
Is the issue with rap.




Art Barr

 

[Suicide King]

Breh, that's a pretty sweeping generalization of rap music in the south. Plus keep it real, the ones that deserved the shine also got it in the 90s, naturally there were trash artists as in any era but a lot of the talent also rose to the top given the ideal label situation. But I don't think this is for lack of creativity, it's just that our values have change in society in a pretty drastic way. Not to say there wasn't staunch individualism in the 90s either but there were still portions of that social element still lingering from the social rights era of the 60s and 70s. It's like it's bullet riddled, coke stained corpse somehow Weekend at Bernie'd its way into the 90s and its memory was continued by nikkaz trying to keep a balance between gangsta shyt and righteous shyt.

I can't expect those types of feelings to continue up til this day. Lets be honest, being real in the music industry isn't really wanted right now. Safe artists are the thing, anyone that does have a message has to be able dilute it by creating the same fantastical lifestyles that are bombarded on people in commercials everyday or something ignorant with no skill to speak of. Real shyt, Hip Hop culture has always been a mirror of society and even now it's doing it's job in that regard. Our society is hella fukked, so how could 90s type real shyt make a comeback? If you aren't brainless with an oversimplified flow then your too expensive to develop as an artist? Rap music a conveyor belt right now, nothing organic about it.

Being real and the rawness is coming back because the old guard is losing its hold.
The's only so long 30 - 35 year rappers can pump out music that is repetitive and boring. This is why kids in high school and college kids can't really vibe with rappers the same age as there grandfather.

 

[tybo]

interesting. but this thread wasn't made for a discussion on "was the 90's better" it was more so analyzing how every era doesn't seem to appreciate something as much during that time period until its gone.

This is a false statement. During the 90s everyone KNEW that they where in the midst of the golden era. They just wished it would last longer than anyone could reasonably expect it would.

 

[tybo]

Another thing, cats in the 90s were never screaming "I wish nikkas made rap like the 80s". It was obvious that the art of emceeing had evolved. If you had that today then we wouldn't be having this discussion.