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

[mobbinfms]

Just because Marky Mark wasn't accepted by die hard backpackers in the 90s doesn't mean he didn't exist. The point being is that the 90s was not all magical and did have it's own fair share of gimmick/bs artist that people tend to forget about especially if they were not around then.

Drake is much more talented than Marky Mark. It's ridiculous for anyone to say otherwise, I don't care how much you dislike him.

The first paragraph is just simply not true. Everyone knew he was pop rap who didn't matter.

Talent doesn't matter today. He would sell records and be on the radio - hence considered the best.

 

[Yoda]

Its ALL nostalgic. i wasnt even a teen through the 90s and i dont think they made better music that now. but i bet if i lived thru the 90s id think that. underground hip hop today is mindblowing to the open minded and the ones who dont mind doing a lil work to find it.

 

[OnlyInCalifornia]

It wasn't just die hard backpackers that didn't accept him it was the majority of hip hops fan base at the time PERIOD. Dude never got play on urban radio like that, and most if not all of his fan base share consisted of HIS BROTHERS group New Kids On The Block.

Hip hop over all didn't just accept anything like it does now. Go look at old 3rd base videos where they diss the shyt out of hammer and vanilla ice for being pop acts. Or a tribe called quest getting at him. The term backpacker hadn't even come into existence yet.

People rarely bought into bull back then.

Dood Good Vibration was a #1 single in this country both in top 40 and urban.

People most certainly were buying into bull then. There was still one hit wonders, you had the Tag Team's of the time, MC Hammer sold 10x the records ATCQ and is a factor in Hip Hop. Just the facts.

You guys can't sit there picking and choosing which artist counted or not. MC Hammer counted. Marky Mark counted. Just like Tupac counting and so did ATCQ. That's like sitting here letting people off the hook for Soulja Boy because well, no one took him seriously so some how he didn't have popular songs or an artist people ever discussed.

The first paragraph is just simply not true. Everyone knew he was pop rap who didn't matter.

Talent doesn't matter today. He would sell records and be on the radio - hence considered the best.

It doesn't matter if he was pop rap or not, he still existed, still had a #1 single, and still sold a lot of records. People liked that song. Just like they like gimmicky one hit wonder songs these days. Again, you guys dont get to pick and choose who counts and who doesn't. Ini Kamoze, Kriss Kross, Marky Mark, Vanilla Ice, 69 Boyz, they all count.

I just want to say you don't win any purist / hip hop points for trying to big up the 90s and then acting like Drake is some talentless hack.

 

[Jone2three45]

nikkas is really saying that the 90's weren't all that?

 

[Digga38]

Here's the thing that's weird to me.....

There are more rappers now, it's easier for rappers to be heard, more music.......but there are less major label releases. When you think about it, it's absurd. Now we're flooded with a million mixtapes from artists. We're flooded with remixes over other artists songs with the same beat, which kills the replay value of songs early. Look at Migo's Versace.......That record won't last. Singles could bump for months back in the day, now with every artists remixing them and putting their own spin on it, they die quickly. We're constantly fed fast food these days in hip hop.

These days if you have a Tuesday where J. Cole & Kanye drops on the same day or Kanye vs 50 it's a big fukking deal but back in the day that was regular.

Like I remember days like September 29, 1998 where Jay-Z Hard Knock Life, Outkast-Aquemini,& ATCQ-The Love Movement dropped all on the SAME DAY. Cam'Ron's first album Confessions of Fire (Horse & Carriage) and Jermaine Dupri's first album Life in 1472 (money ain't a thang) dropped the same day (they both had pretty big hits on them) . You would have a Bone Thugs album drop weeks apart from Puff's joint......It just felt like you were given a higher selection of albums regularly. I remember spending pretty much all my money on music because there was ALWAYS someone dropping an album. I mean there was literally never a break.....and that's not even counting the underground mixtapes from Djs and what not. I'm pretty sure this is due to the internet and things not selling but there are definitely less artists getting that major label push to win.

An artist like say......Xzibit or Rass Kass could win in the 90s. They could go gold or maybe do a couple hundred thousand and the labels would let them cook. They'd be on rap city, mtv, get their video played regularly, maybe radio play in their market. What you see is what you get was never a smash hit, but it lived on Rap City at the same time Puff, Jigga, DMX, Master P were killing the charts, while Outkast & Wu were doing their thing.......The game just didn't feel so one sided, there was balance. Everyone didn't have to make joints for the club and production didn't sound the same. We didn't have nut ass arm chair a&rs on the internet talking about such and such needs to put out a club single so he can sell, just dumb shyt. Artists were allowed to do them and win.

Look at Joe Budden, in the early 2000s, his first album on Def Jam didn't sell what they expected, we didn't get another album from him until years later......then he had trouble finding singles and had to basically keep dropping mixtapes and eventually go independent. It worked out for him but still had he come out in the 90s he wouldn't have to deal with all that bs. The Growth (The original name for his 2nd album) would have dropped.

I'm not a fan of J Cole but If J Cole doesn't drop Work Out, he doesn't get a release date for his album despite all his hard work, all his buzz on mixtapes and what not. That's fukking crazy. Basically Little Brother, Lupe, Saigon, Papoose (as much as I hate him), Joe Budden, all dropped in the wrong era and rap listeners ultimately suffered for it. Fortunately, J Cole, Kendrick, Drake all learned how to balance it out and make hits so they can win.

So basically these days you have to seek out music on your own via internet and a lot of times the mainstream may or may not catch on to it, which in a way sucks. It's cool that there's a world out there where you can seek you're own music and what not but the reality is that we all live in this world together. A lot of people aren't going to do that work, a lot of people don't want to do the work with the game being this saturated these days because of so many different outlets, and deep down we all want to see artist that we like win. In some ways it's a reflection of ourselves (sorta like playing Fantasy Football......seeing that artist u loved blow up and saying I was the first one up on them) but mostly it's because seeing our favorite artists win means we hear and see more of them. We want to hear our favorite artists on the radio, MTV, BET, movies and we want our favorite tour the cities we live in and what not. I'm a big Joe Budden fan, but I saw him get booked at a local hood bar in Philly and perform on a couch....like WTF, I'm not going to that. An artist as talented as Joe should have been subjected to that shyt.

usually dont read such long windedness but was on point

 

[J-Fire]

Rap was not infused in everything until 1997 at the absolute earliest.

Artists like Marky Mark could garner commercial success by aping hip hop, but were never accepted by the core community. Nowadays, with the record sales and below average rhymes, Marky Mark would be Drake.

everyone rapped in the early 90's it was still a novelty and cool thing to do. Random songs had rap verses, haha. By 1997 you needed "street cred" to spit a verse.....Craig Mack got ran out the game for going to private school, lol.




Home Alone dude:


joey Lawrence was on some New Jack Swing and spit a verse on the track, lol:



Bartman Rap:




Urkel Rapped too:

 

[DaHNIC82]

Just because Marky Mark wasn't accepted by die hard backpackers in the 90s doesn't mean he didn't exist. The point being is that the 90s was not all magical and did have it's own fair share of gimmick/bs artist that people tend to forget about especially if they were not around then.

Drake is much more talented than Marky Mark. It's ridiculous for anyone to say otherwise, I don't care how much you dislike him.

They existed but they weren't treated as respected artist like many today. Clowns like Soulja Boy was treated as a serious artist whereas in the 90s he would have been Whooop There it is status

 

[mobbinfms]

Dood Good Vibration was a #1 single in this country both in top 40 and urban.

People most certainly were buying into bull then. There was still one hit wonders, you had the Tag Team's of the time, MC Hammer sold 10x the records ATCQ and is a factor in Hip Hop. Just the facts.

You guys can't sit there picking and choosing which artist counted or not. MC Hammer counted. Marky Mark counted. Just like Tupac counting and so did ATCQ. That's like sitting here letting people off the hook for Soulja Boy because well, no one took him seriously so some how he didn't have popular songs or an artist people ever discussed.



It doesn't matter if he was pop rap or not, he still existed, still had a #1 single, and still sold a lot of records. People liked that song. Just like they like gimmicky one hit wonder songs these days. Again, you guys dont get to pick and choose who counts and who doesn't. Ini Kamoze, Kriss Kross, Marky Mark, Vanilla Ice, 69 Boyz, they all count.

I just want to say you don't win any purist / hip hop points for trying to big up the 90s and then acting like Drake is some talentless hack.

You are conflating the concept of existence with acceptance. Of course, all the artists that you mentioned existed - but they were not accepted by the core community at the time. NO ONE claimed Marky Mark (or any of the other people you mentioned) were elite rappers or sought them out for collabs, tours etc. Quote me an article where Rakim or some other legend is gushing over Ini Kamoze, etc. nowadays, Jay would have Marky on his album or sign him to the Roc. Anything for a buck.

Are you really saying that Tupac, Tribe and Marky Mark were held in the same regard?

 

[mobbinfms]

everyone rapped in the early 90's it was still a novelty and cool thing to do. Random songs had rap verses, haha. By 1997 you needed "street cred" to spit a verse.....Craig Mack got ran out the game for going to private school, lol.




Home Alone dude:


joey Lawrence was on some New Jack Swing and spit a verse on the track, lol:



Bartman Rap:




Urkel Rapped too:

I see what you mean now. Yeah, this was back when mainstream culture just horribly appropriated hip hop culture in the corniest way possible without reaching out or using people from the culture. The difference now is that accepted hip hop artists get commercials or collab with pop stars.

 

[CrimsonTider]

It wasn't just die hard backpackers that didn't accept him it was the majority of hip hops fan base at the time PERIOD. Dude never got play on urban radio like that, and most if not all of his fan base share consisted of HIS BROTHERS group New Kids On The Block.

Hip hop over all didn't just accept anything like it does now. Go look at old 3rd base videos where they diss the shyt out of hammer and vanilla ice for being pop acts. Or a tribe called quest getting at him. The term backpacker hadn't even come into existence yet.

People rarely bought into bull back then.

Yall are idiots.

Look at all the songs that were big in the 90.

They existed but they weren't treated as respected artist like many today. Clowns like Soulja Boy was treated as a serious artist whereas in the 90s he would have been Whooop There it is status

what do you mean by "whoop there it is status"

Soulja boy is not looked at as a rap savant by anyone.

He is looked as someone who makes fun dance hiphop.
Which at its core is what rap is.

 

[CrimsonTider]

I don't totally wish the 90s were back but there are few key things I wish were around today in reference to hip hop

The edge: hip hop still scared people and exposed them to the harsh lives of the rappers who came from those places. Like Wu Tang, Nas Death Row, and others. And they didn't glorified the violence or drugs or poverty that they came from, they just told their stories vividly and made people scared, aware and attentive to it

Diversity: the spotlight was shared by all. Yea you had your gangsta/hardcore rappers like Nas, Tupac, Biggie, etc but you also had De La Soul, Souls of Mischeif, A Tribe Called Quest, Common and Hieroglyphics who got equal play on radio and video shows. They even collabed like Q tip rapping with Mobb Deep. Tupac wih Digitial Underground.

We policed ourselves: My meaning behind that is, you couldn't come out biting no one else style. You had to be original and dope. Today, Future comes out and then you got Rich Homie Quan and migos as his clones. Ace Hood gets a deal because he got dreads and tattoos like Lil Wayne. It's digusting. Every release back then made rappers step their game up. They help elevate the art.

Image: image was big back then but your lyrics or creativity is what made people stay as fans. Now it's more about how a rapper looks. What clothes they rocking. Oh word the new jordans? Half these nikkas can't even style correctly.

Just back then all the areas of hip hop was hitting you with the classic albums. Illmatic, 36 chambers, All Eyez On Me, The Chronic, Southernplayerwhateverwhatver with Outkast (sorry guys I couldn't remember the total name of the album forgive me. It was a dope cut though). The last album that had that oh snap lets go back to the lab was Kendrick's. that's what I miss about the 90s. Each rapper inspired people. Nas got the ball rolling for QB The producers inspired people. Pete Rock, Premier gave into J Dilla, Buckwild and so on. It was a inspirational time for hip hop. It was just great to be a fan of music in those days. Music is fukking boring right now. Rappers are junkies who can't rap worth a fukk. It's embarrassing.

This is the exact bullshyt I be talking about.

Those Rappers Wu Tang, Nas, etc were Glorifying crime and exploiting everyday hood nikkas just like rappers have always done.

Now if rapper doesn't live those "harsh" realities they don't have to pretend that they did and can make music about their actual lives.

at you trying to say they were just telling the harsh realities.

Nothing was policed in hiphop at ALL, ever.

Everyone basically pretended to be some kind of superhero thug in the 90s to get any credibility. Image was everything back then and image really means nothing now.

 

[mobbinfms]

This is the exact bullshyt I be talking about.

Those Rappers Wu Tang, Nas, etc were Glorifying crime and exploiting everyday hood nikkas just like rappers have always done.

Now if rapper doesn't live those "harsh" realities they don't have to pretend that they did and can make music about their actual lives.

at you trying to say they were just telling the harsh realities.

Nothing was policed in hiphop at ALL, ever.

Everyone basically pretended to be some kind of superhero thug in the 90s to get any credibility. Image was everything back then and image really means nothing now.

There is a thin line between glorification/exploitation and depiction of reality. Obviously you're oversimplifying things to say that all 90s rappers (even Nas and Wu) were glorifying and exploiting. I think it's fair to say that as the 90s progressed the line shifted from depiction to exploitation.

Hip hop was definitely policed back in the day. Soft rappers were literally thrown off stages.

The same thing with image being everything. Obviously "everyone pretended to be some kind of superhero thug" was an oversimplification and exaggeration. But the drug kingpin aesthetic that seems to dominate now did emerge in the 90s with mafioso rap. What has been completely lost from hip hop today is the experience of the average person in the hood.

 

[J-Fire]

I see what you mean now. Yeah, this was back when mainstream culture just horribly appropriated hip hop culture in the corniest way possible without reaching out or using people from the culture. The difference now is that accepted hip hop artists get commercials or collab with pop stars.

That's why I call the late 80's into early 90's the peak of hip-hop cause everyone thought rapping was a cool thing to do....make up a verse or what-have-you.
you can find rock songs with random verses from back then, lol. A rap verse made you automatically cool back then.

Right or Wrong....Good or Bad. I kinda missed when Rapping was ingratiated in American Culture on a large scale.

 

[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:

Still had the Heavy D mixded with Onyx vibe.....still quite a few elements of hip-hop in that video.
Hip-Hop has been reduced to simply Rapping these days by essentially all rappers.

Early 90's you still had Heavy D and Hammer Dancing ...Wu tang being gritty.....snoop hitting you with some chillin-out music. All getting radio play.
Rappers just spit verses these days that almost sound the same and don't incorporate any other elements of hip-hop.

 

[Urbanmiracle]

This is the exact bullshyt I be talking about.

Those Rappers Wu Tang, Nas, etc were Glorifying crime and exploiting everyday hood nikkas just like rappers have always done.

Now if rapper doesn't live those "harsh" realities they don't have to pretend that they did and can make music about their actual lives.

at you trying to say they were just telling the harsh realities.

Nothing was policed in hiphop at ALL, ever.

Everyone basically pretended to be some kind of superhero thug in the 90s to get any credibility. Image was everything back then and image really means nothing now.

It was unheard of to have a person who was correction officer fake his way to be become a drug kingpin rapper and be accepted.

Back then these rappers were coming from the realities they rhymed about. Nas came from QB. Wu tang came from the tough rough part of Staten Island. Dre and Snoop came from Compton. It was a realness in their music that came across because they grew up in those areas. They didn't glorify where they come from, they just told stories about what happen or what might happen any given day growing up there. Today you rappers in videos trying to convince you they move bricks of the yay and clap their guns in broad day.

And as my man said, we did police ourselves. Krs One threw PM dawn off stage because he was wack. nikkas were laughed at and booed off stage for not coming correct. It wasnt this lets co-sign these wack nikkas because if we don't, we will get black balled out the industry. Fans were more open about their opinions.