Mastamimd
Ain't shyt
What!?
Props on the in-depth take, sh1t was dope.
That's a literal hip hop article in itself
This thread became so much more than just pointing fingers. Instead we have an in depth analysis of the problems and their origins
If you are one to say Hiphop is dead. Who are your personal TOP 3 Suspects? :
- Thread starter BlackDiBiase
- Start date
That's a literal hip hop article in itself
This thread became so much more than just pointing fingers. Instead we have an in depth analysis of the problems and their origins
BlackDiBiase
Superstar
Telecommunications it seems is the main culprit. From Magic Marl to DJ Paul Rosenberg. SMH!!
BK The Great
Veteran
1. Telecommunications Act of 1996 removing regional sounds and local gatekeepers from the culture and letting in the big corporations full of mountain climbers who play electric guitar and their wives and mistresses on payroll to uniform hip-hop for mass appeal while slowly taking the integrity out of the music. Can't put Diddy in the top 3 'cause the record labels that benefitted from the '96 Act were already doing that anyway even if it wasn't as blatant as Diddy's shiny suit era. Pete Rock and InI gettin' shelved was the first real casualty and sign for what was to come back in '95. I think 1994 was the last year hip-hop was allowed to be hip-hop for the sake of celebrating Black expression.
2 & 3. MC Serch linkin' Nas to Columbia Records and the business of hip-hop, hip-hop was different before and after Illmatic 'cause four producers on the album came from some of the best groups at the time.
I don't think Serch was nefarious gettin' Nas his deal on Columbia, but the effect didn't do hip-hop favors after '95. Illmatic was a paradigm shift not only for the culture of hip-hop but the business model for hip-hop. Although Illmatic is a great album, I think it was mentioned in record company meetings before and after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as a model for labels to divide and conquer hip-hop by aggressively separating emcees from producers and limiting the cohesion of the album format that came from the emcee-producer combination.
Now there was money for producers and emcees to go outside their groups and compete against their group's interests for financial success. I think Pete Rock & CL Smooth were a casualty of this 'cause Illmatic dropped before The Main Ingredient, then Center of Attention gets shelved the following year and It Was Written drops in 1996. Those four albums across '94 and '96 represent a development and rejection of certain content in hip-hop.
I don't think it was a coincidence IWW was a mainstream hit for Nas when it dropped a couple months after the Telecommunications Act of 1996. As far as hip-hop concerned, I think IWW and Nas's early career was a product of the '96 Act and showed the music industry was starting to get serious about profiting from hip-hop by elevating it to the mainstream. One emcee could now be boosted by the hottest producers at the time and have some of the hottest features and that was likely more cost effective for labels going forward. Columbia Records also had the Harvard Report as a playbook to get into and market Black music.
What I'm tryna say is, Nas was the record label prototype for the hip-hop star. I think 2Pac was supposed to be that but became too much of a risk for labels even if he was still an influential factor on hip-hop aesthetics.
1994 was the last year of hip-hop for the sake of hip-hop. Afterward there was sustained label pressure for artists to have a hit single for radio, not a hit album for the culture. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 moved the conversation away from what was good for the culture to what was good for business and I think MC Serch alley oop'd that to Columbia with Nas.
FWIW, I think Jay-Z and Nas beefin' saved Nas from becomin' a casualty of industry.
I wasn't there.
wtf at this backpacker logic. Nas gettin a deal was bad for hip hop? fuhk is wrong with y'all. Record deals didnt start with Nas
Why is it that y'all did not want Nas to have mainstream success? fuhk is up with that?
and Nas was a double plat artist when the Jay beef happened. NOTHING was gonna change that win or lose.
Cloud McFly
All Star
I DON'T USE A PEN AND PAPER I AM OFF THE TOP
Both Biggie and Jay-Z were lying. It's the Producers who are in the same bed as Jay and profit from him that say that dumb sh1t that I never seen him use a pen and paper just nodding and then made a whole record
- He used a pen and paper in JD's car for the verse in 'Money ain't a thing'. Dehaven talks about Jay always having scraps pieces of paper with rhymes on him and finally there is footage of him in the studio getting interviewed and there is a pen and paper pad right on the equipment. Jay wants to inflate himself and seem like a deity I mean he did have a silent birth after all.
I understand you clearly don’t like dude for whatever reason, and that’s fine, but this is a flat out lie, which is proven by JD himself.
Starting at 3:01
Plenty of legends, respected artists, and even cats he has beefed with witnessed him do it.
BlackDiBiase
Superstar
Alright the YouTube short I watched with this very clip cut it off before he said 'mind'. He could memorize old rhymes thats no big trick.
Drake
Future
Chief Keef
Future
Chief Keef
Cuban Linx was first and Life After Death became the blueprint
Wayne yes. I don't know what NY rappers you're talking about but TI and especially Ross probably weren't better lyricists than them...they were better songmakers.
The key to Ross's run was the fact that despite having early success his pen took a sizeable jump on album #3.
Drake tried his best to ruin this genre tbh
I love Latina women
Veteran
There are a lot of different things that contributed to the downfall of hip hop and rap music
Awesome Wells
The Bobby Womack of Crack
BlackDiBiase
Superstar
Lyor for sure from day one too and I am glad Kevin Liles no spine having self is being called out.
