Non-East Coast heads, how did you go about discovering East Coast Rap?

[Allen Poe]

My sister's boyfriend at the time was a big hip-hop head. He was all into Wu, Nas, Mobb Deep, Jay, etc. I was mainly into local N.O. artists, Bone Thugs, and a select few other acts. I thought east coast rap was trash, but my sister's boyfriend asked me to listen to a song and keep an open mind, and tell me if I could figure out what he was talking about. He played Nas - I Gave You Power. I was like (in that order). That night changed how I listened to hip-hop, shyt music in general.

But as for some of the big lesser known names I started to get into back then, it was a combination of the local college radio station playing hip-hop on thursday nights, and the internet was just starting to boom around this time, so I was discovering new (to me) shyt all the time.

 

[Solomon Lurke]

Yo MTV Raps used to play deep cuts?

What do you mean by deep cuts exactly? They would play the videos released by artists. Artists weren’t making a ton of videos per project then.

 

[Ashtrey]

Yo MTV Raps used to play deep cuts?

Jeru - Come Clean
Wu - mystery of chessboxin
Black moom - how many mcs
...many more

Lots of non-commercial joints were played and i bought the singles or full albums based on those videos.

 

[Buckeye Fever]

Being from a small city in the Midwest, it was yo mtv raps and my cousins from Chicago that would have all the dope hip hop music.

That was when New York sounded like New York. I only really wanna check for the underground artists who still capture that sound, because I damn sure won't hear it in the mainstream

 

[GreenGhxst]

growing up in baton rouge in the early mid 2000s and hearing some of the awful local music that was popular

kind of forced me to want to listen to something lyrical

 

[TaxCollector13459]

My cousin from Brooklyn huge Hov fan
When I’d go see my fam reasonable doubt/blueprint stayed on

 

[Ghost Utmost]

Sounds bizarre to me that one would discover Hip Hop out of order. That one would have to go back and catch up on the classics.

There was nothing but "East Coast" when I discovered Hip Hop. Run DMC 30 Days was on my local radio here in sunny NC. I was like 8. Around 83.

Ice T, NWA, and Geto Boys were the type of acts that were from elsewhere besides NY. I heard Too Short on MTV Raps or some shyt and I was not fukcing with him at all.

I still never spent too much time on any other region besides East Coast.

 

[FruitOfTheVale]

One of my earliest Hip Hop memories is the first time I heard Styles P - Good Times & the first verse, I was like 7 when that dropped lol. That was one of the first East Coast tracks on the radio like that that I actually fukked with heavy.

Other than that I didn't hear most east coast rap like that outside of Jay-Z, Fabolous, 50, DMX, etc. until I was in junior high and was on the internet heavier. After that I borrowed & ripped a bunch of CDs from the library lol, they had shyt like Mobb Deep, LL, Public Enemy, etc. and from there I was spending all my free time in local record stores crate-digging and listening to anything I could get my hands on. Megaupload and Rapidshare kicked off around that time too heard a lotta shyt I never would've ran into otherwise.

But yeah when I was younger the only East Coast rappers that got any type of spins in the Bay like that was the LOX, 50 and Jay. My cousins listened to X and Busta Rhymes a lot but I wasn't old enough at that point to really pay attention.

 

[the elastic]

What do you mean by deep cuts exactly? They would play the videos released by artists. Artists weren’t making a ton of videos per project then.

Ahh that makes sense. Forgot that video equipment, editing and distro wasn't as seamless back then.

 

[TheMailMan]

Rap city and yo MTV raps would play videos and if you liked the music you might go grab the album ,if you had money at the time,which I didn't ...when I got a lil older I'd go back and by the rakims, the PEs , lord finesse,O.C,buckshot,...etc etc . That era I still listen to the most

 

[the elastic]

Rap city and yo MTV raps would play videos and if you liked the music you might go grab the album ,if you had money at the time,which I didn't ...when I got a lil older I'd go back and by the rakims, the PEs , lord finesse,O.C,buckshot,...etc etc . That era I still listen to the most

So when Yo MTV Raps first came out it was 90% New York music?

 

[DaveyDave]

Growing up, we listened to everything. Hip Hop was such a rare thing in Australia back in 1990 or so when I started listening to it. Mainly it started with NWA and MC Hammer but my cousin listened to PE as well, Tribe was big and Wu Tang was right around the corner.

 

[TaxCollector13459]

One of the hardest songs dude ever made

 

[TheMailMan]

So when Yo MTV Raps first came out it was 90% New York music?

No they played a lot of east and west coast stuff. I don't recall much Midwest or down south stuff tho around 93,94,95. I do remember seeing some OutKast and goodie mob cell therapy which was such a different song for the time that and soul food was crazy. This was back when every region sounded different and now we don't have that

 

[Digital Omen]

New Yorkers been moving down here since forever so in HS they were trading and we were dubbing mixtapes
Tony Touch, Ron G, Clue, Doo Wop, Kid Capri, Juice...the 90s mixtape era.