Sean Price was the catalyst for the underground/street rap resurgence

[TheDarceKnight]

Genuinely shocked no1 mentioned Styles P, i often say Styles my fav post 2k most his mix tapes better than most label releases. How many these new cats gotta joint w/ Styles? How many joints Styles laced on a mixtape, killing the original? I'm in no way disparaging Sean P but another P needs to be mentioned

I think the reason Roc and Sean get so much props is because they both reinvented themselves in a way that most artists are never able to do. Sean went from being the background member of his duo, to bring THE FACE of not only his duo but their entire crew and label.

Roc Marci also reinvented himself. He went from a background member of Flipmode Squad to creating this pimp/kingpin/goon persona, and became an entirely self-contained producer-rapper, with a fresh new style.

Styles has more or less always been the same artist. He’s massively respected, and he’s influenced all these modern guys for sure. But I understand why he’s not considered a direct influencer on the current style and business model we’re seeing.

 

[BmoreGorilla]

For Da People definitely fukked up their momentum and as a crew they got completely overshadowed dropping that the same time Wu-Tang Forever took over the planet. But I disagree with your assessment of their second wave of albums. I'll grant you Cocoa Brovaz/Smif-N-Wessun's 2nd album was a let down, but OGC and Black Moon's second albums were both very dope. I can do without the BDI Thug album though.


BCC's 3 biggest reasons IMO for their stall and backtracking from becoming even a greater presence in hip-hop and mainstream acceptance were:

1. Priority not promoting them and handling their careers properly. Rock spoke on this in his Vlad interview.

2. Abandoning Da Beatminerz. A BCC group LP fully produced by them around '96/'97 would have been beyond epic and may have seriously given the Wu a run for their money.

3. Tupac getting killed. People don't realize how much Pac would have helped their movement and given them greater recognition. For all intents and purposes, Pac was damn near an honorary member of Boot Camp. He would have been fukking with them and Duck Down heavy.

I agree with all this except for I thought Magnum Force was the best of the second releases. I need to go back and listen to that second Black Moon album and second OGC album again it’s been years. I thought Black Moon’s third album Total Eclipse was dope tho

 

[mobbinfms]

Crazy that Everyone mentioned here flopped in their first attempts to get on. Doom
Mega
Roc Marci
Sean P
Currensy

only Prodigy was a bonafide legend who fell off and then had a resurgence starting with Return of The Mac.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Yea P, Doom etc def opened the door. He directly helped Roc Marci with that Snow Remix. Roc Marci kicked it down tho. That’s how I always looked at it. nikkas sleepin on Curren$y as well. Especially Covert Coup. Alchemist basically tested his new sound on Curren$y.

No doubt. Alchemist has said Covert Coup is the single project that opened the door for the 2nd wave of his career. Currensy isn’t really a street rap dude but I get your point. Al said he became interested in mostly doing full projects and less loosies after Covert Coup.

Roc also influenced Al, Madlib, and Oh No from a production standpoint. Especially Al and Oh No. Al had a really big “drumless loop from obscure sample” phase largely because of Roc, and was telling every blog and interviewer in the early 2010’s that Roc was the best emcee out there. He and Oh No even did a collab project with Roc that’s often overlooked.

 

[spliz]

No doubt. Alchemist has said Covert Coup is the single project that opened the door for the 2nd wave of his career. Currensy isn’t really a street rap dude but I get your point. Al said he became interested in mostly doing full projects and less loosies after Covert Coup.

Roc also influenced Al, Madlib, and Oh No from a production standpoint. Especially Al and Oh No. Al had a really big “drumless loop from obscure sample” phase largely because of Roc, and was telling every blog and interviewer in the early 2010’s that Roc was the best emcee out there. He and Oh No even did a collab project with Roc that’s often overlooked.

This is all a fact. I say Curren$y also because of his independent underground grind. Doing just what u said. Whole projects with One producer. nikka made Ski Beatz poppin again. And was switching that shyt up every project. People def took a notice to what he was doing and applied it to their own grinds.

 

[erker]

You can tie all of it back to Doom, Mega, and Sean Price

And Company Flow before that.

You can hate or love them, but facts are facts.

 

[spliz]

Another thing that separated Roc was he was on some fly shyt. Like. The nikka made the shyt look cool. nikka was like an underground rapper who was flyer than all the mainstream nikkas.

 

[EBK String]

And he is better than all these nikkas and made better music.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Didn't he say he'd eaten some mushrooms before recording that and he had to get his bars out before he started tripping?

Definitely. That’s crazy, I didn’t think anybody really knew that.

Unfortunately I missed that particular session but heard the song the next day. I think it would’ve been really cool if I could have said that I was there for that.

I was a fukk up at the time, but as much as Sean wrapped about doing hard drugs and pills, he actually was pretty tame and mostly stuck to organic stuff like weed and mushrooms.

Onion Head is a top 5 underground street anthem joint I think. Classic.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Another thing that separated Roc was he was on some fly shyt. Like. The nikka made the shyt look cool. nikka was like an underground rapper who was flyer than all the mainstream nikkas.

Definitely. He pretty much lived it too. It wasn’t a front.

I probably said this before but he and alchemist did an album together before reloaded came out, and they were shopping it around and I don’t remember the exact figure but Roc was asking for a price that no label wanted to pay at that time. He was definitely not afraid to ask for a lot of money for features and production, and he valued his service is really high at a time where most people in his lane weren’t doing that. So on a business side of things he was definitely sharp.

I’m sure the album that they are actually going to put out will be updated.

 

[Walt]

And Company Flow before that.

You can hate or love them, but facts are facts.

Yeah, no.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

And Company Flow before that.

You can hate or love them, but facts are facts.

I don’t want to be totally close minded but what’s the connection between company flow and Roc Marciano, Gibbs, Ka, Griselda, Boldy James, Mach-Hommy, 38 Spesh , ransom,etc?

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

And Company Flow before that.

You can hate or love them, but facts are facts.

I'm a Co-Flow stan to the fullest and would probably put Funcrusher Plus in my top 5 favorite hip-hop albums ever (definitely at least top 10), but nah.....

The last song they ever released as a trio was in '98 and the last shyt El-P and DJ Mr. Len did dropped in '99. They may have technically still existed on paper, but they were defunct as a group years before P, DOOM, or Mega really got established in the indie scene. Operation: Doomsday wasn't even out by the time they folded.

While they might be considered the forefathers of the underground/indie movement on the East Coast (technically it was the Wu. Wu-Tang Records was an indie label putting out their early singles and singles from Sunz of Man, but their albums were all on major labels), their prominence is more of the late 90s early 2000s backpack, Rawkus, Fondle 'Em, Brick, Guesswhyld era.

 

[BmoreGorilla]

And Company Flow before that.

You can hate or love them, but facts are facts.

Nah breh Company Flow was a part of that nerdy backpacker shyt that Rawkus was synonymous with

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

I agree with all this except for I thought Magnum Force was the best of the second releases. I need to go back and listen to that second Black Moon album and second OGC album again it’s been years. I thought Black Moon’s third album Total Eclipse was dope tho

I fukks with Magnum Force heavy, but I'll yake Warzone over it as an entire album any day of the week. Black Moon are one of a handful of hip-hop acts that I feel has never dropped a wack, or even subpar album. All 4 of their albums I'd give at least 4 mics.

Another dope BCC project that dropped around this time was the Collect Dis Edition compilation they put out. The Representativz - Angels of Death album so had some dope shyt, but it's been years since I've gave it some burn. I should probably revisit it.