shyt you miss about Hip-Hop

[Xecutioner]

I miss when people actually went out and brought albums. I miss the feel of opening a cd/cassette and reading booklet while the album is playing.

I miss when artist actually went into the studio together and did a track. Not this email your verse they do now. Posse cuts felt more organic back then. Not this copy/paste they do now.

 

[BlackMagnus514]

Only thing I really miss a lot is the fact that rappers were rappers. By that I mean there was a certain amount of skills needed. You had to be clever and witty with the wordplay. There was some trash back then too but it was Openly acknowledged as trash, not heralded like today.

You have people who I think are kidding when they like something dumb (black twitter) and by just getting everyone on board they blow these people up and they become credible when they start out as a joke.

Also miss that when we called someone soft, we weren't called haters. Now you have dudes who are r&b singers like Drake and Chris Brown being acknowledged as rappers. The lines are blurred. Man purses, pocketbooks, dresses, leotards, tight ass jeans Kelly Bundy would wear are the uniform for your rappers today.

Man for real.

 

[RammerJammer]

Mainstream hip hop, with the exception of Kendrick and Cole, most mainstream songs are gonna feature the SAME guys every time. Rap City, and good albums actually going platinum and double platinum, amazing how rappers back then could go Platinum easily. No ringtone rap or hashtag rap like Versace, No New Friends, Crew Love etc...

 

[BlackMagnus514]

I miss:

• The Monday night mixtape with DJ Clue....classic freestyles went down on that show from cats who were eager to prove themselves....Fab and Nore went ape that one night. Clue used to go ham.
• Clue and Flex going platinum and gold off major label albums. Now Khaled recycles rosters and just shouts over tracks and produces the same sounding tracks.
• Artists having mystique...the greatest example of this is Fabolous and Joe Budden being on Twitter all the time. It makes them look lazy and you can hear it in their music. There's a difference between knowing trends and what the people want and just tweeting nonsense about La Marina pictures with booty models
• Cats like Damon Dash and Irv Gotti who fought for the culture instead of letting these fukkin suits ruin it. If y'all saw Irv's MTV Rapfix intv, y'all know exactly what I'm talking about.
• Artists just having enthusiasm and excitement...like X, you knew that he was an artist. Even Pac, as much as I don't like him, had passion for the game. Homie who said Big Sean and Kendrick don't have "it" wasn't too far off.
• The bad guy....all these cats are mad safe. The closest thing we got to that is probably Freddie Gibbs. No one gives you that menacing feeling anymore.

 

[Wild self]

I miss:

• The Monday night mixtape with DJ Clue....classic freestyles went down on that show from cats who were eager to prove themselves....Fab and Nore went ape that one night. Clue used to go ham.
• Clue and Flex going platinum and gold off major label albums. Now Khaled recycles rosters and just shouts over tracks and produces the same sounding tracks.
• Artists having mystique...the greatest example of this is Fabolous and Joe Budden being on Twitter all the time. It makes them look lazy and you can hear it in their music. There's a difference between knowing trends and what the people want and just tweeting nonsense about La Marina pictures with booty models
• Cats like Damon Dash and Irv Gotti who fought for the culture instead of letting these fukkin suits ruin it. If y'all saw Irv's MTV Rapfix intv, y'all know exactly what I'm talking about.
• Artists just having enthusiasm and excitement...like X, you knew that he was an artist. Even Pac, as much as I don't like him, had passion for the game. Homie who said Big Sean and Kendrick don't have "it" wasn't too far off.
• The bad guy....all these cats are mad safe. The closest thing we got to that is probably Freddie Gibbs. No one gives you that menacing feeling anymore.

The internet and it's immediate access killed the bad guy. Plus, the bad guy has been overused to the point where it became predictable. Plus conscious rap will scare middle America more than any gangsta rap can.

 

[Wild self]

You buggin, nwa was just as important as public enemy, nwa illuminated just as many problems. They didn't present themselves as the answer, but to try to demonize them is wack. I honestly don't have a problem with the gangster rap era, especially since there was always balance. Rap didn't go downhill, cuz of this era, rap went downhill when it got too big and rappers started wanting record labels, clothing lines, acting gigs, endorsements, etc. this all led to them always trying to make a generic radio hit which led to this era where everything sounds the same, everyone is on each other's song, dudes are scared to be political, etc

NWA brought us Cube, Dre, and Easy E. Yeah, Cube is top 10 MC in the rap game, no question about that shyt. When hard headed nikkas liked the image over the message, is when shyt got ugly. That was when people loved that crips vs. blood shyt, when Menace II Society outright shytted on black power rap, and the super thugs started to rap, is when corporate influences took over. It wasn't outright evident until the early 00s when every rapper sounded like Jay-Z, had a million dollar video on the beach with exotic hoes, and beefing for publicity, is when people REALLY began talking about it to one another.

I love this era because young, talented black MCs can be themselves and not conform to that gangsta image that led us to that mess.

 

[Keep1TReaL]

NWA brought us Cube, Dre, and Easy E. Yeah, Cube is top 10 MC in the rap game, no question about that shyt. When hard headed nikkas liked the image over the message, is when shyt got ugly. That was when people loved that crips vs. blood shyt, when Menace II Society outright shytted on black power rap, and the super thugs started to rap, is when corporate influences took over. It wasn't outright evident until the early 00s when every rapper sounded like Jay-Z, had a million dollar video on the beach with exotic hoes, and beefing for publicity, is when people REALLY began talking about it to one another.

I love this era because young, talented black MCs can be themselves and not conform to that gangsta image that led us to that mess.

I agree with some of the MCs being talented but that gangsta image might stand out now more then it did back then. Each rapper that comes out is in a click either it's own or apart of a bigger group

 

[Stealth]

1991 to 1996 had a "Good kid madd city" released every tuesday on a major label.

these days we get a real good mainstream hiphop album once every two to three years and lucky if that.

no late 90's???

 

[Flav]

no late 90's???

hiphop slowed down a lot after Pac died so 97,98,99 wasnt nowhere poppin like 91-96.then the flood of No limit,cash money and the bad boy shiny suit era had hiphop blinged out with little to no substance.


so no,the 97,98 & 99 aint fukkin with 91-96

 

[CDoty]

That's not conscious bullshyt,
That's that new world order bullshyt ,
1989-1993 was a great era for the new black conscious movement.

nah i'm talkin shyt like macklemore talking about gay rights or cole talking about abortion. nikkas is trash AND they talmbout shyt no one wants to hear about in rap music. this creates another problem as kids who don't like rap can like macklemore because he's soft as fukk and doesn't actually rap.

 

[The Ruler 09]

Whatever you miss listen to that new Brother Ali album and you should feel better.

 

[Gifted one]

I miss watching rap city, and having the when your fav video came on, a breh would watch rapcity sometimes just to see that one video that's your fav at the time.

 

[R.O. Double]

Remember when rappers would release a single that wasn't a club record. It'd just be some grimey shyt and the label would push that record like they supposed to.
Think of the song we got videos for and that got radio play that wouldn't see the light of day in this era.
Scarface -Never seen a man die. (shyt got heavy rotation from everywhere )
Not just Face tho. All the early Mobb Deep and a gang of other shyt.

I miss when rappers would do an album that they wanted to do and be experimental on shyt. Now they follow the same old tired formula to get sales.
It got 3 songs for the ladies with a hot r&b singer on one of them.
4 songs to showcase how gangsta I am. 1 of those 4 songs will have other gangsta rappers to back up my credibility.
3 club records
5 songs talking bout how rich I smoke, how much weed and smoke and how I can fukk your girl.
Then filler and shyts.

 

[Shogun]

CD's man. you used to by them, and you had to listen to them for at least a few weeks cuz you dropped like 15 bucks on it

I'l never forgot when I copped Ja Rule's second album and was like . I listened to that shyt for a while anyway, and it actually grew on me. I probably still remember most of the lyrics if it came on

CD's could be a pain in the ass, but they made you appreciate the music so much more.

Now if you remember tapes The required some serious dedication

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

CD's man. you used to by them, and you had to listen to them for at least a few weeks cuz you dropped like 15 bucks on it

I'l never forgot when I copped Ja Rule's second album and was like . I listened to that shyt for a while anyway, and it actually grew on me. I probably still remember most of the lyrics if it came on

CD's could be a pain in the ass, but they made you appreciate the music so much more.

Now if you remember tapes The required some serious dedication

An offshoot of this is I miss getting a dope deck in the car, and man, when I got a 6-disc CD changer
I'd drop $50 on like 3-5 CDs (more if I was copping from the used section) and load up the changer, music fora week...I miss those days

Another personal thing I miss is knowing all the words, so much music comes out now I feel like I'm always switching, but back then, the relative longevity of a cd's replay value had me knowing all the lyrics