To me it was around 96/97 when you started to see the clear divide between "Mainstream" music and "underground". I still don't quite understand........whether it was Puffy and Bad Boy's takeover but you had rappers feeling like they had to floss, sell out and what not in order to sell records. This is what hurt the genre. I think there was a large divide between people who said fukk it I'm gonna pretend to be an Italian Mobster, drink champagne in every video, floss and the guys who just wanted to keep it real. Which is why NaS got so much hate from his transition for Nasty to Nas to Nas Escobar. I think Rawkus kept the spirit alive for a bit.......but for the most part it was a wrap.
Look at this Mic Geronimo Record....Nothing Move But the Money
It's nothing more than a ridiculous cookie cutter Puff produced single meant to generate sales. Mic Geronimo was a damn good MC but this is what rappers were forced into doing if they wanted to keep a career.
You even saw Jay-Z try to fit in with this goofy shyt
Look at this video B.....WTF part of the game is this.
and making records like this (which I love, but still.....coming from Reasonable Doubt you knew what he was doing when he did this shyt)
It's like Puff figured out the formula to sell the most records and instead of labels being happy with the gold artist or whatever, letting artists do them, rap became a popularity contest of who can sell the most. I'm not blaming Puff but any means, everything associated with him and his label for the most part has been dope and has lived up to a certain standard.....I do think his actions opened pandoras box.