Just a couple of months ago I was in Florida vacationing and was at a party talking to a guy who used to be an exec for a label . Can't recall his real name but people are calling them P.
So we were by the pool with the DJ jamming and a few of us were gathered around him and He said one of the factors that people overlook is that New York rappers got comfortable , failing to change with the times and never paid attention to what peoplr people wanted which is to just to have fun. They failed to make the music fun because everything had to be so hard and intense because that's just how New Yorkers are. That opened the door to the southern rappers to get penetration in the northeast because it's NOT all the time that you want to hear all that hardcore intense Mobb Deep type shyt. I used Mobb Deep as an example here because that's what the DJ was playing when the conversation started.
That's not what cause New York's downfall but it was surely part of it because other rappers from other places made music that people could dance and have fun to.
It's not what he said verbatim but something to that effect.
Point well said. I point to Boogie Down Productions back in the 80s, no body was rapping like them, it's not even debatable. Everyone sounded like Kurtis Blow. BDP changed the sound of not only NY Hiphop but Hiphop as a whole. They combined bumping beats and proactive hardcore lyrics that related to the streets they was from. They not only had the streets but they had the black DJs /radio supporting their music. Wbls, Kiss Fm, Cool DJ Red Alert, Marly Marl. NY HIPHOP had a black identity back then, Ricans etc was off to the side break dancing or fukking with they salsa/merengue and would get they wig pushed back for using the word nikka Fyi. As a matter of fact the God's and Earths and 5 percent nation was influencial in Hiphop ala Rakim, Brand Nubians, Poor Righteous Teachers, Wu-Tang even Jay Z. You could say it was an order plus gatekeepers in Hiphop and NY rap scene was a brotherhood /family. This is why you could get collaborations like the Symphony with rappers like G Rap, Kane, Craig G, Master Ace etc, collabs for Self Destruction with Krs1, Stetsonic, Kool Moe Dee, Just Ice, and Heavy D.
Not saying it's a bad thing but once these rappers started getting money they sold out Hiphop to entities that controlled who we let in and what the rappers should rap about (money, bytches, drugs). Notable wtf rappers would be Robert Matthew Van Winkle aka Vanilla Ice who won Grammy and nominated for best rap album. Then you get the cats who want to debate that Latinos been in Hiphop from the beginning but carrying the DJs crates of records and break dancing don't qualify. They was side nikkas dikk riding until somebody put them on. shyt ain't been the same since BIG died