Let's do it like this: since we have a lot of folks on this board that started to listen to rap in 2005.
Those who could listen to rap in this time frame:
I traveled the Southern states very often, I had siblings and a bunch of relatives that went to HBCUs and in the 90s, that's where the culture for young adults live, Kappa Beach, Freak Nic, Bayou Classic, Heritage bowls and other HBCUs Homecomings, and other HBCU classic football and basketball games.
These environments was where you would hear music, at your HS/Middle Schools too.
Big HBCU Parties, Family Reunions was a thing across the South in the 90s
I'll start here 1995-1998
In the Southern states, who was the rapper that was most played from NYC?
There was NO INTERNET, most kids as I said in the other thread, did not purchase rap albums all willy nilly like they can do today. Most kids listened to what their older siblings bumped or younger uncles bumped, If you were in that 35-50 age bracket and you were black you did not listen to rap music or rappers that came out in the mid-90s, the majority did not fukk wit it like we fukk with the music today, 90s R&B was blazing, and if those middle aged folks did fukk with rap, it was the old school rappers, like LL, Too Short, Ice Cube, those rappers who were out in the early 90s late 80s. Music was not freely available like it is now.
Even 2pac caught slack from those black folks and older white folks in that age bracket. You rarely caught a black man or black woman in 1994 over the age of 34 bumping a whole 2pac album. That just was not the setup. 2pac was on the radio now, but to have black folks in their 40s and 30s bumping his Cd, Hell no, that was not the case AT all
Being on the radio was the shyt.
Down here in the South from 1995-1997, it was Mase, (and it was mostly his radio singles, not his album being bumped at these locations that I listed) DMX, (you could hear his whole album in these settings, along with the Ruff Ryders) (Nas, you would hear mainly his radio singles) Old Biggie, his whole album got played heavy. I remember that R.Kelly song played like hell at these events. Puff and his radio singles.
There was NO Redman, album or singles being played down here, no Method Man, (Ghostface had a radio single that caught on for a second down here, I can't remember that song, he had a video for it)
Jay (his radio singles would get play, I remember Aint No nikka being played somewhat on the radio, but Foxy Brown was the person that folks down here was checking for. Lil Kim shyt got bumped at these settings.
Jay-Z at that time was not on NOBODY's RADAR across the SOUTH. Nobody was calling up the radio stations in their local area requesting anything by Jay-Z, Many were calling up requesting Outkast, Dungeon Family, No Limit, Cash Money, Suave House, Rap-A-Lot, the East Coast cats I named, West Coast Cats I named. Bone. Twista,
Big Pun got play because he had a nice radio single with Joe. His album was NOT played
Twista and Po Pimp in that time frame got more play in the South than Jay-Z, Bone, Cruical Conflict. Hell The Dayton Family got more play down here because they were on that Down South Hustler album. P got them down here.
I would hope folks would understand how Southern folks may feel when the media host Jay-Z as this top dog of all top dogs when that was not the case when he was out with his peers.
