The ignorance and myopia of being a teenager allows you to live in the moment, and through an era, enjoy every minute, and never have the slightest idea until years later what the moment was. There's a quote I like about being young means every moment in the culture feels like it is yours, until it's not. Eventually it's just not your turn anymore, but in 98/99 it was.
None of us realized X would fall off one day, (not that far away) rap game would change directions again and again, RR would crumble, ROC would break, 50 would rise, Drag-On would be looked at as a joke in the game, friendships would last and friendships would fade, girls we would dance with and never see again after 8th grade, it was just burned cd's and copping from Sam Goody, hearing your favorite songs on the radio.