The problem with this thread and so many is that nikkaz is having 2 different arguments.
Young nikkaz who just have access to Wikipedia and the internet are arguing that because certain music was more popular in the mainstream, that's the wave that was most popular in the hood.
I mean, for a long time Hammer was teh best selling rapper of all-time, but he wasn't as hot in the hood as Too Short or BDP or Public Enemy.
You couldn't look at the record charts in say 1991 and go, "Well, Hammer's selling wayyyy more records than all these nikkaz, so Hip-Hop fans are sayin that Hammer's the guy".
Those numbers aren't going to tell you that Hammer's base was a mostly NON-Hip-Hop audience (i.e White people & children) and Too Short or Public Enemy was more likely to be what a 17 year old who buys rap magazines, listens to rap radio, and goes to rap concerts is listening to.
Us older nikkaz who were around at that time, know that Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Kid N Play, Kwame, etc. . .had a limited shelf life, because it was never built on the cultural Hip-Hop heads, it was based on pop audiences who bought New Kids on the Block & Debbie Gibson records.
Will Smith, Kid N Play, and those other guys have a vested interest in blaming "gangsta rap" for their demise because if they didn't, they'd have to admit that their time was up.
I mean, I listened to the latest Public Enemy joint and I was just looking like
.
They just don't have it anymore. It wasn't gangsta rap's fault that they fell off. They just haven't been good since the Bomb Squad broke up.
Same thing with these dudes.
Us older heads are telling you what the CULTURE was like, not the pop charts.
In the culture, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Public Enemy were just as or even more respected than NWA, Snoop, Dre, etc. . .that was selling records.
Back then record sales weren't the thing that made you hot, because Hammer & Vanilla Ice had sales, but they weren't respected.
The irony is that the "gangsta flip" that happens in the early 90s, was largely because of NWA and Death Row bringing
so many white kids as consumers to Hip Hop.
They attracted white kids who wanted vicariously live stereotypical ghetto lives through their music.
That's also the time that white Viacom's MTV goes heavy on rap, and two white kids from Harvard launch The Source Magazine.
Groups like Whodini, who sold a million records to a completely black audience in the mid 80s, were wiped out because
of the tone and attitude change to appease the white fanbase seeking gang banging and drug dealing on wax and in videos.
That's not true.
Run-DMC started bringing in the White kids with the Aerosmith joint in like '86.
The Beastie Boys had the no.1 album in Amerikkka when rap was barely being played on the radio.
Hammer & Vanilla Ice were the ones who really busted the White market wide open.
NWA and Death Row NEVER reached the level of sales that Vanilla Ice & Hammer did, until 2pac died and "All Eyez on Me" went like Diamond.
This whole thing about Hip Hop being "more lyrical" in the 90s. Nope. The genre simply hit a pop base
through radio and videos.
There was very little in the early 90s as "lyrical" as Kane, Rakim, Melle Mel, The Treacherous Three and Spoonie Gee
on "New Rap Language," or LL on The Rock The Bells Remix (not the original). They were emcees, not rappers.
"Rappers" (not emcees) became big in the 90s to scare white parents and please their rebellious offspring.
@ Nas, Biggie, De La Soul, and Wu-Tang not being lyrical
Oh don't stop there, apparently
Kid from kid and play
Kwame
Kool Moe Dee
Will Smith
A few hip hop journalists
We're all getting schooled today...im just sitting back taking notes...I love learning.
Yeah, they all have a vested interest in not taking responsibility for themselves falling off.
All those dudes weren't going to be popular in the '90s. With or without gangsta rap
