in the early 90's if you weren't street/thug/calling women bytches, you weren't popping -Kid N Play

[Wacky D]

Bro....my mama loved that wild Wild West song and soundtrack ....I hate when cats refuse to be wrong

wild wild west was LATE LATE '90s breh.

this is about the early '90s and the affect that it had on the mid-90s.

kid n play went from one of the best videos ever.
to making....
feel the groove...like this y'all like that y'all..

complete 180 in direction on funhouse from last night and 2 hype the album not the album cut.

if they would have stayed where 2 hype the album was, and just had movies.
they would have lasted rather easily.
instead they went full movie soundtrack pop direction wise on their whole actual project and direction as a whole.

great post.

I mean I loved funhouse and some of that other stuff, but yea, the 1st album was where it was at. CLASSIC.

only song I skip on the "2 hype" album is the "2 hype" song itself. I never liked that song.

Busta was a star, period. LOTNS could have gone on for years, much like Tribe. They had fans. If they never beefed, Busta may have gone solo and they all popped for years.

Going gold before the sales spike of the late 90s with no pop records, on a small ass label, was a great accomplishment. They made good music.

ehh, their singles were kinda poppy, yet still purist-based.

anyway, they weren't even as big as black sheep.

if they were so great, they could've went on without busta.

busta as a rap star, but he wasn't a big star when he was in LONS.

there was a push for gangsta rap for those who wanted hits on the top 40 (what the white masses listened to) but when you looked at the urban charts (black/hood) the variety was huge and was not gangsta-centric

there is no real black chart breh.

you mentioned tribe, but tribe is considered to be the main group that brought in the white college hip-hop crowd. souls of mischief is of that ilk as well.

I'm seeing groups like these and pharcyde, and them mentioned a lot, but they had that lane to eat off of. those groups aren't really apart of this convo. its really about the party rappers that got x'd out.

As an 11 year old I liked this song, but today it sounds like so Yo Gabba Gabba sh*t you show your 3 year old kids.

Party at the Funhouse, WTF? Where was the J.D. Roth cameo?

Whereas Nice & Smooth was dropping verses about real life sh*t

but nice-n-smooth got the axe right after kid n play & them.

Let's also not forget that a lot of bodies were dropping in the nineties. And the newer rappers were direct products of the crack era. So of course hip hop would take on a more street persona, it reflected life. And lol at nikkas acting like Brand Nubian were some weirdo daishiki wearing group. The were regular god body nikkas, so why would they been in a time warp still wearing what they rocked in 89?! I mean Lord Jamar had gold fronts in the slow down video.

I didn't say that brand Nubian was a weirdo group.

I just pointed out how their look, their sound, and their overall presentation took a rough turn by '93.

not saying they did a complete 360 or anything, but still, there was no dashiki in sight when they were whoopin ass on the subway.

He wasn't at the time, I'm kinda confused what you mean. This wasn't "Electric Circus" era Com....he was shouting out BDs and Vice Lords on "Resurrection". Nobody thought he was super thug gangsta #1 but he wasn't seen as soft, at all, back then.

Fred.

he was still seen as a rippity-rappin weirdo.

which falls in line with soft at the end of the day, especially in comparison to his opposition.

I mean sure the average serious hip-hop fanatic, may not have seen common as soft, but the general rap listener tho.

@The HONORABLE SKJ, I think this is what @Sensei is trying to say.

I didn't say it always does. I said it could. It's very possible. I believe the hood made Jay plat wit The Blueprint.

nah.

the only people I could see doing this are people like mc hammer, nelly, the fugees, or somebody. the acts that covered all markets of black people and did mega numbers.

the one exception, as someone said earlier, might be ll cool j's BAD album. I could see one of that three milly being urban.

 

[spliz]

wild wild west was LATE LATE '90s breh.

this is about the early '90s and the affect that it had on the mid-90s.





great post.

I mean I loved funhouse and some of that other stuff, but yea, the 1st album was where it was at. CLASSIC.

only song I skip on the "2 hype" album is the "2 hype" song itself. I never liked that song.





ehh, their singles were kinda poppy, yet still purist-based.

anyway, they weren't even as big as black sheep.

if they were so great, they could've went on without busta.

busta as a rap star, but he wasn't a big star when he was in LONS.





there is no real black chart breh.

you mentioned tribe, but tribe is considered to be the main group that brought in the white college hip-hop crowd. souls of mischief is of that ilk as well.

I'm seeing groups like these and pharcyde, and them mentioned a lot, but they had that lane to eat off of. those groups aren't really apart of this convo. its really about the party rappers that got x'd out.





but nice-n-smooth got the axe right after kid n play & them.






I didn't say that brand Nubian was a weirdo group.

I just pointed out how their look, their sound, and their overall presentation took a rough turn by '93.

not saying they did a complete 360 or anything, but still, there was no dashiki in sight when they were whoopin ass on the subway.





he was still seen as a rippity-rappin weirdo.

which falls in line with soft at the end of the day, especially in comparison to his opposition.





nah.

the only people I could see doing this are people like mc hammer, nelly, the fugees, or somebody. the acts that covered all markets of black people and did mega numbers.

the one exception, as someone said earlier, might be ll cool j's BAD album. I could see one of that three milly being urban.

Bro I never said everybody could do it. Or u need an only hood base to do it. I just said it's possible.

 

[tuckgod]

if concsicous rap isn't seen as soft how come when mothafukkas like Common made a diss to Ice Cube and Westside Connection he was hit with scrutiny?

Y'all nikkas and this revisionist history..

Com didn't get nothing but the utmost praise and respect back then for making that record.

As a matter of fact, there was no such thing as a "conscious" rapper back then.

EVERYBODY was conscious.

Even the most gangsta acts alway peppered a couple "conscious" records on their projects.

You couldn't be embraced by the culture if you didn't.

Hip Hop in and of itself was a "conscious" art form until the mid/late 90s.

 

[Art Barr]

As an 11 year old I liked this song, but today it sounds like so Yo Gabba Gabba sh*t you show your 3 year old kids.

Party at the Funhouse, WTF? Where was the J.D. Roth cameo?

Whereas Nice & Smooth was dropping verses about real life sh*t

Nice and smooth were still culturally down and never got hit bad past just nice and smooth having rnb based hooks as their main selling point consistently.
Till sometimes I rhyme slow showed they had joints with out the rnb power vocal hooks.
Which still gave them a teeter tottering pass.
Whereas kid n play were completely on the outs as actual rappers culturally.
as soon as they went to far past their cartoon and came back out with basically a yo yo gabbo gabbo style song and commercial look and feel for the new house party as well.

Nice and smooth still held cultural ties,...
Kid n play not so much to not at all, in the same cultural ideals at at group legacy wise.

Nice and smooth was still floating around premier and culturally connected to pretty much the flow used in all of commercial rap today ass standard.


Art Barr

 

[Art Barr]

Y'all nikkas and this revisionist history..

Com didn't get nothing but the utmost of praise and respect back then for making that record.

As a matter of fact, there was no such thing as a "conscious" rapper back then.

EVERYBODY was conscious.

Even the most gangsta acts alway peppered a couple "conscious" records on their projects.

You couldn't be embraced by the culture if you didn't.

Hip Hop in and of itself was a "conscious" art form until the mid/late 90s.

Thank you, and ypu can tell who was around because we have constantly told them over snd over what happened with ice cube and the source and west side connection and common sense.
Which resulted in the source being splineed into what would become xxl magazine.
Plus common on untouchable levels for the time and damn near de facto leader of native tongues post 96.

You can see the easy revision if you were culturally based back then.



Art Barr

 

[Wacky D]

Yup. The Chronic dropping was pretty much the timestamp that ended that era.

Corporations started taking over, the Pro Black movement pretty much ended. Not a coincidence which type of rap was being pushed.

And yes there were still outliers and good ones at that but I can see and agree that the "fun" era of rap died as "gangsta" rap was pushed more. They co-existed for years prior, but post 92 was definitely the end of the KnP and other similar acts eras.

Late 80s/early 90s was truly the Golden Age as you had so many different types of rap that co-existed just fine. But once these corporations get involved ran by you know who

THIS

this is all I was really tryna say. but people just didn't want to admit it.

and I'm not saying that Kwame or kid n play or anybody in particular should've stuck around longer. but the sub-genre itself should've stayed in existence.

Bro I never said everybody could do it. Or u need an only hood base to do it. I just said it's possible.

yea I feel you.

jay-z isn't in that bracket tho.

Hip Hop in and of itself was a "conscious" art form until the mid/late 90s.

hip-hop was never meant to be a conscious artform.

first conscious song was the message. and the furious five didn't want to do that song. they were forced to do that song by their boss, a former r&b chick.

 

[Art Barr]

So how come the hood favorites like zRo, Mac Dre, Big Daddy Kane and G Rap never went platinum?

Bdk came out before and ruined his career selling out before the sales spike era.

G rap had sales success in the beginning of the sales spike pretty cursor in 1996 with 456.

Z ro had admin issues with rap alot.
Mac dre sold respectively well for whom he was draw wise when he was alive.



Art Barr

 

[delnegro]

Smh...Melle had recorded that verse previously for Enjoy records and regardless of intent, it's conscious like a mfer. Duke Bootee came up with The Message concept and hook plus the other verses and it's one of the greatest of all time. I don't even remember Brand Nubian rocking daishikis hard body...But why would they still be rocking Africa medallions when that style had left? BN looked liked nikkas I saw in the street everyday...before Punks Jump up. 3 years later styles changed. Some of you nikkas on here are consistently contrarian.

 

[tuckgod]

Thank you, and ypu can tell who was around because we have constantly told them over snd over what happened with ice cube and the source and west side connection and common sense.
Which resulted in the source being splineed into what would become xxl magazine.
Plus common on untouchable levels for the time and damn near de facto leader of native tongues post 96.

You can see the easy revision if you were culturally based back then.



Art Barr

All this.

 

[tuckgod]

So how come the hood favorites like zRo, Mac Dre, Big Daddy Kane and G Rap never went platinum?

In order for the hood to make you plat you had to make records that reached all aspects of the hood.

shyt your granny could listen to, the girls playing double dutch, the d boys on the corner, the schoolboys, and the working men. (i.e. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Kid N Play, MC Hammer, Salt N Papa, Naughty By Nature, Heavy D.)

Big Daddy Kane is the only one you named that made songs that touched all those people, and he came out before anybody was going platinum in rap.

 

[spliz]

All this thread shows is the media is successfully rewriting history when it comes to hip hop. U got cats watching documentaries and reading these fluff articles and getting completely mislead. I hope all who was in doubt and misinformed learned something from reading this thread.

 

[Wear My Dawg's Hat]

Smh...Melle had recorded that verse previously for Enjoy records and regardless of intent, it's conscious like a mfer.

"A child is born..." is well beyond "conscious Hip Hop": It is some of the most observant, vivid poetry of the past 50 years.

 

[Ron Fox]

In order for the hood to make you plat you had to make records that reached all aspects of the hood.

Where did u pull these stats from?

Big Daddy Kane is the only one you named that made songs that touched all those people, and he came out before anybody was going platinum in rap.

Whodini went platinum twice way before we ever heard of Kane.

 

[hex]

he was still seen as a rippity-rappin weirdo.

which falls in line with soft at the end of the day, especially in comparison to his opposition.

I mean sure the average serious hip-hop fanatic, may not have seen common as soft, but the general rap listener tho.

What are you talking about?

We're talking about Com at the start of his career....through "The bytch In Yoo", which was around '96. We're talking about an era where cats could be lyrical as they want and not be considered nerds or weirdos or soft....back then "Triumph" was the lead single off an album that went 4x plat and the first verse is the definition of "rappity rap".

The general rap listener probably had no idea Com and Cube were even going at it. They had no input at all into rap back then, anyway. Sure they were buying albums but they wasn't sitting around talking about who got who in a rap beef.

Fred.

 

[tuckgod]

hip-hop was never meant to be a conscious artform.

That's false.

All of the forefathers of hip hop were conscious.

Most of the early champions of hip hop were either part of the 5% Nation, The Nuwabians, or the Zulu Nation once the 70s NYC gangs morphed into these organizations.

The whole spirit of hip hop was birthed in consciousness and community awareness.


I challenge you to name me one hip hop album made between the late 70s to the early 90s that didn't contain at least one black empowerment, save the children, the police is killing us, the hood is fukked up, the government ain't shyt, or black history type song.

Those messages were woven deeply in the fabric of the culture.


The reason "conscious" rappers today don't touch the masses is because they forgot to include one of the most important tenants of the Zulu Nation... "having fun."

You can get your message across without coming off as an aggy, boring, brainiac, know it all. (i.e. Talib Kweli)