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

[DANJ!]

like what type of music? their entire act was playful and comedic, they would have had to stop making those movies and re-do their entire sound and image AND THEN EXPECT PEOPLE TO ACCEPT IT.

and I already posted what Kwame did to try and "adapt" and it didn't work

ironically in his final music video, he literally KILLS his late 80's persona and rebirths as an all black wearing, harder Kwame

And Kwame's attempt at adaptation came two years late, because in '92, he was still on his polka dot shyt when it had run its course and flopped. '94 was his comeback attempt after making an album that didn't hit. Some of these artists who fell off, fell off not because they didn't go 'hard', but because they stopped making music that resonated. There was always new sounds, new artists, new producers, etc. poppin' up and some of these dudes were either oblivious to what was goin' on around them, or thought they could keep doin' the same thing and it would always work. And that's literally never been true about artists in any genre or any era.

 

[Sir Brehsington]

Yup.

Cool..good ole days.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Co-sign. As a kid I went to a comic book shop in Westchester NY, and white dude that worked there was banging Hell on Earth thru the whole shop. Loud as fukk. shyt blew my mind. Def white Mobb fans in NY and NJ.

yup

To say Mobb Deep had no white fans at all is a generalization that is easily disproved. Eminem, white, had Mobb Deep songs on a soundtrack (basically the soundtrack to his life circa '95). A more accurate statement is that they didn't have any crossover Pop fans. Their white fans were probably more so Hip Hop fans than they were of any other music.

yup....the same type of "white" fans/listeners that would produce someone like JoJo Pelligrino

 

[Wear My Dawg's Hat]

Wrong.

Hammer's "Let's Get It Started" is also one of the best selling rap albums of all-time AND "Too Legit To Quit" went double platinum.

Even "The Funky Headhunter" went platinum, when people were clowning Hammer.

Hammer sold 50 million records, bruh.

He was not a one off.

You might be able to argue that about Vanilla Ice, but not about Hammer.

I never said that Hammer was a one-off. I said that his MEGA-SUCCESS, as represented by the outlier sales of Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em album/ U Can't Touch This single, was a pop market one-off, similar to Vanilla Ice, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Alanis Morissette.

That is part of the reason why the music industry spent no effort at the time looking for the next Hammer.

The U Can't Touch This mania was considered a fluke. The flow of the overall culture at that time was being dominated by Death Row and Interscope, Bad Boy, Loud, a reinvigorated Def Jam,
Tommy Boy, Jive and LaFace on the r&b front.

 

[Wear My Dawg's Hat]

here are some of the late 80's and early 90's bubble gum/pop/silly rappers that tried to ADAPT to hip hop post 1992 and it just didn't work

Perhaps the best 80s adaptation to the shifting of the market:

 

[Booker T Garvey]

And Kwame's attempt at adaptation came two years late, because in '92, he was still on his polka dot shyt when it had run its course and flopped. '94 was his comeback attempt after making an album that didn't hit. Some of these artists who fell off, fell off not because they didn't go 'hard', but because they stopped making music that resonated. There was always new sounds, new artists, new producers, etc. poppin' up and some of these dudes were either oblivious to what was goin' on around them, or thought they could keep doin' the same thing and it would always work. And that's literally never been true about artists in any genre or any era.

Go back a few replies, kwame stopped rocking the polka dots in his '92 release, I even posted the music video and him explaining why he stopped rocking the polka dots.

And I asked, would you have believed and bought a "digable planets" grunge Kid n Play? You would've bought that album?

You'll say yeah for the sake of this argument, but nobody would have even if the music was good. They'd already established themselves, they were so family friendly that they had a cartoon

 

[Booker T Garvey]

Perhaps the best 80s adaptation to the shifting of the market:

[

I know a dude that worked in the music business, said Jay-z came to ATL in 95 with that "reasonable doubt" vibe at a show, the crowd was NOT feeling it, he said jay told them "y'all not ready for this yet but y'all will be"

 

[Wear My Dawg's Hat]

I know a dude that worked in the music business, said Jay-z came to ATL in 95 with that "reasonable doubt" vibe at a show, the crowd was NOT feeling it, he said jay told them "y'all not ready for this yet but y'all will be"

And if you listened to Medgar Evers College rap radio shows back in the day, you were familiar
with his even older joint with the The Jaz from '86:

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

Thread kinda pointless as many weren't e'en around during that era to speak factually but what they sayin' is str8 bullshyt. But at da same time, they ain't totally incorrect as far as da shift of things back then where it regards content/sound. shyt, I was a jit back then. But there was balance.

The 'balance' was basically what was played on the radio vs. what was played on TV/movies. That's when you started getting multiple different versions of the same song: the video version, the radio version, and the LP version. Then, it got even worse when the PMRC got involved after Gangsta Rap started making headway into the suburbs (early 90's) and we got EDITED versions of all of them...........

There wasn't really a 'balance' as many people in here are trying to say.

What was happening was a cultural shift from the clubs/parties/social gatherings to enjoy the music to people playing this stuff on their iPods/cell phones.

We went from enjoying hip-hop in large groups to listening to songs by ourselves.

That's why most of y'all can't dance now.

​

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

And if you listened to Medgar Evers College rap radio shows back in the day, you were familiar
with his even older joint with the The Jaz from '86:

That was WBAI down here in the Tri-State, or The DNA and Hank Love Show, or The Awesome Two (Teddy Ted and Special K) Show. They all came on about 1 AM on the weekends.

That was the ONLY way to hear true 'underground' hip-hop back then after Red Alert and Marley Marl were off the air.

I heard 'Protect Ya' Neck' about a year before Wu even released '36 Chambers....' thanks to those shows......but they weren't the first with that style.......

​

 

[Wear My Dawg's Hat]

That was WBAI down here in the Tri-State, or The DNA and Hank Love Show, or The Awesome Two (Teddy Ted and Special K) Show. They all came on about 1 AM on the weekends.

That was the ONLY way to hear true 'underground' hip-hop back then after Red Alert and Marley Marl were off the air.

I heard 'Protect Ya' Neck' about a year before Wu even released '36 Chambers....' thanks to those shows......but they weren't the first with that style.......

​

That's right.

Or Magic, the World Famous Supreme Team, and Afrika Islam on 'HBI.

Before Magic left to go to WBLS.

 

[Tribal Outkast]

what's funny is that i just watched "THE DEFIANT ONES" and they talk about this from the flip side

in 1991 (the same year KNP dropped their third album) this album was the #1 album in the country - not just hip hop, but overall

they showed the news clippings, and people being shocked at the content etc etc...

but here we are now, some 26 years later, and all of this just.....never happened. all a figment of peoples imaginations.

there is just absolutely no way that hip hop shifted in another direction and peoples tastes changed

nah...it's just that kid n play sucked.

And keep in mind.. this was AFTER ICE CUBE LEFT! Dude left the group at the height of their success and Nwa still had a number 1 album. The shyt shifted and we got Kid N Play outta here, bottom line.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Ehhh...not when father mc, heavy d, kid n play themselves, hammer, vanilla ice, digital underground, etc all had pretty strong careers until like 93...I mean kid n play was still putting out effing movies. Yea "gangster" rap seemed like the biggest shyt but like another post you already quoted said...you also have the whole native tongues and Afrocentric rappers poppin too.

So yea, I disagree

Glad this was the first post and I don't have to waste any time tearing down OP's statement

 

[Wacky D]

Well I wasn't paying attention to y'all whole argument. I never said they were the most successful. I said they were one of the most successful. Overall. Success isn't just about sales. To say they weren't even important at all is just plain retarded and a million posters from all over the country on this site and even back on Sohh have called u out for that shyt. U have a clear bias against Outkast and always have. Lol. And I have my own issues with the rewriting of history with Andre 3K and they wasn't even my fav group. Mobb Deep and Bone Thugs >>>> Outkast for me in the 90s. By far. Son I don't care what u say. There was nothing GAY about the clothes Tribe was wearing. A little Afrocentric? Yes. A little weird? Yes. But not gay. That's some bullshyt I don't care how much u try to spin it. I know plenty of people that knew Q Tip in real life and NONE of them thought of him as some soft gay nikka ever. I got fam who was around the nikka when he was on his come up. Male and Female. If anything bytches used to sweat that nikka back then. And Mobb Deep was gold selling artists in the 90s. I didn't know many white people personally back then to tell u the truth but I know for sure that Shook Ones love by white people is heavily attributed to 8 Mile.

mobb deep always had a large white following. just like M.O.P. and of course wutang. that '90s east coast boom bap sound. theyre not in the same sector as people like dblock, dipset & them.

FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME, I never said tribe's clothes were gay. the only time I commented on their clothing was in that post where I quoted you, and clearly I'm not saying anything about them dressing GAY in that post. this is what I'm talking about man. I told dude that I thought they were gay when they came out, and he started arguing with me about their clothes. and hes still going unchecked in here, and yall still arguing with me about stuff I never said. this is biarro land.

@ the bolded: what makes you any different from me then? only difference is I'm way more outspoken. I beg of you to please show me an example of me showing bias against outkast or anybody for that matter. if anything, I'm a harder grader on artists that I'm a fan of.

how were outkast amongst the most successful in the '90s? theres plenty of people that sold more, and theres even more people that weren't huge sellers that made a greater impact. theres only so many artists that can fit into the "most successful" bracket. they were a 2nd-tier rap group and that's not even counting the solo artists. you can only fit but so many people in 1st class. some people have to fly 2nd class or coach. its that simple. people in here reacting like I said they weren't on the plane.

 

[spliz]

mobb deep always had a large white following. just like M.O.P. and of course wutang. that '90s east coast boom bap sound. theyre not in the same sector as people like dblock, dipset & them.

FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME, I never said tribe's clothes were gay. the only time I commented on their clothing was in that post where I quoted you, and clearly I'm not saying anything about them dressing GAY in that post. this is what I'm talking about man. I told dude that I thought they were gay when they came out, and he started arguing with me about their clothes. and hes still going unchecked in here, and yall still arguing with me about stuff I never said. this is biarro land.

@ the bolded: what makes you any different from me then? only difference is I'm way more outspoken. I beg of you to please show me an example of me showing bias against outkast or anybody for that matter. if anything, I'm a harder grader on artists that I'm a fan of.

how were outkast amongst the most successful in the '90s? theres plenty of people that sold more, and theres even more people that weren't huge sellers that made a greater impact. theres only so many artists that can fit into the "most successful" bracket. they were a 2nd-tier rap group and that's not even counting the solo artists. you can only fit but so many people in 1st class. some people have to fly 2nd class or coach. its that simple. people in here reacting like I said they weren't on the plane.

Nah my problem wit the AnDRE shyt is a different issue all together. I don't like how they try to act like Big Boi was Havoc to Andre's Prodigy. And it was never like that. In fact Big Boi was the one getting all the features and placements in the 90s and early 00s. People ain't start overrating AnDRE until he actually stopped rapping. And they be tryna put him in top 10 and top 5 conversations and he barely has any solo hip hop songs let alone an album.