Meccapolis ranks “Kings Of New York” from 1985 to 2024

[Lil Bape the PostGod]

A.L.L.A was not an “experimental “ album

That was testing which was like 2-3 years later

That alla album was right after yams died ..and people still fukked with rocky heavy musically

The next album was where people kinda gave up on him

 

[ISO]

A.L.L.A was not an “experimental “ album

That was testing which was like 2-3 years later

That alla album was right after yams died ..and people still fukked with rocky heavy musically

The next album was where people kinda gave up on him

He picked a British guitar player off the street and had him on the majority of the album and was on some psychedelic LSD shyt

There was nothing on there for NY radio

 

[mikishere]

That was cause of DussePalooza, not Jay Z

that was after jay was the face behind dusse and the party promoters have a connection to roc nation.

 

[Ghostface Trillah]

I hear you. And it’s close and there are valid arguments on both sides. I think it comes down to what you personally value the most. I look at Jay going 4x in 5 months and X never came close to that, so to me I go with Jay.

Hard Knock Life grabbing commercial success is what made Vol.2 take off the way it did. Jay had national attention but DMX had NYC in a chokehold. Jay was pulling out all the stops and using every trick he had to keep up with DMX natural momentum. No one was bumping Hard Knock Life over anything DMX was putting out. The biggest songs Jay had in NYC was Money,Cash,Hoes and DMX is what made the song.

Not saying you personally but this thread keeps getting boiled down to well this person sold x amount of records therefore they had to be KONY but then the juelzing starts when we have to include Mase,Ja Rule, Nicki Minaj and them. List is trash anyway but still.

 

[Street Knowledge]

Hard Knock Life grabbing commercial success is what made Vol.2 take off the way it did. Jay had national attention but DMX had NYC in a chokehold. Jay was pulling out all the stops and using every trick he had to keep up with DMX natural momentum. No one was bumping Hard Knock Life over anything DMX was putting out. The biggest songs Jay had in NYC was Money,Cash,Hoes and DMX is what made the song.

Not saying you personally but this thread keeps getting boiled down to well this person sold x amount of records therefore they had to be KONY but then the juelzing starts when we have to include Mase,Ja Rule, Nicki Minaj and them. List is trash anyway but still.

Volume 2 was the number one album in the country 3 weeks in a row before Hard knock life was released as a single.

 

[Lil Bape the PostGod]

He picked a British guitar player off the street and had him on the majority of the album and was on some psychedelic LSD shyt

There was nothing on there for NY radio

I mean…he had skrillex on his first album

It’s just his thing

It doesn’t take anything away from his impact on NY at the time

 

[Ghostface Trillah]

Volume 2 was the number one album in the country 3 weeks in a row before Hard knock life was released as a single.

Yeah because Can I get A was a soundtrack song tied to a movie that went on to be a monster hit named Rush Hour.

 

[Street Knowledge]

Yeah because Can I get A was a soundtrack song tied to a movie that went on to be a monster hit named Rush Hour.

So you saying Hard knock life blew up the album is a lie then right? It was a smash before that

Also what “tricks” was Jay Z using Btw?

 

[ISO]

I mean…he had skrillex on his first album

It’s just his thing

It doesn’t take anything away from his impact on NY at the time

I gave him 2013

Fabolous had a better 2015 than him locally.

 

[BmoreGorilla]

Hard Knock Life grabbing commercial success is what made Vol.2 take off the way it did. Jay had national attention but DMX had NYC in a chokehold. Jay was pulling out all the stops and using every trick he had to keep up with DMX natural momentum. No one was bumping Hard Knock Life over anything DMX was putting out. The biggest songs Jay had in NYC was Money,Cash,Hoes and DMX is what made the song.

Not saying you personally but this thread keeps getting boiled down to well this person sold x amount of records therefore they had to be KONY but then the juelzing starts when we have to include Mase,Ja Rule, Nicki Minaj and them. List is trash anyway but still.

I can’t speak for what was going on in NY in 98. But I will say that summer on my city Big Pun and Nore’s albums were just as hot in the streets as X’s. Obviously X went on the become a bigger star tho. But Jay was already looked at as a vet kinda and carried himself with so much cockiness that it’s hard to say he wasn’t the top guy. Plus Vol. 1 didn’t get released till the end of 97. He gave us two albums in a calendar year. X was a underground dude who happened to blow up

 

[Ghostface Trillah]

I can’t speak for what was going on in NY in 98. But I will say that summer on my city Big Pun and Nore’s albums were just as hot in the streets as X’s. Obviously X went on the become a bigger star tho. But Jay was already looked at as a vet kinda and carried himself with so much cockiness that it’s hard to say he wasn’t the top guy. Plus Vol. 1 didn’t get released till the end of 97. He gave us two albums in a calendar year. X was a underground dude who happened to blow up

It's a lot of people in here who can't speak for what was going on in NY in 98. You're just the only to actually admit it. I can speak about what was happening in NYC in 98 and here's what was happening

You're right about Pun and Nore being super hot in 98 they were all looked at like the new class which basically anyone who popped after Big died. Which is why Jay was looked at as a vet and they weren't. Knowing Big was the dividing line after he died. DMX was hotter because he got the shiny suit era out of here with that gritty street feel because everything was Bad Boy shiny suit videos dancing in the camera over a 80's sample. Now watch the Jay-Z sunshine video and tell me what you see. He tried to jack the bad boy formula and failed. Volume 1 was a failure and he was in a shaky spot.(Insert mase diss on 112 song) He had spin back especially since Def Jam invested in him. Volume 2 was going to make him or break him status wise so he needed something that made him a legit contender because he put himself in the best MC debate and one just died so it was him and Nas.Jay always rapped cocky, he's from the Big Daddy Kane tree. Also you can't call X an underground rapper who happened to blow up because then what is Jay? He put out more stuff before he blew than X did. They were in the same group. Remember Irv Gotti brought all of them to Def Jam and Def Jam passed.

 

[Awesome Wells]

It's a lot of people in here who can't speak for what was going on in NY in 98. You're just the only to actually admit it. I can speak about what was happening in NYC in 98 and here's what was happening.

This is the issue on here all the time. A lot people speaking on NYC, that aren't even from NYC or were here when these things happened.

'98 was NY's last real golden era in pushing the culture forward. The labels were making so much bread, so they were able to sign acts and have them out quickly and doing numbers. People were giving rappers label deals left and right, so you saw a lot rappers signing other rappers. Like Busta with Flipmode, and Onyx with X-1 and All-City, Jay with Beans, etc. Everyone was winning, and the city was getting away from the Bad Boy aesthetic and back to more gritty Hip Hop. The budgets were still crazy, so even the underground rappers were signing for mad money and shooting wild expensive videos. People like Redman were going platinum for the first time and Def Jam was able to bring in a lot of new fans for X and even LL, who was outselling all of his older work, 16 years into his career. I worked in A&R at Def Jam and Sony back then, and we had the biggest budgets for literally everything. Labels wouldn't even think to put those in place today.

Dudes who used to be indie acts, became stars, like Nore, Fat Joe, Mos Def, etc. It was the last time that the city was really united, but also the last time that the labels catered to NYC, and would invest in developing new talent, and also didn't penny pinch on building careers for the next generation of greats. All of this vanished after '99. The city got more divided and the sound shifted to following, instead of leading. The OG's also started leaving NY and moved to other states, so the newer acts didn't have mentorship or the guidance that used to be normal back in the golden era.

 

[maxamusa]

Fab started the year dropping the new New York New Year anthem

Man that was my shyt.....we got a hotel out in WP and I played that like 3 times up in the room and we were going up




WOOOW WOOOW WOOOOW


Wifey was so mad I was all in her face with air scissors "cut that bytch off when the ball drop"




I got 0 buns that night



t



hat Duse got your boy acting a fool

 

[maxamusa]

yeah New York was sad as fukk 2015.. chinx drugz?

Chinx is one of my favorites....but man I thought he was just bubbling tbh.


he had one with jadakiss and the Blood money remix with French......


but that shyt just felt like it was getting warm cant front

 

[BmoreGorilla]

It's a lot of people in here who can't speak for what was going on in NY in 98. You're just the only to actually admit it. I can speak about what was happening in NYC in 98 and here's what was happening

You're right about Pun and Nore being super hot in 98 they were all looked at like the new class which basically anyone who popped after Big died. Which is why Jay was looked at as a vet and they weren't. Knowing Big was the dividing line after he died. DMX was hotter because he got the shiny suit era out of here with that gritty street feel because everything was Bad Boy shiny suit videos dancing in the camera over a 80's sample. Now watch the Jay-Z sunshine video and tell me what you see. He tried to jack the bad boy formula and failed. Volume 1 was a failure and he was in a shaky spot.(Insert mase diss on 112 song) He had spin back especially since Def Jam invested in him. Volume 2 was going to make him or break him status wise so he needed something that made him a legit contender because he put himself in the best MC debate and one just died so it was him and Nas.Jay always rapped cocky, he's from the Big Daddy Kane tree. Also you can't call X an underground rapper who happened to blow up because then what is Jay? He put out more stuff before he blew than X did. They were in the same group. Remember Irv Gotti brought all of them to Def Jam and Def Jam passed.

One thing i forgot was that Streets is Watching dropped in 98 too. Jay was making too many boss moves for anybody else to be king but him. I agree about the Irv Gotti thing tho. But when I say X was underground it was really due to aesthetic. He was more anti mainstream even more then the acts that claimed not to be like the Roots becuz he wasn’t pretentious

But yea Jay had shyt on lock. And Vol 1 was a dope ass album.