That time in 1993 where artists had to switch up and go hardcore

[TripleAgent]

RUN DMC Down With The King was so blatant.
But that shyt still went hard lol

That drum beat and guitar riff shyt was super dead.

 

[Edub]

That Gangsta shyt made the industry do a 360... Look at Run DMC:





Mc Hammer:






DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince




Even Vanilla Ice switched his whole shyt and tried to rap like Das Efx

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

That Gangsta shyt made the industry do a 360... Look at Run DMC:





Mc Hammer:






DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince




Even Vanilla Ice switched his whole shyt and tried to rap like Das Efx

so fukking dead...the Run DMC song and Vanilla Ice tryna sound like a rasta

 

[Playaz Eyez]

That Run DMC video lmaoooo

 

[Sbp]

Back in Hollis, they called DMC "Wax-A-nikka". He was a notorious alkie, who would drink and...get in trouble. He just never rapped about that shyt. Jay used to vouch for him when people said shyt like that. He's a super nice guy NOW.

Well, he rapped about it a little...

He woulda never got a nickname like that in Harlem B

 

[Amor fati]

RUN DMC Down With The King was so blatant.
But that shyt still went hard lol

Video was ill too, so many cameos.

 

[Amor fati]

 

[Mʀ2ᴋDᴇᴇᴢ]

Even heavy d had to switch it up

One of the few tracks I feel was hitting in this thread from someone who wast known for “hard” tracks

 

[Playaz Eyez]

ROLL UP THE HOOTIE MACK

 

[DANJ!]

Didn’t Large Professor put hands on Stu as well ? I believe he was actually a factor in why Large Professor parted ways with Main Source. Didn’t know he did U.M.C s dirty as well.

Nah, LP parted with Main Source because the DJs' mom was the manager and they were "somehow" making more money than him. Said these dudes had new houses and cars and he was still living at home and wasn't making enough money to move out. He peeped how that money situation was going and left.

The Main Source situation was after LP left and Mikey D replaced him... they went out to LA to do Soul Train with Serch, who was working at Wild Pitch. They all found themselves in some conflict situation with some gang members, and Serch basically left them to fend for themselves. When they got back to NY, they stormed the office and chased Serch until they got removed from the building.

 

[DANJ!]

RUN DMC Down With The King was so blatant.
But that shyt still went hard lol

That album had some more hardcore stuff, but the song itself wasn't really that "gangsta" or whatever... DMC literally has lyrics in the song where he's praising God. If you mean the optics of the music video, it was '93. Every other video looked like that.

 

[DANJ!]

I wanted to talk about this. The album that pops in my mind is 14 Shots to the Dome. If you go back and listen to that album, it's dope. Especially the Pink Cookie remix done by Easy Mo Bee. The only problem is that we weren't used to hearing LL on those type of beats. The same thing with Hammer's The funky headhunter album. That shyt was hot, but no one took Hammer serious doing G Funk. I hated 14 shots to the dome back in 93. I thought it was one of the worst albums of the year until years later listening to it again and thinking that people just weren't used to hearing LL on those beats.

Yeah but I mean... what would anyone expect artists to do... in that time, production styles had changed, you couldn't still be rapping on the same type of beats you were rhymin' on in '89, just like in '89, he wasn't rappin' on no '85 shyt. Some of the things people are mentioning in this thread were definitely trend-chasing moves, but some were just adaptations. Some artists tend to stay on the same flow/vibe forever and it leads to their demise, the ones who are able to adapt and stay current tend to last longer. Even with Heavy around this time- New Jack Swing was pretty much done. A "Somebody For Me" or "Now That We Found Love" wasn't gonna work in '93- had to grab them Pete Rock and Premier beats. But Heav didn't step super out-of-character, it was an album where he pretty much rhymed about how dope he was, some social commentary, and relationship/sex rhymes... same things he had been rappin' about, just the beats were fitted for '93, as they shoulda been.

 

[Guvnor]

I like Buck Shots one better.

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

Video was ill too, so many cameos.

Prince Be and Krs One in the same video

 

[DANJ!]

My son Special Ed never went "hardcore" to be honest. But his style changed but that is probably more attributed to him getting older.

Right! The last album he made before "Neva Go Back" was in '90. It had been a whole five years, which was an eternity when you look at how much rap had changed, and then he was 23 as opposed to being 18 and barely out of high school.

I read an article written by Kim of the UMCs one time, and it rings true with this thread. He said artists live in real time, fans live by whatever era they know the artist from and expect them to be that way for the rest of their career. He added that while they were out here with a #1 rap single, performing on Soul Train, making videos with puppets nshyt, they were also dead broke, living in 1-bedroom apartments, barely able to buy Christmas gifts for their kids. One time, he even said he got a plaque at the office for "Blue Cheese" hitting #1 and had to hop the subway turnstile to get home with it that day. They were happy in videos, but going thru it in real life. He said it wasn't the music industry that made them change, because people liked what they were doing- the thing that they did wrong was allow their real life conditions to affect how they changed as people and how they made music.