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

[Da_Eggman]

 

[Erratic415]

DRS came out in 1993 with "Gangsta Lean" and were the first to really cuss like gangsta rappers as an R&B group.


They even had a song about them straight up committing rape

DRS: Injecting a Gangsta Mindset Into the R&B World
BY DENNIS HUNT
JAN. 30, 1994

“I can’t stand that ‘Baby, I love you’ crap they’re always singing about.” DRS’ Chris (Pic) Jackson isn’t a big fan of the R&B; genre, which he dismisses as staid and wholesome. “I wanted to do something different,” he says.

His solution? Introduce gangsta rap themes to R&B; music.

So on DRS’ first album, “Gangsta Lean,” featuring the long-running Top 10 title ballad, the Sacramento-based vocal quintet sings about what gangsta rappers rap about. Using hard-core lingo and lovely harmonies, they croon about the horrors of life in the ‘hood--a style they’ve dubbed gangsta swing. (See review, Page 56).

“Compared to rap, R&B; is so tame and needed to branch out,” explains Jackson, a 26-year-old Compton native who co-founded the group in 1988. The members of DRS, who prefer to be known by their street nicknames (Blunt, Deuce Deuce, Jail Bait and Endo), got a deal with Ruthless Records in 1990 but never recorded anything until signing with Capitol last year.
Jackson, the group’s main writer, got the inspiration for gangsta swing several years ago from Dr. Dre.

“He said don’t do what everybody else is doing, try to take gangsta rap somewhere else,” Jackson recalls. “I’m glad this record didn’t come out a few years ago. People wouldn’t have been ready for it. Dre and the others had to lay the foundation first.”

Though DRS (it stands for dirty rotten scoundrels) may get pats on the back for broadening R&B;’s turf, many would like to give them smacks in the face for some of their seemingly misogynistic views. Jackson says that’s a bum rap, though his nickname, bytch Killer, doesn’t help his defense.

“At times we may sound like we condone rape, but we don’t,” he insists. “We’re just trying to bring attention to a situation.”

He’s alluding to the sinister song “Strip,” which supports Mike Tyson, the boxing champion who’s serving a prison sentence for rape.

In fact, Jackson is so firmly in Tyson’s corner that the name of the woman in “Strip” originally had the same first name as Tyson’s victim, Desiree Washington. But Capitol Records ordered the name changed to Debra Ray.

“But if you hear the song, everybody knows who we’re singing about,” Jackson says. “It’s an expression of our opinion. We’re entitled to that, aren’t we?”

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

‘I’m not gonna pretend I was old enough to appreciate the scene deeply around this time. But were any of those groups outside tribe and NBN that mainstream? You could see the wu and west coast influence on everyone at that time. Don’t know about the same with those groups

Hip Hop wasn't really mainstream in 1993.

It didn't have a Grammy category until 1996. Rap was still niche and New York basically dominated before Death Row.

When NWA dropped, they were never played on the radio, but still went platinum. In 1993, out side of Yo MTV Raps, they played the same handful of rap songs over and over and over again.

Rappers didn't really starting going platinum until 1999 and beyond when people really started buying CD's.

 

[The G.O.D II]

Hip Hop wasn't really mainstream in 1993.

It didn't have a Grammy category until 1996. Rap was still niche and New York basically dominated before Death Row.

When NWA dropped, they were never played on the radio, but still went platinum. In 1993, out side of Yo MTV Raps, they played the same handful of rap songs over and over and over again.

Rappers didn't really starting going platinum until 1999 and beyond when people really started buying CD's.

This is pure nonsense

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

This is pure nonsense

It wasn’t

I grew up in the era. Late 80’s until I graduated in 1996.

Hip Hop didn’t really go mainstream until 1996. You had a few people going platinum, but it was still very niche.

 

[Tribal Outkast]

Hip Hop wasn't really mainstream in 1993.

It didn't have a Grammy category until 1996. Rap was still niche and New York basically dominated before Death Row.

When NWA dropped, they were never played on the radio, but still went platinum. In 1993, out side of Yo MTV Raps, they played the same handful of rap songs over and over and over again.

Rappers didn't really starting going platinum until 1999 and beyond when people really started buying CD's.

I wouldn’t necessarily say it wasn’t mainstream in ‘93. shyt super exploded when million dollar videos and all that were the norm. A kid from Augusta Ga(me) wouldn’t know half these rappers in the late 80’s/early 90’s if it wasn’t mainstream in 1993. Video shows were a huge deal and helped us learn about these musicians, especially Yo and Rap City. Hell, I became a tribe fan the day I saw Check the Rhyme, Bonita Applebaum, El Segundo, can I kick it, and maybe something else on Dee Barnes pump it up show.. I think it was a marathon or something for Tribe. It was on a Fox station that could barely come in the right way, it was damn near like watching the spice channel at times lol. Anyway the point is hiphop was a big deal and it started gaining ground at least in 1988 or before. It exploded after 93 though.

 

[Hannibal Fox]

Had all these copycat acts too

I've always hated this fukking record, hated it when it came out, I hate that it's uploaded to YouTube and I especially hate that thumbnail.

 

[Yehuda]

"bytch Killer"

Lord knows I hate the whole R&B thug aesthetic but these cats jumped the shark with it.

 

[gluvnast]

Hip Hop wasn't really mainstream in 1993.

It didn't have a Grammy category until 1996. Rap was still niche and New York basically dominated before Death Row.

When NWA dropped, they were never played on the radio, but still went platinum. In 1993, out side of Yo MTV Raps, they played the same handful of rap songs over and over and over again.

Rappers didn't really starting going platinum until 1999 and beyond when people really started buying CD's.

A lot of misinformation here. Discredit this bit by bit. For hip hop NOT to be mainstream until 1993, that means MC Hammer wouldn't have gone DIAMOND in 1990 or Vanilla Ice going 9 times platinum that year. What you are confusing is hardcore rap didn't hit mainstream airwaves until The Chronic. But commercial rap was indeed mainstream. Kid & Play's House Party blew up and they had a cartoon. Fresh Prince of Bel Air was a major hit. And then there's of course MC Hammer who was literally competing against Michael Jackson who was still in his prime. MTV literally have a video battle debut between 2 Legit 2 Quit versus Black & White where people could call in to pick who had the better video. To say hip hop wasn't mainstream in '93 is absurd. I could give you countless examples of how that's incorrect.

Saying hip hop didn't have a Grammy category until 1996 is ever more wrong and shows your own ignorance into hip hop history. The FIRST HIP HOP GRAMMY CATEGORY EVER was presented in the year 1988! It was for BEST RAP ARTIST OR GROUP. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince were the winners, but they BOYCOTTED along with all of the hip hop artists with the exception of JJ FAD because the category wasn't going to be televised. Yo! MTV Raps even had a boycott party episode special hosted by the aforementioned Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince.

The NWA part is partially true but also a bit inaccurate, Straight Outta Compton had a full RADIO EDIT album for the album specifically for radio play. It was played on radio, but during the time of 1988 when hip hop WAS not commercial, most rap songs were played very late at time no black radio stations, and most of those radio stations were still mom & pop. Radio wasn't like how it is today. The 1996 Telecommunications Act changed the game and consolidated all the small radio stations to large conglomerates such as Clear Channel. NWA went platinum because of the word of mouth and the cease & desist letter by the FBI. Once news hit that MAJOR MEDIA was giving that group free promotion trashing the group and the music which had a reverse effect because teenagers were intrigued about what's the hype about with the album. The FBI letter was the greatest thing to happen for NWA and for gangsta rap as a whole to flourish.

The Chronic album, granted, was one the 1st hardcore record played on MTV outside of Yo! MTV Raps (who incidentally banned NWA). But Yo! MTV Raps wasn't the only televised show. Rap City was around since 1989. Ralph McDaniel's' Video Music Box pioneered it and was still going on. Miami based THE BOX (formally known as the Video Jukebox Network was jumping and pumping out all the underground rap videos. Access to hip hop was bubbling which also help propel the popularity of the culture through many regions.

Lastly, you are out of touch to the HISTORY of hip hop. RUN-DMC & the Beastie Boys were the FIRST RAPPERS to go platinum. SALT & PEPA were the first female group to go platinum. And this was back in the 80's. Rappers long were able to go gold and platinum. The DIFFERENCE IS those records were POP RECORDS. WALK THIS WAY was a POP RECORD. PUSH IT was a POP RECORD. Even ME, MYSELF & I which push DE LA SOUL to go PLATINUM was a POP RECORD and that group used to hate that record because it was a pop record. The hip hop community back in those days DID NOT CARE TO GET PLAQUES, they did it for the love and the respect and their names out there as one of them ones. The record sales were an afterthought, and many got screwed over their deals because of it.

Once The Chronic dropped, it changed everything. Now when major labels were averse to hardcore records, they want their own Chronic album. Many labels sought after the hardcore acts. And it been that way ever since.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Hip hop not mainstream til 1996

 

[WaveGang]

Hip hop not mainstream til 1996

I see what he means tho

We all remember how rock groups used to dominate award shows, way up until the year 2000.

 

[Biscayne]

Salt-N-Peppa too


When you watch Unsung it's almost amazing that nearly every 80's artist fell off directly because of the impact of gangsta rap and more specifically The Chronic had all the labels and fans wanting hardcore music.

R&B artists like Jodeci & R. Kelly went from New Jack Swing to a "gangsta" image with g-funk samples.

DRS came out in 1993 with "Gangsta Lean" and were the first to really cuss like gangsta rappers as an R&B group.


They even had a song about them straight up committing rape



It's 1994 but it's hilarious that Ready For The World lead singer Melvin Riley went from jheri curls to gangsta

This is wild....

The "Hard-n-B" that said happened in the 2010s, actually happened in the 90s.

I always though August Alsina, and Chris Brown were the first to create that shift.

The only DRS song I was familiar with was Gangsta Lean. Strip is wild as freaky ass nikka song.

Had no idea Melvin Riley went gangsta too. Artist back then were shameless.

 

[Hamsterdam921]

New York was such a confusing time during the early 90s. Dre and the west coast were killing shi. Only people making noise back east was the clan. So from 92-94 you had this crazy weird mix of a bunch of angry bald NY nikkas in combat fatigues just stomping around all using the same aggressive flow over some horns/g funk synths. Weird af

 

[Artificial Intelligence]

About to happen again

 

[Erratic415]

I see what he means tho

We all remember how rock groups used to dominate award shows, way up until the year 2000.

It seemed gradual to me throughout the 90s. There was always some breakthrough acts and hip-hop seemed to get more and more mainstream throughout.

There still seemed to be that element of hip hop as “outsiders”, which has long gone away.