What’s the biggest “What if” in Hip Hop history?

[Redwood]

Biggie's third album

 

[the elastic]

What if Canibus dropped his debut with anyone besides Wyclef as the producer....

 

[Child_Of_God]

What if Dr Dre dropped all of those unreleased tracks?

What if Dre really dropped The Detox?

 

[richaveli83]

What if Suge Knight had left Dre and Snoop alone and just focus on his then artist when he came home in 2001?

What if Master P didn't use that 10k from his uncle to get into music and instead did something foolish with the money?

What if Puffy signed 50 Cent instead of Dre/Eminem. I heard that Puffy was interested in 50 but didn't want to deal with the drama.

What if Puffy went to prison like Shyne did?

What if Suge Knight, Irv Gotti, and J. Prince really got to form the independent distribution label?

What if Snoop got convicted of murder?

What if Eazy-E didn't die of AIDS?

What if the hip hop community sided with Ja Rule instead of 50 Cent?

 

[Kingshango]

The D.O.C

 

[Neo. The Only. The One.]

What if it didn't take Jay Elect 10 years to release an album?

What if Charles Hamilton never put Dilla as a producer on his album and never got punched on camera by his gf?

What if Jay and Dame remained tight and the Roc never broke up?

What if Nas actually created a rap Motown like he said he was on "We Major"

What if 50 and Eminem never destroyed Murder Inc

 

[Blankthawtz]

what if Nas stopped duckin AZ's phone calls like a Jehovah's Witness when he asked to do a full album together....

 

[Warren Peace]

it's what if kanye died in the car crash and it's not even close

 

[Piff Perkins]

Pac was gonna go to jail for violating probation if he had survived. That outcome could have been ugly because he’d likely be gone for a couple years. Rap would be entirely different by the time he got back, who knows how that would have played out.

 

[SupaDupaFresh]

I'll say one thing for sure, and I know a Lotta nikkas don't wanna admit it. But Pac was clearly on his way to a mainstream entertainment career just before his death. Had he not died he would NOT still be cutting records and making fools out of these young rappers. He would have spent all of the late 90s and 2000s starring in films, appearing on TV and being a household name. Selling out if you will. Not at all unlike Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and Ice T.

Everyone has they own fantasy of what Pac woulda been. But truth is he wouldn't have gone in any different direction than all his other contemporaries who's careers lasted.

 

[SupaDupaFresh]

Pac was gonna go to jail for violating probation if he had survived. That outcome could have been ugly because he’d likely be gone for a couple years. Rap would be entirely different by the time he got back, who knows how that would have played out.

I didn't know this. His last film was shot during the summer of 96. How was he able to do that?

 

[SupaDupaFresh]

What if Pac never went to the fight
What if Pop Smoke never went live
What if Stack Bundles stayed away from his old hood, What if Max B never got locked up
What if DMX never puffed that laced blunt
What if B.G. stayed sober and legit, fukk it what if the hotboys never broke up and baby kept it solid with the finances.
What if Mystikal had listened to the fans and made a whole album with Mannie Fresh being the in-house producer
What if Sean Price lived to see the resurgence of grimy NY hip hop with acts like Griselda and shyt, He was doing that shyt long before, but with a market for it, I think it would have been Monkey Barz era x 2 with
What if Busta never cut the dreads

I got the same opinion of DMX as I do Pac. Had he never got fukked up on hard drugs, he'd have EASILY moved on to mainstream, household name stardom on TV and film just playing his damn self. On some Mike Tyson shyt.

I ain't even realize how much white folks loved the DMX the whole time til I gott my first real corporate job. Motherfukkers knew all the albums and lyrics. I'm talking dudes that otherwise only fukk wit heavy metal n shyt. He had that juice to be BIG, easily more than Cube or even Snoop, if it wasn't for his circumstances...a shame.

 

[SupaDupaFresh]

What if Subroc DOOM's brother doesn't dieWe probably don't get operation doomsday but does his trajectory still lead to madvillain

What if J Dilla never got sick

What if Suge Knight just chilled the fukk out, focused on running a label and keeing Dr.Dre happy


What if RZA never had that flood

The Death Row/Suge Knight what if is a big one.

Imagine if Suge didn't fukk up his own shyt. If Death Row lasted like Bad Boy has. If Dre and Snoop stayed with Death Row for their whole careers. If Eminem, 50 cent, Kendrick and the whole Aftermath roster was part of a 2000s era Death Row records.

 

[Wig Twistin Season]

What if Pimp C’s union idea would’ve become a reality right before streaming took over?

What if Michael Jackson didn’t turn Pharrell down and made the album that jump started Justin Timberlake’s solo career?

What if Kanye never lost his mother?

What if Bizzy Bone never over shared about his past and the rift between Bone Thugs never happened?

What if The Pharcyde kept their momentum going and never broke up and fell off? They were arguably the West Coast’s version of De La Soul.

What if Q-Tip never brought Consequence to the group and Pfife didn’t lose interest in working with Q-Tip.

What if Cee-Lo never went solo and Goodie MOB never tried to go mainstream?

What if Andre 3000 never decided he was done with rap?

What if Dres win his lawsuit?

 

[Piff Perkins]

I didn't know this. His last film was shot during the summer of 96. How was he able to do that?

Nah the night of his death. He's on camera stomping out someone (Orlando) at the casino. That was gonna be a charge, and even in the likely event that Orlando refused to cooperate with police Pac would still get hit with disorderly conduct at the least.

He could have potentially got out around 98/99. What if he reconciles with Dre then, which is when Em and Chronic 2001 were in production?