I think many of the "heads" from my generation are upset with the way that hip-hop turned out. When I was listening to hip-hop in 1997, I would have never thought that Rodney O and Joe Cooley's "Everlasting Bass" and Three Six Mafia's Sound in general would become the dominant form of music in 2014. I was quite sure that the Underground Sound ( Rawkus Records, Jedi mind Tricks, East Coast/ California Underground) would take over like many underground movements had in the past (Punk for example). But, Alas, I was wrong, and most people in that scene were wrong.
Now that Trap EDM has now become hugely popular and replacing Dubstep. DJ paul and Juicy J (and Rodney O and Joe Cooley) have really become the Most influential Hip-hop producers of all time. And why shouldn't they? They had a very unique and consistent sound, and that sound didn't exist before them. Boom-bap Hip-hop had its roots in late 80's NYC hip-hop. It was an evolution of NYC 80's hip-hop, and a rehash of early 70's Fusion funk and soul music.
In contrast, while there are certainly influences that led the Memphis Sound, there was nothing like it that predated it. The Memphis Sound was and still is a fresh sound. It's not the Sound of Hip-hop to the Gen-X and those over 30 Years old. The sound of Hip-hop to us (those 30 y/o +) sounds like the music of our parents. Hip-hop from the 90's sounds like music for the early seventies, and that gives people the false impression of cycles. However, I don't think people realize that funk and soul music in the 70's was largely heard only in the Black Community. It wasn't a mainstream sound back then, so when White people heard 90's hip-hop. They had never heard anything like Roy Ayers style soul music before, and to them, it was a fresh sound. The Memphis Sound doesn't sound like anything before 1997.
The Memphis scene was largely regarded as dumb and anti-intellectual music by the dominant East Coast and West Coast Hip-Hop elitists. I think this was the clue to its future dominance that most people missed. Music is supposed to be about having fun. The Memphis Scene gave rise to Mosh-pits and a fresh new injection of energy and rhythm. Conversely, the underground Hip-Hop scene was constricted by strict technicality and College Kids who analyzed every lyric. In a way, it was an appeal to our parents. We wanted our music to be respected as something on par with their Bop-Jazz music, their 60's rock music, or their 70's soul music. However, music that takes over disregards the past. Jazz sounded nothing like anything that predated it, and it was largely regarded as crap by the then older generation. Trap, Drill, Trap EMD and even Dubstep came from a form of music that most of the Elitists of the past hated-- Memphis Crunk music. It was regarded as crap, ghetto, and a blemish on the black community. But you know what, it's really not crap. Three Six Mafia's Production techniques were actually much more complex that anything in the 90s. Today's basement Trap and Drill producers have a much higher standard of quality than the Sample based producers of the 90s. From a production standpoint, the music far more complex and technical than it was in the 90's.
