Your least favorite hip hop narratives

[Mike Wins]

I see what you’re saying, but:

This narrative is older than what you’re talking about, because it depends on when people argue when hip-hop “died”.

Way before the Snap/Ringtone era, people using this narrative were talmbat Bass and bootyshake music being bad for the game because a few records would blow up every now and then. Cuts like “My Baby Daddy”, “Raise The Roof”, “Back Dat Azz Up”, “Who Dat” & “Whistle While You Twurk”, et al. The narrative was:

“Look, all of that music got its place - but it’s not supposed to be as successful as it is because it ain’t Real Hip-Hop”...like Hip-Hop wasn’t invented at and for parties.

And the other side of the coin is that a lot of rappers of The South had lyrics but they didn’t get their proper due simply because they were Southern. I will admit I am biased - I don’t think T.I., Ross, and Jeezy are that great as rappers. It baffles me that they get more props than Eightball & MJG, UGK, Mystikal, Tela, Thrill Da Playa, and some others. IMO, I think that is people overcompensating for the South rap they didn’t listen to back in the day.

When would you say it took hold? I know there was a heavy anti-south bias in the 90s but I don't remember actually hearing "the South killed hip hop" argument until the mid-to-late 00s. But that's me, as someone who lived up and down the West Coast with brief stops in the South and on the East Coast. We moved around a lot in the 90s and I wasn't really on the internet like that until '99, so I found my perception of the 90s decade differs from others depending on where they were at.

When I mention Wayne, Luda, TI, Ross and Jeezy, those are the dudes from the South who were popping when I first remember hearing the South killed it narrative. Whereas UGK, 8Ball & MJG, I was checking for both heavily from Riding Dirty to the Bad Boy album Ball & G did but their time had kinda passed by then. I remember No Limit and Cash Money getting shytted on heavily by the "purists" but NY was still firmly on top at that point

 

[Taadow]

I’ll tell you one I don’t like:

“Hip-Hop is a young man’s game”

 

[Taadow]

When would you say it took hold? I know there was a heavy anti-south bias in the 90s but I don't remember actually hearing "the South killed hip hop" argument until the mid-to-late 00s. But that's me, as someone who lived up and down the West Coast with brief stops in the South and on the East Coast. We moved around a lot in the 90s and I wasn't really on the internet like that until '99, so I found my perception of the 90s decade differs from others depending on where they were at.

When I mention Wayne, Luda, TI, Ross and Jeezy, those are the dudes from the South who were popping when I first remember hearing the South killed it narrative. Whereas UGK, 8Ball & MJG, I was checking for both heavily from Riding Dirty to the Bad Boy album Ball & G did but their time had kinda passed by then. I remember No Limit and Cash Money getting shytted on heavily by the "purists" but NY was still firmly on top at that point

Okay, now this is sort of why this is a tricky issue.

I would say the narrative was always present - but it was an under-the-surface thing until the time you speak of; when arguably the South got “on top”.

And - I would say that at No Limit’s prime, there was no particular region “on top”.
1995-1997 is the first (and really only, imo) time The Rap World was wide open.
There was too much hitting from everywhere...

 

[bigde09]

Imaginary west coast dominance

The biggest NY rapper of that era had Snoop sampled on his intro and used G Funk beats for his two biggest songs (Big Poppa and One More Chance Remix).

Chronic,Doggystyle and AEOM eclipsed 4x platinum, even regional west acts like E40 and Too Short sold more than Mobb Deep,Wu Tang, Das Efx etc..

Don't forget Cube going platinum plus too during this era.

 

[boogers]

Kanye West has one of the best discographies in hip hop is one of the worst imo. If we stopped at MBDTF I might agree, but Ye, JIK, Yeezus, and the Dondas are all in the decent to mid of not worse range.

I think of Kanye as three people.

There's young Kanye, when his ma Donda was alive. He was throwin heaters on those 90's demos... then you know what happened. The Blueprint. shyt is happening for him, he's young and still happy, confident but not clown confident like he is now. Seems like he can't make a mistake... then he had that accident, and his prime period started.

Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation. shyt speaks for itself.

Then his mama died. During plastic surgery. That he probably paid for...

808s & Heartbreak was the first time he wasn't perfect, but even if he was slipping up, it's better than what a lot of other rappers were putting out; it doesn't matter: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy makes up for it and then some.

Then in 2012 he married Kim Kartrashian and she ate his soul.

And he's been dead to me ever since.

 

[Why-Fi]

2 that bug me the most -
tupac being basic...dude rhymed with the wisdom of a 200 year old. he wasn't rappity but he was very seldom wasteful with the shyt he was saying. and flat out, he was better than big

dilla being the best thing that ever happened to hip hop - it's documented, he couldn't even best qtip. let alone pete rock, premo, large professor, beatnuts, organized noise...hell, audio two, king of chill, rza.... I could go on...dilla was dope tho

 

[TheRtist]

That black people never fukked with Eminem. Everyone did from 99-03

facts, when Dre was on board, black people fukked with Em. Then when D12 came around they did, harder. I wasn't until White America and when he started using rock guitars in his songs that black people handed him over to the whites.

 

[Why-Fi]

facts, when Dre was on board, black people fukked with Em. Then when D12 came around they did, harder. I wasn't until White America and when he started using rock guitars in his songs that black people handed him over to the whites.

anecdotal but my brother and I both threw that first cd in the trash. that music wasn't for us fam.

 

[Yecht]

Kendrick Lamar is good

 

[malbaker86]

Now with artists coming out, I don't know where the fukk these guys are from until they state it because everyone sounds alike.

ASAP Rocky and Travis Scott are the ones that first come to mind

 

[Jesus H. Christ]

"Soulja Boy killed hip hop."

No he didn't. Sure his music trash but no he didn't kill hip hop.

Imagine telling a 16 year old that he killed hip hop by non other than Ice T.

Also,

"T-pain ruined the music industry for introducing auto tune to hip hop"

Yeah, sure, ok. I'll just leave it at that.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Snap era was bad

 

[King Sun]

Snap era was bad

Nah it sucked but people down south loved it.

 

[Taadow]

Why is it okay to get help with a beat but not for lyrics? Who made these rules?

1. If Rap is a competitive sport with a revolving door of who is on top (like College Football - which is another thread), then the thought process is (like College Football) the program that is #1 in the land should be clean. That is the perception, at least. Whether that’s wrong or right is debatable.


2. The “Write Your Own Lyrics” Conversation evolved from the “Don’t Bite Anybody’s Chit/Style”
that has always existed. If you say somebody else’s lines you was a Biter.


(Sidebar: And to be fair, if you took somebody’s beat you was a Biter also.
Word to “10% Dis” and Ma$e’s interview about “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down”.
Over time, Mixtape Culture killed that ideal. I think the last ones who was really
calling out Beat Biters as a tenet was Timbaland and Missy.)


3. The overall problem in this arena is people getting proper credit.
You can’t tell who deserves what props when people are getting “help”.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Nah it sucked but people down south loved it.

GOAT era

FOH