As a NYC old head, I feel like there’s a whole other level of conversation that you really only hear from NYC old heads. Like from our perspective, we saw the West Coast, Dirty South, and Midwest as novelty acts vying for second place. So people were talking about Uncle Luke or Scarface as GOATS, we were laughing. Thinking “if they were any good, they’d be in NY”. If I haven’t heard them on Hot 97 or Power 103, they weren’t ready for the main stage. Unfortunately, that made us lazy. And we got stale. Add to that the “east cost/west coast rivalry” and the country ass No Limit sound, and we got real proud and stubborn. By the time we realized that we were no longer the center of the hip hop universe, the center fell out and the internet age expanded the playing field even more.
@@MonkeyDJaden75 I would actually argue there is no Top Dog the way there used to be. You have artists coming from all over. There’s not really the same regional style anymore. The line between mainstream and underground isn’t as easy to draw. And no single area has a mon opoly on best in the business. The top artists right now are mixed from NY, LA, Texas, Philly, Canada, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, St. Louis, and depending who you ask, even more places. Hip-Hop changed and left those rivalries behind.
Being from New Orleans (the birthplace of No Limit & Cash Money), now living in the Dallas area, you pretty much summed up what I was gonna point out...y'all got lazy & way too cocky.
I'm an oldhead and the impact of the crack era totally and completely changed the message and energy of hip hop. Also, "the meeting" that took place in the early 90s with music execs was a real thing and shaped who got heard and who didn't.
@@_mirendal_ A conspiracy theory that heads of labels (and possibly prison executives I can't recal) met and decided to push the NWAs of this world and push aside the Tribes and De La Souls of this world.
@@_mirendal_yep, as the poster above me mentioned, it was a meeting of what hip hop was to be. It's basically seen as a nefarious, 5th column illuminati type meeting.
I have a vague recollection of "the meeting" but I feel y'all give labels and execs too much power to remove personal responsibility from the people. Execs aren't taste makers, they just want to make money. And the way to make money is to sell people what they want. They didn't "change" anything. Rather more accurately was they put more money and focus into certain aspects of hip hop that was more profitable. It's not some evil thing.
Actual old here. For the most part, your takes are spot-on, let me provide some touch-up: 1. Music spread mainly through a. radio, b. tours like freshfest, and c. TAPES. Cassettes & VHS were the circulatory system of music back then, ESPECIALLY hip hop. Some mixes and concert recordings were literal legends, mythic items. If you had a cousin in NYC, and they came for a visit, they inevitably had at least one or two recordings of WBLS or KISS FM shows. Kids would have dubs of dubs. And every place had a record store and if you were lucky, someone in there knew wtf they were doing and would stock 12" records for the DJs and the fans. This is before rap was even an acknowledged category (outside of NY/NJ/LA), so they would typically be sorted in alphabetically with the pop/rock records. So going into a store and coming out with a record by someone you never heard of was a real and common thing - which was why it was important for new artists to signify that (a) rap and (b) here's who I'm down with. 2. The 80s old heads most definitely grumbled about the 90s rap. The term "new jack" started out as derisive before the culture flipped it. And NYC in particular went through a shift as the next up didn't want to rock Fila and dookey gold chains and kangol and considered all of that played out. Conscious rap (or at least the vibe) took over the culture for a hot minute right before NWA blew everything up and NYC hip hop culture stopped steering the culture for the first time ever. Which is the actual roots of the coast beef, because NYC saw the west coast as 1. less lyrically capable 2. fraudulent with the gangster posturing, and 3. crowding out NYC artists. The West Coast did have lyricists though, and many of them stepped up to the lyrical challenge and even the conscious rap challenge and weren't at all on gangster stuff but that's off topic. Point is, generational grumbling has always been a thing, it's just the social media amplifies everything. And to your point about 90s rappers, yep social media is about engagement so the engagement farmers just roll with what gets most engagement, so 5000 threads about tupac,jayz,biggie,nas.
100% spot on! I think cassette dubs are the unsung hero of hip hop! I got SO much music from my older cousin, it's how I built my library before I could afford to buy music.
Thank you because as I was watching this I felt that he was missing the mark about how music was spread back in the day even before CDs and I came to make a comment about it but no need you explained that part wonderfully.
47-year-old black woman in America here…Big conscious rap fan. Back in the ‘90s I was told my musical preferences were alternative. That said, loved, loved, loved Common, the Roots, OutKast, the Neptunes, LL, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, Black Star (Mos and Talib’s solo projects, as well).I also claim Lupe, and my OG favorite: Pete Rock & CL Smooth. And my guilty pleasure that I don’t usually admit to…MC Brains. Special shout out to Oaktown 3.5.7…and who am I liking now, ladies first: Doechii and Leikeli47; and the usual suspects: Kendrick, J. Cole. Also, didn’t feel it needed mentioning, but obviously, Ñas.
42 yo white guy and agree with that list 🙌🏼 Pete Rock really opened my ears up to the depth of sampling culture, and Digable Planets was the real eye opener to conscious rap for me. Shouts also to Souls of Mischief and the whole Hieroglyphics crew, Pharcyde, Tribe and Camp Lo
@@RoamingHeathen 42 year old white Colombian and I was going to add the Hiero crew. 3rd Eye Vision was the soundtrack to my Junior and Senior year of high school.
Old head here. I'm in my mid 40s and you are right, Rakim changed everything, at least from my mainstream, white suburban perspective at that time. I'm sure badass-itude was always respected in the underground, but from my perspective there were a lot of novelty tunes---like Fat Boys rapping about how they were looking for food, Heavy D rapping about being chunky but funky, Kurtis Blow rapping about his phone bill being too high because hey, that's the breaks, etc. Rappers like Rakim and Kool Moe Dee hit the scene and, I gotta tell you, I don't know what it was for me at the time, but it just felt correct. "I Ain't No Joke" came out and things just changed, and they changed forever. This was the new hyper-masculine cool in hip hop, and it kind of still is. If there's anything I miss from the 80s and 90s, and even the 00s, it's the groups of next level rappers getting together and tearing it up. Geto Boys. A Tribe Called Quest. Arrested Development. Jurassic 5. Blackalicious. The Pharcyde. That last one, good God. I've listened to Bizarre Ride II more times than any other hip hop album. Sorry, old habits die hard. The one thing hip hop never discarded, though, was socially conscious rap. The kind of hip hop Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine made are still in the rotation, but now I put it alongside rappers like King Los and Kendrick Lamar in 2024. As far as explicitly LGBT rap goes, I gotta be honest, I didn't hear any of it until Cakes da Killa in the early 2010s, but that's likely because I was out of the loop. Love his music regardless of my general cluelessness as a straight white cis male. Also, just one more note from an old head, I'm also really happy with the direction rap has gone in in the Spanish language. I'm really into artists like Snow Tha Product, Bad Bunny, and Santa Fe Klan. The fact that rap spread to so many other cultures outside of the one that birthed it is a testament to its power. Speaking of which, you are right about white people in rap in the 80s and 90s. The Beastie Boys are foundational in that regard, but if you look at their history they were going to shows and hanging with the great MCs that were around at that time. Yeah, they were still a punk and hardcore band, sure, but a LOT of the rap they were listening to found its way into their music, and absolutely no one questioned it, at least at that time.
In my experience, early hip hop fans did have a problem with 90s hip hop. My elders would always have something negative to say about the music I listened to growing up. Calling it violent and more raunchy and lacking the five elements, over commercialization, etc.
My uncle used to say the same. But he still listened to Wu lol. The issue for me its no so much violent lyrics or even raunchy lyrics. Its hows its presented. Is it presented like The Godfather or Mean Streets....artistically? Or is it presented like The Expendables.
sucks to have ppl you know killed over crack and then see little kids bumping music made by slightly older kids telling everybody how rich and powerful they got from selling crack. that’s not dope that’s actually fucked
I'm 27 and Rakim is in my top 3 for all the reasons he's not recognized as much. In 06 when saints row came out I was 11 I thought I ain't No Joke was newer than what it was. His lyricism really did flip the game from the early dance era n set the stage for the 90s
I learned about him from watch dogs 2 he had his song “dont stress the technique” in the trailer and in one of the most memorable missions, i also remember him being in saints row but im not sure if it was 1 or 2, i was like 9 in 2016 and it still really intrigued me at the time and im not gonna pretend like hes one of my top artist or if i lived anywhere close to that era but i still dig some of his stuff especially from the paid in full album and his music really does sound ahead of its time
As a fellow old head from 83 and with a little more distance from the epicenter being from Amsterdam you forget to mention the importance of the magazines such as the Source. They really helped spread hip hop in a broader sense as a culture. In the late nineties early 2000s they even started to branch out and shed Light on local scenes in France, Germany etc. This was all pre internet/dial up internet era so printed media had way more influence and every edition was like a valuable keepsake you read from beginning to end and back again
I think the class gap in content/lyrics is the biggest difference from our era and this one now. Rakim could wear a gold chain and rap about getting paid in full, but showed tons of community and class solidarity. Even if today’s rappers tried to show the same solidarity, it would come across hollow with their constant wealth brags n shit. And i know there were plenty of rappers who were like that to some degree back in the day, but they were usually rejected. Shit-talked by the best rappers on the regular.
The difference between underground culture between then and now is that it used to be a localized, in-person lifestyle and event based thing you had to actively participate in, or know someone within willing to share it with you, whereas now it's just clicking the right link, getting the right algorithmic response, or searching the right term.
For the hardcore scene, finding channels like Hate5six that records small bands all over the states has been an amazing gift for someone like me who isn't tapped into that genre yet. Yeah the underground isn't what I supposed it used to be
If it makes you feel any better, the term "Crash out" comes from Charleston White, who is an old head. The youngsters got it from an old head, so use it all you want.
This Older Head really enjoyed and shared this video with my Gen-Z son who walks around the house listening to 80’s and 90’s a Hip Hop. He says he’s not into the new stuff and his former DJ dad and me, who grew up in the South Bronx in the 70’s and 80’ are enjoying sharing music and listening to my son’s hot takes. It’s the best kind of family bonding ❤ Thanks 🙏🏽
Sun’s Tirade by Isaiah Rashad and Rodeo by Travis dropped both on the same days and both tapes were pretty big in my school. Closest thing I can remember to a double classic drop in the past ten years
"How did you discover underground music?" - Honestly, Amazon was a huge gamechanger for me, when they added those 30 second preview (prelisten?) clips of songs, circa 1999 or so.
Here's another Rakim comparison: Benjamin Franklin is the American da Vinci and will be remembered for his versatility and output even if better inventions and better writing and such has happened since. He's historically remembered as part of the foundation and his status resonates for decades. Rakim is the founding father who was the first mc you'd really need to listen to. Foundational and resonant.
YOOOOOOO I honestly didn’t expect you to include my question in the video! Glad you liked it and thanks for answering. Gonna go check out the people you mentioned rn
Love you FD! I disagree with so many of your hip hop takes, but it’s always in good fun and the discussion is always really interesting Edit: Billy woods is my second favorite rapper I can’t believe you’d say such terrible things
FD Signifier, much love and respect to you man. I completely agree with you, I'm 22 and I feel like an old head in terms of hip-hop and my general music takes. I love Rakim, Pac, Nas, OutKast, Mos Def, Black Thought, Jay-Z, Old Kanye and Kendrick Lamar. It hurts my heart that some of the younfer generation think older hip-hop is trash, wack or they just don't understand it. Your not alone FD, I wish i had friends who were as passionate and enthusiastic about hip-hop music.
Busta Rhymes was another rapper that changed the game because his style was so unique. Keith Murray was a great rapper that neevr made it due to the heavy competition at the time.
One thing I do miss about music before streaming is that, if you connected to a song(s) you heard on the radio or on a (physical) mixtape or burned onto a CD, you would go out and buy the album and listen to the song(s) in the context of the album. I cannot tell you how many songs are slept on because people are only streaming the one or two songs they know. As someone who is deeply invested in music, I always try to encourage people to listen to the album a song they enjoy comes from because you never know what musical gems are on there.
i do that!! i find songs thru my yt music algorithm and often go to buy the cd so i can really appreciate the entire album. when i'm driving i don't like to have to get distracted so the cd forces me to listen to the entire thing and most of the time i end up loving most of the album :D
I smiled so hard when you were talking about t rock. I want through a hard threesix/project Pat phase in college and stumbled upon his music then. He’s got some classics and definitely deserve more recognition
In the 1980s my very white probation officer auntie, took my 14 year old also very white, very nerdy brother to the Too Short/ NWA... ect concert in NEW ORLEANS. That's how new rap and hip hop was in the culture. BTW they both remember it FONDLY. FYI The 90s was the best because that's when UGK got known. In my opinion.
This is one of the reasons i like you so much. You are older, BUT not a hypocrite. There's no unjustified "oh back in my day X was better". Anyway, thanks for the takes as always!
Slightly older head and certified 70s-90s hip-hop geek here. Solid video. I just wanted to add, while not widely known or mainstream, there was a mid to late 90s queer or "homo-hop" movement out here in the Bay. I remember groups like Rainbow Flava and Deep Dickollective making a little noise around that time. Oddly enough, I think the first openly gay artist associate with hop was 1980s electro-pop producer Man Parrish 😂
In Living Color and Arsenio were monumental in promoting hip hop to rural America. Bless Wayans and Hall for this contribution cuz learned of so much music, I was already a fan of the culture but featuring new music really expanded the reach of the genre to middle America
Back in the day I found music by actually buying albums and reading the credits. Within the credits were always gems of up and coming artist and producers who were featured on that project, they usually worked with other similar artist. Magazine reviews were also really helpful.
I appreciate this conversation. More of it, please. My oldheadness still harkens back to the classic day of September 29, 1998. One of my favorite Tuesdays ever.
Thank you so much for awnsering my question. And this video was very very interresting. I find it fascinating how one genre can evolve so much and jet have so many consistant ellements.
So to add something about the 90s that made it better than most eras that I think that you missed was that: 1. Folks had become creative, not simply because of artist development, but because of mastery of the craft. You had a 10-15 year timespan to really get to know what it took to be an MC, so rappers were becoming more skilled. 2. Beatmaking became much better. We were able to move away from the James Brown loops and "create" sounds. In the south we used live instruments (in production) much more than artists from NYC. We were singing on the hooks more too. We used samples in a much more skilled way, instead of just looping a hot R&B song (well everyone except you know who) 3. Albums were much more diverse. In the 80s you had 8-12 tracks. Which normally included 1 track for the ladies and at least 1 track with your DJ showing off his skills. In the 90s the albums became more conceptual. Artists but more thought and detail into their work. 4. The biggest thing I believe was the diversity of sound. In 94 on a Tuesday in June - Da Brat, House of Pain, Big Mike and Nice and Smooth dropped what would become some of the best work put out by each. Folks were still creating "conscious" music and in fact, the hip-hop community as a whole was leaning in that direction (especially after the Million Man March in 1995).
As a younger fan of hip hop, I can definitely attest to the 1 track for the DJs. I remember being surprised listening to those tracks from Public Enemy and Big Daddy Kane xD
As the under 25 child of a true oldhead (aged mid-50s), Eric B. & Rakim are definitely my dad's GOATed hip hop act. Much of their music was the soundtrack to my childhood; my dad made "Don't Sweat the Technique" the hype/theme song for me before I competed in sporting events.
Listen Fu-Gee-La was bumpin’ Spring ‘96 in NYC. If you had an open window you could listen to the whole song just from cars driving by. KRS One needs to be mentioned more IMO when talking about conscious rap. Anyone looking to listen to what it was like back in the day, we are fortunate to have so many resources. The Rocksteady Anniversary jams, dozens of Summer Jam recordings are out there, even a few grainy videos of house parties if you dig a bit.
This is crazy, talking down on 2022. I was just thinking the other day about how 2022 legit might be the best year in hiphop, of my life. the forever story, melt my eyez, Mr.morale, kings disease 3, aethiopes, no thank you, god don't make mistakes, backxwash 3rd album, it's almost dry, drill music in Zion, Cheat Codes. 2022 is a glorious year in hiphop.
“How did I discover underground music?” Walking through Crown Heights, hanging in Prospect Park, on the subway, and sharing music with friends. Also the dude that had that kiosk in the Canal Street A/C station that has recorded house party cassettes and club performances.
I’m not even super into hip hop. Not any more than your average American. But I’m a big fan of you and your brain and so now I’m learning about hip hop just cause I like hearing you talk.
Does not being a fan of billy woods really count as being antagonistic to young rap fans? Cause i learned about billy woods (and came to _love_ his music) from dead end hip hop, who are all old hip hop fans lol
I think he js assumed him to be younger because he's associated more with the newer wave of underground hiphop (i.e earl, ka, mike, pink siifu, jpegmafia etc.) than the period he started in
i genuenly think the albums Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (2021) and NO THANK YOU (2022), both by Little Simz, are already classics in my heart. im sure time will show that in the heart of many.
Fellow old head here. Im 34. I was born in 1989. I think its important to understand how diverse hip-hop was during the 90s. Which added to its' greatness. A lot of early hip hop was dominated by the East and West coasts. The 90s made way for the South and the Midwest to get mainstream success. I believe Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt album secured Jay's spot as a leading figure. It went double platinum. I mostly agree with your takes here.
I also think a huge part of what made 90's hip hop different and that sweet spot, was you had a generation of musicians who had now grown up with hip hop already existing. So now that operates as their baseline and from a creative standpoint gives them the courage and ability to think outside of the parameters of what those before them had deemed possible within the genre. I was blessed enough to have a conversation with DMX one time before he passed, and we were talking about the drum machine from which he got his name, and he said that that machine was the moment that changed his life but people younger would never understand the impact of having lived an entire life before hearing those sounds. Like, and this is taking it to a nerdy ass place, there are people who were alive when star wars came out, and that changed them because it was an elevation of film. But for people who have always existed in a world with star wars, that's now the bare minimum. They don't know a world without that being possible. And so their imagination has more building blocks, the same way that someone like Timbaland, who had always known the existence of hip hop has a leg up on someone who has to first imagine that style of music before taking it to its limitations. Each generation starts at a different starting line, but has the opportunity to expand the sound into further regions. Anyway, great video.
2023 was a slow year for hip hop lol. The best 4 hip hop records of that year were Forever Story, Big Steppers, Denzel Curry's Melt My Eyez, and Little Simz's No Thank You. Of those the first three are probably going to be classics (TFS already is and is top 3 hip hop albums of the last 5 years imo), and they came out between the end of August and the middle of December. That sounds good but that was really the only movement in the genre for the whole year
Billy Woods is great and also impressive live performer. I can get that his vibe/atmosphere and abstract lyrics are something that is not for everybody. Still for me he is easily top-5 rapper right now
Gen X here, I was listening to TOO Short and Dj Quick when I was in mile school. You right, hip-hop has always been effed up. I can't look my kid in the face and act like I want listening to, and getting into some shit in my day.
Melt My Eyez See Your Future is a album that will withstand time from 2022 I recommend. Denzel Curry is a very thoughtful person and that album was on repeat that whole year
i heard a story that Elton John once walked into a record store in some random part of the midwest and asked if they had any Tech N9ne albums (When they said they didn't, he ended up buying all of their Scritti Politti records instead lmao)
This is so good. I’m 47 & been listening to Hip Hop since 82-84. My co-workers and I tried to come up with a top 50. The age range 24-47. Lordee. We all learned a lot and I had to wrap the project up because it was a lot of suffering on both sides. 😂 Collectively, Rakim didn’t make too 25 - which is when I gave up - BUT I see what you’re saying about how this Gen receive Rakim by telephone. They don’t know, but we’re out here trying to teach. Appreciate this youtube and will be tuning in!
2022 was one of the best years ever for hip hop. J.I.D Forever story, Denzel Melt my Eyes, Vince Staples Ramona park, Dot's Mr morale, Black Thought and Madlibs Cheat Codes, Rome Streetz Kiss the ring, Smino Luv 4 rent, Saba few good things, Freddie Gibbs $oul $old $eperatly, Little Simz no thank you, Pusha T it's almost dry, Nas King's disease 3. And so many others that I can't think of off the dome.
I'm 35, I came to Canada when I was 13 I didn't speak English, about a year later in 2002 I heard Rakim for the first time on a track by Truth Hurts called 'Addictive' ft.Rakim. I thought to myself "I don't think I've ever heard anyone flow so smoothly to beat before." I mean yes theres rappers that are smooth but this was different, you almost feel like you have a sixth sense when you listen to him. I learned my English through music.
Sometimes I forget FD is a young head compared to my generation, so his takes are a lil different from mine. Conscious rap started way before P.E. and XClan. Conscious rap goes back to the earliest days of hip hop and was one of its first popular genres. Curtis Blow, Melly Mel, Grandmaster Flash all did a version of concious hip hop. People get older and more conservative but trying to say hip hop isn't more vulgar and hypersexualized now is WILD. Yes there were a handful of raunchy artists and songs but the efforts made to protect kids from those influences were MANY. Now all the guard rails are completely gone. Access is now universal. The notion of white rappers being more accepted in the 80's and 90's is CRAZY. Go ask Mc Search and Pete Nice if they felt that way. 😂
idk if this thing is gonna do as well as some other stuff you do on this channel, I just wanted to say I still appreciate it a lot and would come back for more
a personal 2022 classic, for me, is learn 2 swim by redveil. dude's only nineteen and he's dropping these jazz rap abstract hip hop landscape paintings of songs. gotta check him out.
Everything changed for me (as an old head ) when , I was at my aunt's apartment and played doggy style while she was gone . I went on to find DJ Quick ,Dog Pound , Death Row, Too short , uncle Luke , 2 to None , etc . Had to hide being raised in the church . The West Coast sound really shaped my taste . 90's rap and R&B was some of the best music ever. Very boot strap on the come up type artist , Before the machine really took over .
Talking about the grimy rap (and regional/local rap) from back in the day- I think your brain was trying to refer to Kilo Ali's 'Love in ya mouth'- early Dungeon Family rapper that anyone who was in the skating rinks in Atlanta in the late 90's early 00's knows that song.
7:30 I couldn't agree more about new rap not being any more offensive than older stuff. Black Sheep released U Mean I'm Not in 1991. I've since read that its lyrics were intended as parody, but it's so over the top it surpasses Frank Zappa territory.
When I played that 2nd track to my stoner friends "U Mean I'm Not" back in the day, they didn't know what to think. Oh my God I LOVE that freaking album.
Thanks for this. I haven’t come to terms with being ‘old,’ as far as my outlook;, we were booking bands, helping them load in and out, wheatpasting flyers all night long, and being the Y in the DIY punk rock underground not that long ago. I try to tell my clients, who are legal to be tattooed if they were born in 2006, FFS, that they can start a band, they can write lyrics, they can host on college radio, they can shake shit up, and they just look at me like I’ve got five heads and am just a lying idiot. It’s so bizarre that everything Indy bands screamed about into microphones warning people about the dangers of the corporate media strip mining of the arts and creativity all came to pass, and way too many people seem cool with it.
I had the opportunity to see The Sugarhill Gang, MC Sha-Rock, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five during their 50th anniversary tour, and they know how to put on a damn show. It's almost impossible to compare because of the different skillsets the generations have, where old MCs almost felt like entertainers first and foremost
This thumbnail crazy
I thought it was his dad and couldn't believe how similar they looked lol.
🤣
Uncle Grandpa bout to tell us bout that boom bap spherical blerical lyrical miracle golden age
Seriously, how the hell?? Looked convincing!
Came here for this comment lmfao
You're younger than you think FD, you're not an oldhead YET. You're a young unc.
A rising old head. A soon to uncle.
Younger than you think. But old enough to be talking about filing taxes in a rap vid!
Well you know how it is online. They talk about 20 like it's old.
I feel like an old head whenever I reminisce on 2016/soundcloud rap era 😔
hip-hop fans are usually around 16-24, so yeah it is old
Yungcle
As a NYC old head, I feel like there’s a whole other level of conversation that you really only hear from NYC old heads.
Like from our perspective, we saw the West Coast, Dirty South, and Midwest as novelty acts vying for second place. So people were talking about Uncle Luke or Scarface as GOATS, we were laughing. Thinking “if they were any good, they’d be in NY”. If I haven’t heard them on Hot 97 or Power 103, they weren’t ready for the main stage.
Unfortunately, that made us lazy. And we got stale. Add to that the “east cost/west coast rivalry” and the country ass No Limit sound, and we got real proud and stubborn.
By the time we realized that we were no longer the center of the hip hop universe, the center fell out and the internet age expanded the playing field even more.
Well said
Now Atlanta is Too Dog, in Mainstream hip hop and underground
Good comment. You're right. Crazy how much thing have changed since.
@@MonkeyDJaden75 I would actually argue there is no Top Dog the way there used to be. You have artists coming from all over. There’s not really the same regional style anymore. The line between mainstream and underground isn’t as easy to draw. And no single area has a mon opoly on best in the business. The top artists right now are mixed from NY, LA, Texas, Philly, Canada, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, St. Louis, and depending who you ask, even more places.
Hip-Hop changed and left those rivalries behind.
Being from New Orleans (the birthplace of No Limit & Cash Money), now living in the Dallas area, you pretty much summed up what I was gonna point out...y'all got lazy & way too cocky.
“Find old heads in your vicinity” is hilarious
(Knocks on neighbors door) “excuse are you an old head?”
Cantankerous old heads want to share their hip hop opinions with YOU
We’re everywhere. And we are dying to give our opinions on a variety of topics
As a German white boy I don't even know where to start looking lmao
I'm an oldhead and the impact of the crack era totally and completely changed the message and energy of hip hop. Also, "the meeting" that took place in the early 90s with music execs was a real thing and shaped who got heard and who didn't.
Can you explain wich meeting youre talking about im curious !
I don't think it happened as a one off ..a famous one off meeting. But its happened through normal meetings.
@@_mirendal_
A conspiracy theory that heads of labels (and possibly prison executives I can't recal) met and decided to push the NWAs of this world and push aside the Tribes and De La Souls of this world.
@@_mirendal_yep, as the poster above me mentioned, it was a meeting of what hip hop was to be.
It's basically seen as a nefarious, 5th column illuminati type meeting.
I have a vague recollection of "the meeting" but I feel y'all give labels and execs too much power to remove personal responsibility from the people. Execs aren't taste makers, they just want to make money. And the way to make money is to sell people what they want. They didn't "change" anything. Rather more accurately was they put more money and focus into certain aspects of hip hop that was more profitable. It's not some evil thing.
Actual old here. For the most part, your takes are spot-on, let me provide some touch-up:
1. Music spread mainly through a. radio, b. tours like freshfest, and c. TAPES. Cassettes & VHS were the circulatory system of music back then, ESPECIALLY hip hop. Some mixes and concert recordings were literal legends, mythic items. If you had a cousin in NYC, and they came for a visit, they inevitably had at least one or two recordings of WBLS or KISS FM shows. Kids would have dubs of dubs. And every place had a record store and if you were lucky, someone in there knew wtf they were doing and would stock 12" records for the DJs and the fans. This is before rap was even an acknowledged category (outside of NY/NJ/LA), so they would typically be sorted in alphabetically with the pop/rock records. So going into a store and coming out with a record by someone you never heard of was a real and common thing - which was why it was important for new artists to signify that (a) rap and (b) here's who I'm down with.
2. The 80s old heads most definitely grumbled about the 90s rap. The term "new jack" started out as derisive before the culture flipped it. And NYC in particular went through a shift as the next up didn't want to rock Fila and dookey gold chains and kangol and considered all of that played out. Conscious rap (or at least the vibe) took over the culture for a hot minute right before NWA blew everything up and NYC hip hop culture stopped steering the culture for the first time ever. Which is the actual roots of the coast beef, because NYC saw the west coast as 1. less lyrically capable 2. fraudulent with the gangster posturing, and 3. crowding out NYC artists. The West Coast did have lyricists though, and many of them stepped up to the lyrical challenge and even the conscious rap challenge and weren't at all on gangster stuff but that's off topic. Point is, generational grumbling has always been a thing, it's just the social media amplifies everything.
And to your point about 90s rappers, yep social media is about engagement so the engagement farmers just roll with what gets most engagement, so 5000 threads about tupac,jayz,biggie,nas.
100% spot on!
I think cassette dubs are the unsung hero of hip hop! I got SO much music from my older cousin, it's how I built my library before I could afford to buy music.
When I think of 80s old heads hating on 90s rappers I think of Melle Mel
"One would buy the CD, the other would do the dubbin'" - Wordsworth
Thank you because as I was watching this I felt that he was missing the mark about how music was spread back in the day even before CDs and I came to make a comment about it but no need you explained that part wonderfully.
Whoever handling FD’s thumbnails/titles lately is having so much fun 😂
Babila maybe?
Honestly.
47-year-old black woman in America here…Big conscious rap fan. Back in the ‘90s I was told my musical preferences were alternative. That said, loved, loved, loved Common, the Roots, OutKast, the Neptunes, LL, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, Black Star (Mos and Talib’s solo projects, as well).I also claim Lupe, and my OG favorite: Pete Rock & CL Smooth. And my guilty pleasure that I don’t usually admit to…MC Brains. Special shout out to Oaktown 3.5.7…and who am I liking now, ladies first: Doechii and Leikeli47; and the usual suspects: Kendrick, J. Cole. Also, didn’t feel it needed mentioning, but obviously, Ñas.
54 yr old blk woman, and I'm with you on all those 90s artists!
Kudos for Pete Rock & CL Smooth + Digable Planets ..you're cool like that
42 yo white guy and agree with that list 🙌🏼 Pete Rock really opened my ears up to the depth of sampling culture, and Digable Planets was the real eye opener to conscious rap for me. Shouts also to Souls of Mischief and the whole Hieroglyphics crew, Pharcyde, Tribe and Camp Lo
@@RoamingHeathen 42 year old white Colombian and I was going to add the Hiero crew. 3rd Eye Vision was the soundtrack to my Junior and Senior year of high school.
"Old FD isn't real he can't hurt you"
Thumbnail old FD:
LMFAOAOOAOAOAOOOO
bro made a whole rap video without mentioning the goat once. This Iggy azalea hate gotta stop
Jokes aside. The way people ignore what Carti has done to Iggy is disgusting. He like the rap version of Brad Pitt.
@@AntwannnnI know almost nothing about those two.. what did he do?
@@johnwerner69He missed the birth of his kid to play playstation with lil uzi
@@5bnc That’s some crazy man child behavior!
@@johnwerner69 he also "allegedly" was abusive to Iggy WHILE she was prego. If being abusive wasn't bad already. Bro tried to get a collateral.
there's a show called hip hop evolution which literally documents hip from the 70's to the late 00's it's really helpful
Love that show and waiting for another season
"Go look at your grandparents and how they were acting in the 80's and 90's. That's them!"
Bruh that killed me 🤣
Old head here. I'm in my mid 40s and you are right, Rakim changed everything, at least from my mainstream, white suburban perspective at that time. I'm sure badass-itude was always respected in the underground, but from my perspective there were a lot of novelty tunes---like Fat Boys rapping about how they were looking for food, Heavy D rapping about being chunky but funky, Kurtis Blow rapping about his phone bill being too high because hey, that's the breaks, etc. Rappers like Rakim and Kool Moe Dee hit the scene and, I gotta tell you, I don't know what it was for me at the time, but it just felt correct. "I Ain't No Joke" came out and things just changed, and they changed forever. This was the new hyper-masculine cool in hip hop, and it kind of still is. If there's anything I miss from the 80s and 90s, and even the 00s, it's the groups of next level rappers getting together and tearing it up. Geto Boys. A Tribe Called Quest. Arrested Development. Jurassic 5. Blackalicious. The Pharcyde. That last one, good God. I've listened to Bizarre Ride II more times than any other hip hop album. Sorry, old habits die hard. The one thing hip hop never discarded, though, was socially conscious rap. The kind of hip hop Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine made are still in the rotation, but now I put it alongside rappers like King Los and Kendrick Lamar in 2024. As far as explicitly LGBT rap goes, I gotta be honest, I didn't hear any of it until Cakes da Killa in the early 2010s, but that's likely because I was out of the loop. Love his music regardless of my general cluelessness as a straight white cis male. Also, just one more note from an old head, I'm also really happy with the direction rap has gone in in the Spanish language. I'm really into artists like Snow Tha Product, Bad Bunny, and Santa Fe Klan. The fact that rap spread to so many other cultures outside of the one that birthed it is a testament to its power. Speaking of which, you are right about white people in rap in the 80s and 90s. The Beastie Boys are foundational in that regard, but if you look at their history they were going to shows and hanging with the great MCs that were around at that time. Yeah, they were still a punk and hardcore band, sure, but a LOT of the rap they were listening to found its way into their music, and absolutely no one questioned it, at least at that time.
Big up Cakes. Pleased to see him mentioned here. Solid flow.
Bizarre Ride II the Pharsyde is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Omg that cover photo. 😂 Those high rank Tekken matches got you going grey early, huh?
Bro BECAME Leroy Smith
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In my experience, early hip hop fans did have a problem with 90s hip hop. My elders would always have something negative to say about the music I listened to growing up. Calling it violent and more raunchy and lacking the five elements, over commercialization, etc.
Exactly this. The response to the rise of Death Row if you were in New York? Venomous.
My uncle used to say the same. But he still listened to Wu lol.
The issue for me its no so much violent lyrics or even raunchy lyrics. Its hows its presented. Is it presented like The Godfather or Mean Streets....artistically? Or is it presented like The Expendables.
what’s meant by the five elements?
@@Indig0u_ 5 elements of hip-hop. breaking, graffiti(my favorite), emceeing, djing and knowledge
sucks to have ppl you know killed over crack and then see little kids bumping music made by slightly older kids telling everybody how rich and powerful they got from selling crack. that’s not dope that’s actually fucked
I'm 27 and Rakim is in my top 3 for all the reasons he's not recognized as much. In 06 when saints row came out I was 11 I thought I ain't No Joke was newer than what it was. His lyricism really did flip the game from the early dance era n set the stage for the 90s
That's fkn awesome! Video games have definitely exposed younger listeners to a lot of great hip hop from the past.
I learned about him from watch dogs 2 he had his song “dont stress the technique” in the trailer and in one of the most memorable missions, i also remember him being in saints row but im not sure if it was 1 or 2, i was like 9 in 2016 and it still really intrigued me at the time and im not gonna pretend like hes one of my top artist or if i lived anywhere close to that era but i still dig some of his stuff especially from the paid in full album and his music really does sound ahead of its time
FD Signifier is so good at presenting information and sharing his thoughts that I would click on a video of him reading the phone book
Honestly me too and I need to know the psychology behind this 😅
As a fellow old head from 83 and with a little more distance from the epicenter being from Amsterdam you forget to mention the importance of the magazines such as the Source. They really helped spread hip hop in a broader sense as a culture. In the late nineties early 2000s they even started to branch out and shed Light on local scenes in France, Germany etc. This was all pre internet/dial up internet era so printed media had way more influence and every edition was like a valuable keepsake you read from beginning to end and back again
True true...
That fucking question about people in the 90s writing on stone tablets HAD ME WEAK
Sorry old man but this shit too funny 😭😭😭
Obviously not tho, bc then the endless pen/sword and rhyme book references and analogies would not make sense. You kids are crazy 🤣🤣🤣
Hilarious..
I think the class gap in content/lyrics is the biggest difference from our era and this one now. Rakim could wear a gold chain and rap about getting paid in full, but showed tons of community and class solidarity. Even if today’s rappers tried to show the same solidarity, it would come across hollow with their constant wealth brags n shit.
And i know there were plenty of rappers who were like that to some degree back in the day, but they were usually rejected. Shit-talked by the best rappers on the regular.
One is performative, the other is real. It's about aesthetic more than ever now imo
And, that's because of the advent of social media. You can see it now.
The difference between underground culture between then and now is that it used to be a localized, in-person lifestyle and event based thing you had to actively participate in, or know someone within willing to share it with you, whereas now it's just clicking the right link, getting the right algorithmic response, or searching the right term.
Right. It's a gift in a sense, because I've found channels of local stuff I missed that happened right under my nose...
For the hardcore scene, finding channels like Hate5six that records small bands all over the states has been an amazing gift for someone like me who isn't tapped into that genre yet. Yeah the underground isn't what I supposed it used to be
Haha! "Crashout" is the first modern slang I've tried to say and legit felt like an imposter trying to pretend to be young 😂.
We use to just call them crash dummies. Crash out for us meant to go to sleep.
If it makes you feel any better, the term "Crash out" comes from Charleston White, who is an old head. The youngsters got it from an old head, so use it all you want.
That's how I feel when I talk to my little sister 😂 if I try and use her slang I feel ridiculous
Hiphop commentary is what made me subscribe.
I was sad when I realized this channel wasn’t that fulltime 😂
It honestly could and should be, even “B sides” implies music
Oldhead Signified
Signified Old Sides
This Older Head really enjoyed and shared this video with my Gen-Z son who walks around the house listening to 80’s and 90’s a Hip Hop. He says he’s not into the new stuff and his former DJ dad and me, who grew up in the South Bronx in the 70’s and 80’ are enjoying sharing music and listening to my son’s hot takes.
It’s the best kind of family bonding ❤
Thanks 🙏🏽
Right, my sons (25 and 19) were raised on boom bap, and in turn, have hipped me to SO much amazing stuff from todaysnera
I only let my sons listen to 50 cent or G-Unit.
@@footballdesk4417 🤣
That's fkn awesome!
@dogsandyoga1743 have they exposed you to Coast Contra yet?
People don't talk about Guru and GangStarr enough.
I love Gangstarr!
@katehartley2333 they were ill, Dj Premier with the beats and Bald head slick with his monotone style lol.
@ItzGOOD95 True!
They ain't got mass appeal and got too much time to play
You're right. RIP Guru ❤
Pharcyde, Souls of Mischief, De La Soul....There were some awesome artists. I could go on and on
Love the Pharcyde.
Love all of them.
A Tribe Called Quest, Arrested Development
Rakim is the nexus event between the Golden Age style of rhyming, aka Run DMC, Fat Boys etc and the modern style aka Nas, Biggie etc.
Sun’s Tirade by Isaiah Rashad and Rodeo by Travis dropped both on the same days and both tapes were pretty big in my school. Closest thing I can remember to a double classic drop in the past ten years
Was going through a signified B sides marathon your video came at a perfect time 😂
Bahamadia’s verse on Roni Size’s “New Forms” is literally an earth shattering shift in 90’s hip hop and dance music.
i still play that hit to this day & tinashe’s sample to it
"How did you discover underground music?" - Honestly, Amazon was a huge gamechanger for me, when they added those 30 second preview (prelisten?) clips of songs, circa 1999 or so.
When all the smoke is cleared with Kdot and Drake I’d love to see some convos with Dead end Hip hop. Old heads uniting would be great convo
Yess man fr we gotta get a vid of them talking before myke is officially gone I feel like they’d have a really dope convo
Here's another Rakim comparison: Benjamin Franklin is the American da Vinci and will be remembered for his versatility and output even if better inventions and better writing and such has happened since. He's historically remembered as part of the foundation and his status resonates for decades.
Rakim is the founding father who was the first mc you'd really need to listen to. Foundational and resonant.
Thank you
never clicked a video notification so fast
YOOOOOOO I honestly didn’t expect you to include my question in the video! Glad you liked it and thanks for answering. Gonna go check out the people you mentioned rn
My dad liked 80s hip hop but hated 90s hip hop, he called it crass and abrasive.
Love you FD! I disagree with so many of your hip hop takes, but it’s always in good fun and the discussion is always really interesting
Edit: Billy woods is my second favorite rapper I can’t believe you’d say such terrible things
FD Signifier, much love and respect to you man. I completely agree with you, I'm 22 and I feel like an old head in terms of hip-hop and my general music takes.
I love Rakim, Pac, Nas, OutKast, Mos Def, Black Thought, Jay-Z, Old Kanye and Kendrick Lamar. It hurts my heart that some of the younfer generation think older hip-hop is trash, wack or they just don't understand it. Your not alone FD, I wish i had friends who were as passionate and enthusiastic about hip-hop music.
Busta Rhymes was another rapper that changed the game because his style was so unique. Keith Murray was a great rapper that neevr made it due to the heavy competition at the time.
One thing I do miss about music before streaming is that, if you connected to a song(s) you heard on the radio or on a (physical) mixtape or burned onto a CD, you would go out and buy the album and listen to the song(s) in the context of the album.
I cannot tell you how many songs are slept on because people are only streaming the one or two songs they know. As someone who is deeply invested in music, I always try to encourage people to listen to the album a song they enjoy comes from because you never know what musical gems are on there.
i do that!! i find songs thru my yt music algorithm and often go to buy the cd so i can really appreciate the entire album. when i'm driving i don't like to have to get distracted so the cd forces me to listen to the entire thing and most of the time i end up loving most of the album :D
I smiled so hard when you were talking about t rock. I want through a hard threesix/project Pat phase in college and stumbled upon his music then. He’s got some classics and definitely deserve more recognition
0:43 Tony funny as hell 😂
Who is that guy? Does he have a channel?
@@sonja4164tony statovci is his name
@@-alyissa-3632 thanks 🙏🏾
80s hip-hop was critical of 90s hip-hop. That's just part of the cultural cycle.
In the 1980s my very white probation officer auntie, took my 14 year old also very white, very nerdy brother to the Too Short/ NWA... ect concert in NEW ORLEANS. That's how new rap and hip hop was in the culture.
BTW they both remember it FONDLY.
FYI
The 90s was the best because that's when UGK got known. In my opinion.
That's wild!
Love that you shouted out Keith Murray! Enigma is still in rotation to this day
This is one of the reasons i like you so much. You are older, BUT not a hypocrite. There's no unjustified "oh back in my day X was better". Anyway, thanks for the takes as always!
So glad to hear Saigon get some love. I remember hearing Believe It in 09 and it changed my life
I've been watching that Tony short the whole day.😂😂😂 I can't get tired of it
Slightly older head and certified 70s-90s hip-hop geek here. Solid video.
I just wanted to add, while not widely known or mainstream, there was a mid to late 90s queer or "homo-hop" movement out here in the Bay. I remember groups like Rainbow Flava and Deep Dickollective making a little noise around that time. Oddly enough, I think the first openly gay artist associate with hop was 1980s electro-pop producer Man Parrish 😂
What a treat of a video. More of this every now and then would be brilliant.
2:37 "If you're lucky you'll end up like me. If you're lucky you'll get to this age."
Growing old is a privilege. Not everyone gets to do it.
"Paid in Full" should be part of the curriculum of all hip-hop fans, the album has held up very well
In Living Color and Arsenio were monumental in promoting hip hop to rural America. Bless Wayans and Hall for this contribution cuz learned of so much music, I was already a fan of the culture but featuring new music really expanded the reach of the genre to middle America
Back in the day I found music by actually buying albums and reading the credits. Within the credits were always gems of up and coming artist and producers who were featured on that project, they usually worked with other similar artist. Magazine reviews were also really helpful.
Shout out to you for giving Saigon and Psycho Drama their flowers. Amazing emcee’s in their own right.
Keep up the great content
so happy you included tony’s tiktok 😭 yall should collab one day!
I appreciate this conversation. More of it, please.
My oldheadness still harkens back to the classic day of September 29, 1998. One of my favorite Tuesdays ever.
Thank you so much for awnsering my question. And this video was very very interresting. I find it fascinating how one genre can evolve so much and jet have so many consistant ellements.
So to add something about the 90s that made it better than most eras that I think that you missed was that:
1. Folks had become creative, not simply because of artist development, but because of mastery of the craft. You had a 10-15 year timespan to really get to know what it took to be an MC, so rappers were becoming more skilled.
2. Beatmaking became much better. We were able to move away from the James Brown loops and "create" sounds. In the south we used live instruments (in production) much more than artists from NYC. We were singing on the hooks more too. We used samples in a much more skilled way, instead of just looping a hot R&B song (well everyone except you know who)
3. Albums were much more diverse. In the 80s you had 8-12 tracks. Which normally included 1 track for the ladies and at least 1 track with your DJ showing off his skills. In the 90s the albums became more conceptual. Artists but more thought and detail into their work.
4. The biggest thing I believe was the diversity of sound. In 94 on a Tuesday in June - Da Brat, House of Pain, Big Mike and Nice and Smooth dropped what would become some of the best work put out by each. Folks were still creating "conscious" music and in fact, the hip-hop community as a whole was leaning in that direction (especially after the Million Man March in 1995).
Well said!
As a younger fan of hip hop, I can definitely attest to the 1 track for the DJs. I remember being surprised listening to those tracks from Public Enemy and Big Daddy Kane xD
Twista never had to leave Chicago to blow up.
And Psychodrama was Yungbuk, Side Kick and Newsense
As the under 25 child of a true oldhead (aged mid-50s), Eric B. & Rakim are definitely my dad's GOATed hip hop act. Much of their music was the soundtrack to my childhood; my dad made "Don't Sweat the Technique" the hype/theme song for me before I competed in sporting events.
T-Rocks guest appearance on Gangsta Boos first album is FIRE.
Listen Fu-Gee-La was bumpin’ Spring ‘96 in NYC. If you had an open window you could listen to the whole song just from cars driving by.
KRS One needs to be mentioned more IMO when talking about conscious rap.
Anyone looking to listen to what it was like back in the day, we are fortunate to have so many resources. The Rocksteady Anniversary jams, dozens of Summer Jam recordings are out there, even a few grainy videos of house parties if you dig a bit.
This is crazy, talking down on 2022.
I was just thinking the other day about how 2022 legit might be the best year in hiphop, of my life.
the forever story, melt my eyez, Mr.morale, kings disease 3, aethiopes, no thank you, god don't make mistakes, backxwash 3rd album, it's almost dry, drill music in Zion, Cheat Codes.
2022 is a glorious year in hiphop.
“How did I discover underground music?” Walking through Crown Heights, hanging in Prospect Park, on the subway, and sharing music with friends.
Also the dude that had that kiosk in the Canal Street A/C station that has recorded house party cassettes and club performances.
I’m not even super into hip hop. Not any more than your average American. But I’m a big fan of you and your brain and so now I’m learning about hip hop just cause I like hearing you talk.
Does not being a fan of billy woods really count as being antagonistic to young rap fans? Cause i learned about billy woods (and came to _love_ his music) from dead end hip hop, who are all old hip hop fans lol
Yeah, billy woods is actually OLDER than FD, which is triple funny to me.
I legit did not get this criticism
I think he js assumed him to be younger because he's associated more with the newer wave of underground hiphop (i.e earl, ka, mike, pink siifu, jpegmafia etc.) than the period he started in
@JGarcia-yr9fx billy just become famous later in his career, I don't get where he went with that.
@@achronos178 yea that's what i meant
i genuenly think the albums Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (2021) and NO THANK YOU (2022), both by Little Simz, are already classics in my heart. im sure time will show that in the heart of many.
this the comment i was lookin for little simz is phenomenal
Fellow old head here. Im 34. I was born in 1989.
I think its important to understand how diverse hip-hop was during the 90s. Which added to its' greatness. A lot of early hip hop was dominated by the East and West coasts. The 90s made way for the South and the Midwest to get mainstream success.
I believe Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt album secured Jay's spot as a leading figure. It went double platinum.
I mostly agree with your takes here.
You're killing me here! '89 is when I graduated from high school! "1989, the number, another summer."
I also think a huge part of what made 90's hip hop different and that sweet spot, was you had a generation of musicians who had now grown up with hip hop already existing. So now that operates as their baseline and from a creative standpoint gives them the courage and ability to think outside of the parameters of what those before them had deemed possible within the genre. I was blessed enough to have a conversation with DMX one time before he passed, and we were talking about the drum machine from which he got his name, and he said that that machine was the moment that changed his life but people younger would never understand the impact of having lived an entire life before hearing those sounds. Like, and this is taking it to a nerdy ass place, there are people who were alive when star wars came out, and that changed them because it was an elevation of film. But for people who have always existed in a world with star wars, that's now the bare minimum. They don't know a world without that being possible. And so their imagination has more building blocks, the same way that someone like Timbaland, who had always known the existence of hip hop has a leg up on someone who has to first imagine that style of music before taking it to its limitations. Each generation starts at a different starting line, but has the opportunity to expand the sound into further regions. Anyway, great video.
2023 was a slow year for hip hop lol. The best 4 hip hop records of that year were Forever Story, Big Steppers, Denzel Curry's Melt My Eyez, and Little Simz's No Thank You. Of those the first three are probably going to be classics (TFS already is and is top 3 hip hop albums of the last 5 years imo), and they came out between the end of August and the middle of December. That sounds good but that was really the only movement in the genre for the whole year
Definitely love the questions and answers style videos on different topics for future videos. This was a lot of fun to watch 👍🏿
Billy Woods is great and also impressive live performer. I can get that his vibe/atmosphere and abstract lyrics are something that is not for everybody. Still for me he is easily top-5 rapper right now
Yo!!! That thumbnail looks exactly like my late father in law. I had to double take 😂
Let’s goooo I made the video😤fr tho thanks for answering my question!
Gen X here, I was listening to TOO Short and Dj Quick when I was in mile school. You right, hip-hop has always been effed up. I can't look my kid in the face and act like I want listening to, and getting into some shit in my day.
Melt My Eyez See Your Future is a album that will withstand time from 2022 I recommend. Denzel Curry is a very thoughtful person and that album was on repeat that whole year
Ye old heads have cometh upon us
All this hip hop talk; when we getting that Tech N9ne video... Because JESUS that man has a body of work
i heard a story that Elton John once walked into a record store in some random part of the midwest and asked if they had any Tech N9ne albums
(When they said they didn't, he ended up buying all of their Scritti Politti records instead lmao)
@@joshthefunkdoc from Tech N9ne to Scritti Politti 😂😂😂😂
That's a hell of a swing! He's a wild man! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
This is so good. I’m 47 & been listening to Hip Hop since 82-84. My co-workers and I tried to come up with a top 50. The age range 24-47. Lordee. We all learned a lot and I had to wrap the project up because it was a lot of suffering on both sides. 😂 Collectively, Rakim didn’t make too 25 - which is when I gave up - BUT I see what you’re saying about how this Gen receive Rakim by telephone. They don’t know, but we’re out here trying to teach. Appreciate this youtube and will be tuning in!
Rakin is THE blueprint fr! still to this day 💯
if you did a video on music 94-96, it would be 8hrs long and straight fire
Exactly 😂
BIGGG UPPS FOR THE PSYCHODRAMA MENTION. Drama in my life with 8ball, magic are required listening. 🚨🚨🚨
2022 was one of the best years ever for hip hop. J.I.D Forever story, Denzel Melt my Eyes, Vince Staples Ramona park, Dot's Mr morale, Black Thought and Madlibs Cheat Codes, Rome Streetz Kiss the ring, Smino Luv 4 rent, Saba few good things, Freddie Gibbs $oul $old $eperatly, Little Simz no thank you, Pusha T it's almost dry, Nas King's disease 3. And so many others that I can't think of off the dome.
I'm 35, I came to Canada when I was 13 I didn't speak English, about a year later in 2002 I heard Rakim for the first time on a track by Truth Hurts called 'Addictive' ft.Rakim. I thought to myself "I don't think I've ever heard anyone flow so smoothly to beat before." I mean yes theres rappers that are smooth but this was different, you almost feel like you have a sixth sense when you listen to him. I learned my English through music.
I'm 26 and just discover Tribe Call Quest and Queen Latifah... it's so good.
Enjoy!
Sometimes I forget FD is a young head compared to my generation, so his takes are a lil different from mine. Conscious rap started way before P.E. and XClan. Conscious rap goes back to the earliest days of hip hop and was one of its first popular genres. Curtis Blow, Melly Mel, Grandmaster Flash all did a version of concious hip hop.
People get older and more conservative but trying to say hip hop isn't more vulgar and hypersexualized now is WILD. Yes there were a handful of raunchy artists and songs but the efforts made to protect kids from those influences were MANY. Now all the guard rails are completely gone. Access is now universal.
The notion of white rappers being more accepted in the 80's and 90's is CRAZY. Go ask Mc Search and Pete Nice if they felt that way. 😂
idk if this thing is gonna do as well as some other stuff you do on this channel, I just wanted to say I still appreciate it a lot and would come back for more
a personal 2022 classic, for me, is learn 2 swim by redveil. dude's only nineteen and he's dropping these jazz rap abstract hip hop landscape paintings of songs. gotta check him out.
Everything changed for me (as an old head ) when , I was at my aunt's apartment and played doggy style while she was gone . I went on to find DJ Quick ,Dog Pound , Death Row, Too short , uncle Luke , 2 to None , etc . Had to hide being raised in the church . The West Coast sound really shaped my taste . 90's rap and R&B was some of the best music ever. Very boot strap on the come up type artist , Before the machine really took over .
Amazing thumbnail
I was gone click anyway but the thumbnail made me do it with a smile 😂
Great Rakim take for someone not being there. Rakim was the 1st Nas and is pretty much every rapper's favorite rapper. Swagger still on 1Mil!
Talking about the grimy rap (and regional/local rap) from back in the day- I think your brain was trying to refer to Kilo Ali's 'Love in ya mouth'- early Dungeon Family rapper that anyone who was in the skating rinks in Atlanta in the late 90's early 00's knows that song.
7:30 I couldn't agree more about new rap not being any more offensive than older stuff. Black Sheep released U Mean I'm Not in 1991. I've since read that its lyrics were intended as parody, but it's so over the top it surpasses Frank Zappa territory.
When I played that 2nd track to my stoner friends "U Mean I'm Not" back in the day, they didn't know what to think. Oh my God I LOVE that freaking album.
Thanks for this. I haven’t come to terms with being ‘old,’ as far as my outlook;, we were booking bands, helping them load in and out, wheatpasting flyers all night long, and being the Y in the DIY punk rock underground not that long ago. I try to tell my clients, who are legal to be tattooed if they were born in 2006, FFS, that they can start a band, they can write lyrics, they can host on college radio, they can shake shit up, and they just look at me like I’ve got five heads and am just a lying idiot. It’s so bizarre that everything Indy bands screamed about into microphones warning people about the dangers of the corporate media strip mining of the arts and creativity all came to pass, and way too many people seem cool with it.
I had the opportunity to see The Sugarhill Gang, MC Sha-Rock, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five during their 50th anniversary tour, and they know how to put on a damn show. It's almost impossible to compare because of the different skillsets the generations have, where old MCs almost felt like entertainers first and foremost
I'm bitter that a poseur like Drake has been allowed to steal hip-hop.
yuuuppppp
Side note but this is why Beyonce really is one of the GOATs. She puts efforts into making albums as if they are fully realized concepts like the 90s