>commercial radio has never, ever been a friend of rap. it
>didn't play any in the 80s, except for ghettoizing it in
>saturday mixshows. in the 90s, they played mostly snoop, dre,
>biggie, puff, foxy. the idea that it was once some proponent
>of glorious temple of hiphop purity is pure romanticism.

Huh?

I don't think this is about purity...It's the point that when popular acts like Biggie, Puffy, Foxy, and Dre & Snoop were ruling the airwaves, it was still OK for radio to play KRS-ONE ("MC's Act Like They Don't Know" was getting impressive run for a so-called, hardcore hip-hop veteran act)...Also getting play during that early 90's era was A Tribe Called Quest, Redman, and Pharcyde as did the likes of Mos Def later on in the decade...Hell, even a commercial act like Cypress Hill (more on them later) was pretty fucking weird and out there...

It was all about balance, not purity......

And what balance do we have now? Not as much as in the past....

For every Kanye or Kendrick Lamar there's an army of 2 Chainz...The crazy part is, we need the 2 Chainz of the world to keep hip-hop fun...

But I miss the balance of being able to hear Snoop, Lil Kim, and then a Pharcyde and MC Hammer...