3014484, RE: race and class play a role here
Posted by obsidianchrysalis, Sat Mar-09-19 07:14 PM
>this is part of the reason the late 90s SUCKED so bad for hip
>hop... go back to 88-94 and you have everyone more on the
>same page when it came to what was dope and what was garbage..
> When the DJ put on "come clean" the dancefloor went nuts.. it
>wasn't some backpacker shit, it was the STANDARD DOPE SHIT.
>
>Fast Forward to 97/98 and like you said, people liked the
>"jiggy" shit OR the backpacker shit. Shortly after that,
>everyone lost their identity when clear channel started
>playing national playlists on radio stations instead of the
>local shit.. and thats how hip hop fell apart and got wack to
>a lot of people.
>
Whole-heartedly agree.
There just wasn't balance both generally in hip-hop and even in the music made by each artist by the late 90's.
It wasn't uncommon in the mid nineties to have more 'backpack' rap to have danceable songs (De La with A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturday) and even gangsta rap to have the 'Lil Ghetto Boy' reflective, cautionary track on each album.
But Ready to Die, even though on paper was really balanced, was a line in the sand regarding someone's tastes. I guess the album was so well done that even though Biggie's performance on the album was legendary there were people (including myself) who distanced myself from the music because Biggie was so unapologetically jiggy.
He had no interest in repping the culture of hip-hop for the sake of supporting the culture. He used his skills as a way to make money for himself. And at that time, hip-hop as a culture wasn't mature to either self-police or accept and roll with Biggie's bold statement to reject the modesty a lot of hip hop artists had about their role in the culture.
Like you said by the time the late 90's rolled around, few artists were able to break through solely by repping more old-school ideals. Acts like Jay and Big and 2Pac had no interest in putting on the overground acts like The Roots and Common and Mos, not that they were even looking to make an effort to appeal to the mainstream.
And that generation was still more integrated than the early Aughts.
#canitallbesosimplethen
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