>From its inception, hip-hop was pitched as ‘Jazz 2.0′.
>It was the second American art-form that spoke politically and
>relevantly of a generation that was lost, in a way that the
>lost generation could relate to. Only unlike jazz it was ready
>accessible. You didn’t have to ‘look between the lines’, the
>lines were right in front of you and felt like nothing else.
>Ready To Die changed everything. Hip-hop soon fucked off the
>lessons it was supposed to be teaching and became pop music.

Sure, some rap attempted to teach lessons, but just as much of it had no interest in heavier matters. Much of the more "political" and message-laden music tapered off before Biggie's album dropped. And I'd argue the turn to pop started with 'The Chronic' and SoundScan.


>Released in 1994, it signalled the true end for the ‘golden
>age’ of hip-hop music. Record companies dropped scores of
>talented artists who didn’t fit into the Diddy-isation of what
>rap had to be and, sure, there were exceptions (Eminem, early
>Jay-Z) but they served more as notable exceptions which only
>underlined the lack of quality hip-hop music that attained
>commercial and critical success.

I disagree with Jay-Z (early or not) being an exception. He fit right in with what the prototypical rapper was to be post-'Ready To Die'.


>With Illmatic, he had what many touted as a new
>landmark in modern music but on losing out to BIG at the
>Billboard Awards in 1995, many attendants noted Nas looked
>defeated and visibly deflated. It was his time to achieve the
>commercial greatness that the album deserved but in the end it
>had been overlooked by Bad Boy’s influence on pop culture.
>Illmatic was tighter than Ready To Die – thematically,
>lyrically – but was eventually destined to fail in comparison;
>ultimately lacking the crossover appeal of its rival.

This reads a lot like Questlove's retelling of what he observed at the infamous 1995 Source Awards. Did the writer get his stories crossed, or did a similar loss occur at the Billboard Awards?




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