"Live From the Writer's Bench - Hip Hop What It's" Sun Mar-15-15 05:44 PM by Kil
Growing up one of my fav comics was Marvel's "what if'" series. You had comics like what if Dr. Doom Was Part of The Fantastic Four? What if Aunt May Died Instead of Uncle Ben? And what if the X Men Died on Their First Mission?" So, this week we're chopping it up about hip hop what if's...some of em are true and some are just topics that we thought were ill. Some of them are true what if' like what if MC Shan was on the Symphony...is it still the best posse cut and what if LL uses the Mardi Gras break for "Rock the Bells" before Run and 'em use it for Peter Piper? And some of the jawns we made up are questions I've really heard cats say like what if Pete Rock didn't make Reminisce, is he still a top 5 producer & is Mecca & The Soul Brother still a hip hop classic? (you can guess that Grap had A LOT to say about that one) and what if KRS One lost to MC Shan in the Bridge Wars is he STILL the Blastmaster that we know and love?
So check us out but my 3 questions for ya'll are...what if Large Pro produced the entire Illmatic...is it still the classic album we know it to be? What if Tupac had never been shot at Quad studios so he had no beef with BIg & Puff, do we still get an east coast/west coast war and what if Rakim battled Big Daddy Kane in '88 on stage and on wax...who wins?
1. "RE: Live From the Writer's Bench - Hip Hop What It's" In response to Reply # 0
Never knew anything about the Shan supposed to being on the Symphony or about LL supposed to be using the Mardi Gras breakso good looking for schooling me on that. For me, if Large Pro produced Illmatic it wouldn't have been the same. I think it would've still been dope just not illmatic. I think if Pac wasn't shot there wouldn't have been an east coast/west coast beef like that and I agree that Kane would've gotten Rakim both on stage and on wax.
3. "RE: Live From the Writer's Bench - Hip Hop What It's" In response to Reply # 0
If TROY wasn't created...
I don't feel like it would have changed the album's status as Classic. To me, if it never existed, we would never had heard it so we wouldn't be missing anything. At that point, we are looking at the rest of the album. STILL DOPE!
If I were to tell you that there was a song that was not included on Illmatic. And I was the only one to hear it and that it was 10 times better than anything that was included on Illmatic, none of you would stop thinking that Illmatic as you know it, is a classic.
Same premise with whether or not Pete would be GOAT status.
If Extra P did all of Illmatic... I say no. It would not be the classic that it is.
My reason is mainly because much of the mystique also surrounds the idea that so many beloved hiphop producers were involved. Also, it is possible that Extra P could have made a classic but it is also quite possible that he would have made something less cohesive than what Illmatic was.
I just don’t see Extra P making a “The World is Yours” or a “New York State of Mind” or even a “Lifes a B”. I don’t think Extra P would have provided the versatility that we got with the multiple producers. It still would have been dope though.
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