On my car ride home from work yesterday I flip on the radio and they're playing Common's "Sixth Sense." Like everyone else, I love that joint. Then after the song, the host comes on talking about how Common played Soundset and it's great to see "old school" acts at the festival doing their thing and whoopty-woo.

But, I can't accept Common as old school. I know his first album came out 24 years ago. He's been in the game for a long ass time now, but, I also refuse to put him in the same category that I put Kurtis Blow in. He does not belong lumped in with Sugar Hill Gang, or even Kane. That's old school to me. Common certainly ain't new, but this dichotomy between new school and old school just doesn't work for me. At what point does any artist even transition into being "old school." When does Jay-Z become "old school"? Kanye? J. Cole?

Basically, we need some new categories.

I'm the only one that feels this way?

if it was your shit in high school its old school.

if you graduated in 2010 then the music of that time is old school.

which is basically ignoring history or historical eras in order to just separate what's hot right now from everything else.

Like if I'm talking to someone and they say they like "old school hip hop" the only thing they're really saying is that they don't like music from 2009-2016. They could be saying they like Beanie Sigel or that they like Run DMC.

>I'm the only one that feels this way?

I'm not sure how old you are but 24 years is a long ass time, especially within the realm of hip-hop. And hip-hop "generations" (for lack of a better term) are notoriously short. It makes me grow several more gray hairs, when I hear people say it. But that's definitely old school to the younger generation of today.

Folks who are nearly 30 probably don't remember that song from when it dropped.

And I'm 30. I remember when that song came out.
My point is that "old school" is too all encompassing. So much so that it almost doesn't mean anything at all. Basically just that it hasn't been "hot" in the mainstream for 5+ years.

That kinda dichotomy just isn't useful for anything that's more than a decade old. And like you said, the generations in hip-hop move very fast making "old school" even more useless.

was considered "old school"....

Welcome to your 30's fam.



"Get ready....for your blessing....."

I think you see "old school" as being a set & specific era. Let's say 1980-1986 is your "old school" era. So you don't like when the younger generations refer to Common, Wu-Tang, Snoop, etc as old school. It's like this era deserves its own specific name.

Is that kinda what you mean?

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

I was HEATED!!!

The DJ said he was going to throw some old school on, he played "In Da Club" as the first song.

no. just no.

Old School is early 80's rap for old heads.

but for a 15 year old In Da Club is their Old School.

shit hurts my soul tho when I hear them say old school mix and it's shit from 7 years ago.

I got "Get rich or Die Trying" on CD from Columbia House (or maybe BMG) for my girl when we started dating.

I'm finna go do some work.


yall wildin

I didn't know anyone was fucking with them after like '96.

I used it from maybe 2000-2004. And this was around the time when digital music was really taking off. I just never imagined that I'd ever stop using CDs.

.

You literally just copped an All City Crew cd and a tape adapter for your DiscMan because you refuse to upgrade that car stereo to that fancy newfangled digital display.

http://www.brucesallan.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Becker-Car-Stereo.jpg

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

No one really says "old school rock". It's "classic Rock", prestigious and required listening. "Old school hip hop & R&B" invokes images of washed Unsung artists still trying to hold on to relevance.

My mom showed me a FB video where this kid had no idea why her mom was grooving so hard to "I Wanna Be Your Lover".

Especially as the genre ages.

Old School doesn't work. I think we should use something like Classic Hip Hop which can encompass RUN DMC and Wu Tang, but only the really classic stuff. Aside from that we can call them by numerical generations like Transformers. G1 is Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, Cold Crush. G2 is Run DMC, LL, Whodini. G3 is Big Daddy Kane, Kool G, Ice T, EPMD, NWA (Aka the beginning of the Golden Age).

Maybe that works?

I'd love to see that actually written out up to the current generation!
We'd have to be on like G10 now, right?

1993 - 24 = 1969.
I guarantee you that ANY song that was played on the radio from 1969 would have been considered "old school".
Hell...even though Stevie Wonder was still making hits in the 90's he was Old School....



"Get ready....for your blessing....."

From an artist who's popularity peaked 11 years ago.

But my point isn't that Common isn't a vet or that his music is hot right now or anything like that.
Just that if he's old school, what do we call Grandmaster Caz? How can we put the two of them in the same box?

as much as how far the art form & sound has progressed beyond the lane that the artist started in. ... it's even MORE pronounced if the artist has maintained that lane.... Common is unique though, he's one of the FEW from that era that STILL has bars and can STILL get new fans... So i'll give you that he shouldn't be lumped with that "old school" crowd.

Maybe there should be terms for those that have kept themselves relevant?

>From an artist who's popularity peaked 11 years ago.
>
>But my point isn't that Common isn't a vet or that his music
>is hot right now or anything like that.

Nah, I feel you on that. I wasn't taking it that way....

>Just that if he's old school, what do we call Grandmaster Caz?

OLD... lol... nah, he's Pioneer Status. .... but still Old School. Or probably would be in the Years catagory really. Kinda like other genres just get categorized by the years once they aren't "current"... 90's Rock, 80's R&B, 60's Soul, etc.....

>How can we put the two of them in the came box?


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Over "old school" vs "new school"
It's just not a useful classification.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

because early 90s sounds NOTHING like late 90s, which in fact seems to group more easily with 00s.

Decade labels are cool when you wanna look back and remember where you were when something dropped. But they're not helpful in classifying the music in a useful manner for history's sake.

Old school is subjective, but "golden era hip hop" isnt.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

in my head "old school" kind of runs to "it's tricky," but everyone has their own definition.

my girl and I like a range of music

and the question was...what happens when you have kids and you like music that qualifies as "old school" to you but then also liking music thats even considered "old school" to your parents and even grand parents?

I was doing a party, and the girl throwing it asked me to play "Oldies".....to me, "Oldies" = 60's Lowrider music, maybe even Motown. But then she mentioned 80's acts like Loose Ends and Roger & Zapp, and I'm like.....that's "Old School" but not "Oldies."

To me, "Oldies" are the 60's. "Old School" is 70's and 80's, Rap, Funk, Soul. The 90's are...90's. The connotation of "Old School" just doesn't match the 90's, Soundwise or even style/culturally.

the 60's "Oldies." I feel like the term "Old School" in reference to music probably wasn't even used in the 60's.

Or talking about how things ain't like they used to be?

On the surface it might look like this is about my age, but it's not. It's about a near useless classification that we hold on to.

Again if Common is old school, what is Sugar Hill Gang? Does it make sense to you to put them in the same category?

and the way you framed it was in direct relation to what old school is to *you*. Like... verbatim.

This is absolutely about you getting older because "old school" is always relative to the generation at hand.

You ask if it makes sense to classify Common the same way we classify SHG and that framing only makes sense to people our age, but to a 19 year old that's ALL old school.

Your OP header was "I can't take this old school shit" which is very much a statement of someone who is getting older and unhappy with the fact that the things they came up on are now considered old school.

The name you choose to refer to an MC from the 90's or 00's is 100% arbitrary so yeah, it makes sense to refer to Common as old school whether or not he "feels" or "seems" "old school" according to my frame of reference because he's old as a motherfucker and I've been listening to him for half my life.

No matter how you frame it this is absolutely about your age in relation to ever changing world around you.

Whatever you say.

I had a respectful conversation with you on the topic and you respond with this little tantrum?

You're going downhill fast old man. Today it's being mad that someone called Common old school. A year from now you'll be shitting your pants and being mad that your lime Jello didn't have the fruit cocktail and whipped cream the way you like it.

that's on you.
I'm just not interested in interacting with you anymore.

Your lower lip is curled downward as we speak, grandpa.

Seems like a lack of fiber. I recommend some old school shredded wheat, not this new fangled frosted stuff.

Or some oat bran.

I am too - you have to let it go bro.

When I was in High School in 1986 and they played a song by someone who started their career in 1964 I thought it was super old school. The Beatles had broken up in 1970 and they were ANCIENT to me.

I recommend checking in with your physician to get a handle on things early.

Like 1979 - 1983 is old school

Run DMC is "new school"

From Eric B and Rakin to Wu-Tang is "Golden era."

Say 1994 - 2001 is "Classic Hop Hop"

2001-2015 is contemporaneity hip hop.

2015-2016 is NEW music..

The did this in the 80's - they had radio stations that played decades - not music types. We had 70's, 60's, 50's AND 40's. As time went on 40's dis-aapeared. Then 50's and 60's melded into one. Then 80's became a thing. The Classic rock replaces 70's, 60's, and 50's.

Enjoy the music you like and KIM when some radio DJ is blathering on - they we'rent shit when we were kids and they ain't shit now.

really broke my heart.

I'm old. It hurts, but eventually you get over it.

Yeah, I got that. But it's still about age. The 'Old School' label will change depending on how old you are. I went out with some young friends and the DJ put on what they thought was OLD School and it was SWV. Shit I heard in my early 20s. That's not old school to me, but its' old school to them. My old School is Parliament Funkadelic, EWF, CAMEO, etc.

It's age.

like kday in LA plays all old hip hop
but they don't distinguish between 80s/90s/early 00s really
i think as time goes on, if the market diversifies in a way where stations see interest that might happen
but since a lotta ppl don't listen to the radio anymore rap might not get the classic rock treatment

-----
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. (c) HL Mencken or some other motherfucker.

We just old.

dope but defintely old school

im 30 so when that song was out
i was maybe 8 or 9

yeah that old school

to ME

but i guess depending on your age...no fuck it, its still old school

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I hate to play the "back in my day" card, but, you know, back in my day, "old school" was everything that came before Run-DMC. And that made sense. Run-DMC is a good point to draw the line: Pre hip-hop album era and album era.

That doesn't do a lot for the subsequent 30+ years though. I guess you could wrap up the rest of the '80s and the first half of the '90s as "classic hip-hop," but I don't know how to divvy up the next 20 years.

"New School" song by the illustrious historians of the world famous mind squad

We old...

Dunno what to call it though.. no one does.. I mean LA will have a Classic West Coast show with The Game and Ice Cube as headliners...

In the late 80s/early 90s, alotta 70s music
was considered "ol skool"...
So how in the hell is a 20+ yr old song
not old school today? This isn't a new
phenomenon.
Unless you've always hated the "old school"
tag, I don't see why this would start now,
unless people in here are right about you
just not dealing well with aging.

also...

>I also refuse to put him in the same category
>that I put Kurtis Blow in. He does not belong
>lumped in with Sugar Hill Gang, or even Kane.
>That's old school to me

Those artists are also old school, just like
Sam Cooke and Rick James are both old school
despite being about 20 yrs apart in prime.
The "old school" tag is just fresher on one
of them.

when I entered college and I started hearing folks say things like "I like old school rap, you know, like Biggie and 2Pac"

This post was just spurred by the most recent example given in the op.

It has been brought up before... http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12556001&mesg_id=12556001&listing_type=search#12558971

However, people just want to make it into a "you are getting old"-thing rather than a genre/sound classification thing so whatever...