As a lover of music from all eras, I like bugging out on those stripped-down samples, the sometimes-simple rhyme schemes, heavy-handed scratches by the DJs, etc. I like the James Brown 2-bar loops.

But the RAWNESS of the music has quite a bit to do with my appreciation. They were doing the best they could with what they had. For some reason, that stays in the back of my mind even though I would pit a LOT of it against rap from all eras. Rakim WAS that good...not just "good for his time." But knowing the context is a really nice bonus.

Meanwhile, my fiancee likes to remind me about how "simple" a lot of that shit sounds to her. She likes a ton of 90's/00's rap, and she said it's because the samples are more melodic. There's just more going on. Considering she's not a hardcore hip-hop head like most of us (on OKP), that rationale sounds perfectly acceptable to me.

In any case, I know that a good portion of the 80's R&B/rap that I bump would seem "dated" to the casual music fan, but that hasn't stopped me from playing it at home AND at parties.