I had every Rawkus album there was as well as all the Slum Village, Common, Roots, Dilated albums and all that. Everything was Beat Junkies and Lyricist Lounge and Wake Up Show and Co Flow and Lootpack and all that shit.

I was all rah-rah backpacker, b-boy for life, four elements, KRS One is god, motherfuck radio, all that. I was a full blown card carrying backpacker and still revere those albums in a big way. I see them as on par with the output of any era.

I say all this to say: I understand completely. I championed those messages and sounds. While I completely understand the temperature of the era and the driving factors behind such a concerted effort to counter-balance the shifting landscape, I can now look back objectively with greater personal and musical maturity. I appreciate them for the snapshots they were for what they were and what they represented in that timeframe but I also see some of the shortcomings and view those albums with a more critical eye than I was willing to cast at the time.

To that end, my critique isn’t rooted in trying to knock TOT or anything else from the time down a peg, but simply in listening with an entirely new perspective on pretty much everything those albums spoke about. I think it’s important to keep the circumstances that lead to the creation of those albums in mind, but I also think I’d be a seriously stunted individual if the way I related to things at 35 didn’t change from the way I related to them in my late teens and early twenties.

I’ll tackle your other response in a bit. I’m enjoying this discussion lol.