1. Thought Rampage the Last Boy Scout was NEXT. He wasn't.

2. Thought Public Enemy's and the Bomb Squad's music would be more influential on acts following their run.

3. Didn't think Jay-Z was all that. Didn't think he would have near the run that he's had.

4. Thought The Fugees would have reunited by now.

5. Thought Jay Elect was NEXT.

6. Didn't see Snoop having the career he's had. He went from a mildly disappointing career arc with Death Row after Dre left continuing to his first album with No Limit to a really good run on his own.

7. Didn't predict that The Tonight Show would be the means The Roots would blow into the mainstream and that they would do it while keeping true to their essence.

I figured that they would realize after all the dumb and useless beef that there was money to be made and have another go....instead 50,Buck & Banks musically died and Game makes records that no one even talks about (his new one isn't bad either).

....like Lloyd Banks actually retired?!? That's crazy to me.

Oh, and I thought Pete Rock & CL Smooth would make another album....and that De La Soul's AOI 3 (on some DJ Shit) would actually come out.

People that I thought would get bigger than they are.

Purity Ring
Mickey Factz
Cory Gunz (he STILL doesn't have an album after all these years)

>I figured that they would realize after all the dumb and
>useless beef that there was money to be made and have another
>go....instead 50,Buck & Banks musically died and Game makes
>records that no one even talks about (his new one isn't bad
>either).
>
>....like Lloyd Banks actually retired?!? That's crazy to me.
>
>Oh, and I thought Pete Rock & CL Smooth would make another
>album....and that De La Soul's AOI 3 (on some DJ Shit) would
>actually come out.
>
>People that I thought would get bigger than they are.
>
>Purity Ring
>Mickey Factz
>Cory Gunz (he STILL doesn't have an album after all these
>years)


I guess 50's getting TV money so he isn't sweating his music career. But I wonder if he would have swallowed his pride and made up with The Game after the Curtis album, if The Game could have sparked the G-Unit comeback you mentioned. By now the moment has passed.

You are right about Game tho. He's had a longer, and consistent, run than I would have guessed. The last record worked for me.

I wonder if Premier releasing the new GangStarr album makes Pete and CL interested in making a new record while they're both able to.

Do you think De La decided to halt the release of AOI:3 after Bionix wasn't well-received?

>Do you think De La decided to halt the release of AOI:3 after
>Bionix wasn't well-received?

That's just an educated guess. I'm sure Bionix not selling or being received well only compounded the issues, too.

>and that De La Soul's AOI 3 (on some DJ Shit) would
>actually come out.

Cause damn they were hyped as FUCK up in here.

Jay Elect too.

And Triple P.
______________________________________________________________________________

"To Each His Reach"

but.....

Fuck aliens.

*************************************

Fuck aliens

-Warriorpoet415

#2dopebrothersandastackofwax

https://www.instagram.com/bobgeorge87

https://www.instagram.com/thirtythree.three/

(their G.O.O.D. Music album)

It got finished too, SMH

1. Another Sade album and tour would have happened by now.

2. The Reflection Eternal sophomore effort would be good and have been followed up by now.

3. Another Black Star album would be out by now.

4. Thought Curren$y was gonna Blow. Like way bigger.

5. Lady Gaga was a passing fad.

6. Basic Black would be as big as Guy.
______________________________________________________________________________

"To Each His Reach"

but.....

Fuck aliens.

>2. The Reflection Eternal sophomore effort would be good and
>have been followed up by now.

Train of Thought is my favorite album of all time (any genre) so the follow-up, a decade later, was set up for disappointment before it was even announced.

But it ended up being even worse than my impossible expectations could've anticipated. The beats were bland as fuck. Too bad too, cause Kwe was spitting on that album and deserved better. He/those lyrics deserved the type of nuanced bangers HiTek laced him with the first time around.

I recognize that it's difficult to replicate the perfect storm of that first album, tho. They were both young, hungry, raw, UBER-talented, unheralded/underground, fledgling artists with a lot to say and wanting so badly to prove themselves. Plus they had the backing of the biggest indie hip-hop label in the country at that point, and plenty of backing from other MCs/artists/cultural fixtures of the time (Chappelle, etc.) who were at their disposal, so it all just fell into place at the absolute perfect time leading to a timeless, classic, flawless album. And by the time of the 2nd album they both had their own individual careers, I believe they were both running labels or at the very least managing other artists, obviously weren't together under one roof like they probably were for much of the time during the recording of the first album, etc.

So with all those new factors in place, in fairness there was really no way they'd ever be able to get even close to recreating that kind of once-in-a-lifetime magic. And I knew they wouldn't. But I hoped against hope that they'd still be able to recapture *some* of that old chemistry, even after all that time, just based on how effortless it seemed to be to them in the early days with their collaborations on BlackStar, Train of Thought, and all their white labels/b-sides/Rawkus mixtapes and whatever else. They were batting a thousand before RPM came out.

That isn't to say that the album is terrible or lacking a single good moment, it definitely had a few. But IMO "In This World" was really the only song that rose to the level of quality they'd mastered previously. But otherwise, by and large it seemed like HiTek had fallen under Dre's spell and his beats were bare and sparse, with too much empty space and not nearly enough rhythm.

Oh well. Now that we're on the subject I wonder if they've gone a decade without speaking to eachother like they did the after the first album lol. Maybe it wasn't a decade but it was multiple years if I recall correctly.

In fact, is HiTek even producing at all at this point ?

Well articulated and on point...TOT is one of my all time fav LP's...after hearing "Just Begun", I thought the second LP would be another classic. Not so...

>Well articulated and on point...TOT is one of my all time fav
>LP's...after hearing "Just Begun", I thought the second LP
>would be another classic. Not so...

Outside of that I know there were a couple songs that I was cool with, but I honestly can't even think of any off the top of my head and would have to go look up the tracklist to see if even *that* would remind me of what was good on that album.

Too bad.

Thats a great RE song IMO. Kweli is flowing on it too.


Hi-Tek in general ended up being a let down.


I think my biggest Ls would be Hi-Tek, Jay Electronica, and fucking Kanye. And yes, his full name at this point is "fucking Kanye"


Oh and Last Emp.

>In fact, is HiTek even producing at all at this point ?

He is. Including one of Anderson .Paak's signature songs: https://youtu.be/-OqrcUvrbRY

>1. Thought Rampage the Last Boy Scout was NEXT. He wasn't.

1. I thought the same about Lord Have Mercy.

2. I thought Cru would be the next big group to drop multiple great LPs. Never heard from these dudes again after Diamond's Hiatus remix.

3. I thought the Outsiderz or at least Young Zee and/or Pace Won would go on to drop classic albums. Zee's LP shelved then sparingly dropped random independent 12" for a few years. Rah Digga ended up with a career

4. I thought Cage would blow up. Nope, a corny rapper named M&M did instead

5. I thought Canibus would drop classics for years to come. LOL

6. Thought Pete & CL would eventually drop a new album after the break up.. Nope

7. I thought another classic Black Moon LP would drop by 1995ish. Never happened till 97ish? And it wasnt that good.

8. I thought Last Emperor was the next big MC to blow up. Dre killed his career probably.

9.. I thought Stretch & Bob would be the gatekeepers of quality hip hop even after 1999. They basically retired from hip hop.

10. I thought Hot97 was going to be a hip hop only station but then they sold out a year later..

>8. I thought Last Emperor was the next big MC to blow up.
>Dre killed his career probably.
>

According to The Last Emperor, a corny emcee by the name of M&M came around and then Dre was like "The Last Who??? Never heard of him"

1. RZA would continue to produce undeniable banger after undeniable banger
2. Outkast would have a much more sonic and lyrical influence over popular southern Hip-Hop
3. J*Davey would breakthrough to the mainstream
4. Jay Electronica would have an album out produced by Just Blaze

On point concerning RZA...of course he has legendary work, but for the last 15 plus years, he is one of the biggest Hip Hop disappointments imo...and that album he did with rock dude, super weak...

But I look at tobe nwigwe, Earthgang and Add-2 and I think Outkast has a huge lasting influence on alternative southern hip-hop.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

If anyone hasn't checked West Side 96 part 2, please do so now.

I won't pretend to be an expert on southern hip hop, but Lute gives me Kast vibes from a production standpoint. More ATLiens than their more experimental stuff, but still. And he is extremely dope.

Shame that their major label record never came out....they were so ahead of the curve. Hopefully someone gets Jack Davey & Syd in the same studio one day, I'm sure they'd make magic.

That whole "new west movement" should've been bigger (J*Davey,Pac Div,Blu,Dom Kennedy,Casey Veggies, etc...) and the labels fumbled them ALL.

Crazy.

As for OutKast/DF, it's interesting that artists never tried to take it to another level in terms of the music and songwriting, and the south as a whole went "yeah, they legends and great.......but we gonna keep making songs for the trap & strip clubs".

Like DF wasn't some sound that couldn't be elevated or made any better to fit with the time (like how Hip-Hop got had to go around Rakim for example) but no one accepted the challenge.

Their sound was fucking innovative AND accessible.

Hopefully, they have a delayed resurgence this decade or next on some Shuggie Otis-esque shit.

They broke up! I did a post about this but it didn't get much attention. Perhaps they will reunite one day or drop some unreleased gems.

Never looked it at like that. But it's real: for all their commercial and critical success, their music and/or aesthetic didn't influence much of the hip hop--regardless of genre--that was released in its wake.

Heck, Gucci Mane, alone, has more musical influence in ATL hip hop than 'Kast do.

Perhaps OutKast were too brilliant and singular to truly emulate?

I always thought he was a better lyricist, from a technical perspective, and had a similar charisma even if he was about a trillion levels below Snoop's charisma (since everyone was).

But when Doggfather dropped and was a disappointment (and lacked the same level of charisma that made Snoop Snoop), compared against Kurupt's performances on The Chronic, Doggystyle, Dogg Food, and all the soundtrack/b-side/stray tracks, etc. he did in between, I made the declaration to my rap-loving friends. I still loved Snoop I just thought maybe Kurupt would ultimately, when all was said and done, have the better career overall.

They thought I was nuts.

They were correct.

As you said, Snoop was the star but Kurupt's flow and intensity were amazing to listen to at that time. He killed all of his features and was an MC I would be excited to listen to.

I couldn't see him as big of a phenomenon as Snoop, but if you told me he'd be something like Warren G or Xzibit or a bit bigger I'd believe you.

On Dogg Food, he started changing his flow but he still had some great moments - A Doggz Day Afternoon, So Much Style, Do What I Feel.

But when he left Death Row, he switched to a more traditional East Coast flow and whatever magic he had to me vanished. From what I know, LA folks swear by Kurupt's later phase of his career because he repped them hard, but the 'new' style just didn't grab my attention like his old one.

But out of the early Death Row artists, his career is more of a headscratcher than any of them, even though he had some success.

Like you said, every time you heard him in the Death Row days you knew you were in for a lyrical skewering.

I love a good chunk of his albums after Dogg Food, but he clearly wasn't as lethal as time went on. It was as if he forgot how to flow and attack beats. His rhymes went from wordy and prolific to slow and simplistic as fuck.

Again, he dropped a ton of music I loved through the years. But he was never the same lyrically - at least in terms of consistency - as he was early on. He'd show flashes of his old self but never reached that same level of tenacity.


>But when he left Death Row, he switched to a more traditional
>East Coast flow and whatever magic he had to me vanished. From
>what I know, LA folks swear by Kurupt's later phase of his
>career because he repped them hard, but the 'new' style just
>didn't grab my attention like his old one.
>
>But out of the early Death Row artists, his career is more of
>a headscratcher than any of them, even though he had some
>success.

and lost their rapping ability.

However, I liked 2010s Prodigy. He killed "Albert Einstein."

his verse "I dont drink no fuckin VSOP/I drink a muthafuckin OG Old E" and laughed to myself.

Jack White reissued their music on his Third Man label, but....

I thought they would go further within the music landscape as far as a "rediscovery" is concerned.

but....

I suppose if the public never really "rediscovered" the Replacements, then I shouldn't have expected too much about a JF*E "rediscovery"

Maybe not Kendrick level, but I thought he’d be at the level that a J. Cole is at. Never happened.

It's interesting that he's had some down cycles. Like the early Aftermath years until Em. And then from 50 until Kendrick is a good eight years.

And while his stamp has been great for the MC's who've worked with him, none of the producers he's worked with made a name for themselves outside of Dre's camp.

He's still probably the most influential person in hip-hop from the Golden Era until now (if you include Kendrick and .Paak) but no one makes hits all the time, I suppose.

that shit was soo underrated

Just Blaze as his producer, Jigga on the "Come On Baby" remix

especially the sig

I thought Cee-Lo would blow when he went solo. And I never would’ve guessed that he would’ve went back to Goodie just to destroy it officially. Still love Little Black Book and Fool For You tho!

I thought Pharrell’s solo debut would conquer earth. It didn’t happen until a decade later with friggin Happy from Despicable Me.

I thought Kast was gonna eventually get back together and at least scrounge up an EP together.

I thought Curren$y and International Jones style Fiend were gonna blow up. Stalley on MMG too.

I thought YOLO was gonna come out. Drake and Ross released so much stuff. I thought it was a no brainer. Oops.

I thought Kanye somewhat clearly having ghostwriters would’ve been an issue before the Drake stuff. Now he just has a ‘his stuff isn’t a lock to jam’ issue.

>1. Thought Rampage the Last Boy Scout was NEXT. He wasn't.
>
>2. Thought Public Enemy's and the Bomb Squad's music would be
>more influential on acts following their run.
>
>3. Didn't think Jay-Z was all that. Didn't think he would have
>near the run that he's had.
>
>4. Thought The Fugees would have reunited by now.
>
>5. Thought Jay Elect was NEXT.
>
>6. Didn't see Snoop having the career he's had. He went from a
>mildly disappointing career arc with Death Row after Dre left
>continuing to his first album with No Limit to a really good
>run on his own.
>
>7. Didn't predict that The Tonight Show would be the means The
>Roots would blow into the mainstream and that they would do it
>while keeping true to their essence.

I thought for sure by now I'd be able to listen to a Clipse song and be able to identify Pusha from Malice.

I thought a standard of lyricism would be upheld after the explosion of OutKast came, but then Lil Jon got hot.

It seems like for every dope lyricist that comes out, a wave of dumb shit comes to overshadow them.

Ciara too.

Add Soulja Boy to the list.

I had no clue that Rih would become what she has. (Neither did Def Jam). I also had no clue that the latter two would still be talked about 15+ years after they first struck gold with their debut hits.

Especially since that first Rihanna album is ass.

I thought she might be the reggae crossover flavor of the week like the run Wayne Wonder or Sean Paul had.

It's crazy that SOS blew up like it did....I doubt many saw that coming. I always wonder if Christian Milian had kept that song where Rihanna would've went.

I literally came in here to post this! Not only did she become a big pop star with longevity but she became a fashion icon and entrepreneur with her own beauty and lingerie lines. Didn't see it comin.' Her music really isn't my cup of tea but I thought "Anti" was solid.

I predicted based on Phonte’s prior interviews and seeming annoyance over the repeated questions that Little Brother would NEVER make another album or even do another song. I’m super grateful to be wrong. MTLW is their best work as a group.

They put in work and got it right.

...they were still a crew. Pretty much all of their best stuff came out AFTER they stopped being a real collective:

Wolf
Doris
Channel Orange
Ego Death
Domo's solo material
Flower Boy and IGOR
Some Rap Songs

...That this brother would make a solo classic, beyond talented MC...guess it wasn't meant to be...

"oh, look at me...I can play an instrument"

I was convinced that both of them had exactly 15 minutes of fame coming after the debut song blew.

Wrong.As.Fuck. especially with Alicia. My apologies.

>7. Didn't predict that The Tonight Show would be the means The
>Roots would blow into the mainstream and that they would do it
>while keeping true to their essence.

I remembered this as I heard Questlove's name come up multiple times as my mom watched the Oscars in the other room tonight...o_O.