>Straight Outta Compton, The Chronic, Cypress Hill,
>Doggystyle, either of Cube's first two solos.
>
>Those were all monumental, crucial in making the genre a
>commercial force & turning the landscape from r&b/rock to rap
>bleeding into those genres plus being bigger than any of them
>outside country/assembly-line-pop by the late 90s.
>
>if you lived back east during the late 80s/early-90s, these
>were the records that were getting the attention almost to the
>exclusion of many other good more regionally-based acts.
>

I agree with that. The Chronic was probably the first album I bought back in the day when I started listening to Hip-Hop heavy.

>You had to either be watching a ton of Video Music Box & to a
>lesser degree Yo! to see any of those acts.
>
>In some cases you probably had to be out here & listening to
>KDAY.
>
>******************************* Anecdotal Sidebar
>************************************
>
>I saw the Eazy-Duz-It Tour (NWA, Eazy, PE, Kid N' Play, Too
>Short, Kwame, JJ Fadd, Salt N' Pepa) at age 12 and they booed
>Too Short off the damn stage at the Philadelphia Spectrum.
>
>That motherfucka was platinum at the time, I was too young to
>be aware of those kind of odd divisions.
>
>Oh & Short's show did suck that night as well.
>
>Philly was used to that Fresh Fest/Run-DMC/Kane/PE/Moe
>Dee/Heavy D & Da Boyz level of showmanship with sets, dances,
>call-and-response.
>
>Short came out pacing back and forth with shitty sound,
>clutching his dick & then almost flaming out on purpose by
>around the eight-minute mark until he was booed off stage so
>loudly I couldn't hear the words in the 300 level.
>
>***************************************************************************************
>

Cool story.

>You also had the blockbuster crossover hits now seen more as
>novelty records like Bust A Move, Wild Thing, You Can't Touch
>This, Baby Got Back, Humpty Dance, Passin Me By, Regulate, I
>Got Five On It, etc.
>

I remember all of those joints and minus the last three, they were seen as a joke or a novelty. I'd say the same can be said for Regulate today.

>I don't have any data on deck to back it up but the West Coast
>for being virtually dormant nationally up until maybe '87 but
>more like '88 in earnest I'm guessing produced more hits that
>made their way into Top 40 & sold more albums than New York
>from then up through maybe '94/95 with less acts in terms of
>sheer numbers.
>

I'd agree with that without seeing the numbers.

>So what you're left with is songs that once they crossed into
>the mainstream have been played so incessantly you don't care
>if you hear them again or albums that were such landmarks of
>their era that we might have worn them out then and/or they
>feel rooted in that time.
>

This is the interesting part. I do think his play into my initial observation which makes it hard to separate. Like I said, The Chronic, Black Sunday, Doggystyle, The Predator...I just don't listen to those albums ever despite growing up on them. However, I do recall growing up on Illmatic, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Cuban Linx, The Infamous just the same and I listen to those albums still to this day. And while they didnt get the same commercial burn, I played them even more back then than I did the West Coast albums that I listed.

>I can't recall the last time I played Cypress Hill's first
>album.
>
>I also can't say there was an album that we played more in
>1991.
>
>It might even still sound good but it's been locked & loaded
>in the mental rolodex since age 14 so if I'm ever just sitting
>in silence I can probably conjure it up in my head.
>

I never listen to that joint...granted I got Black Sunday first and then went back and copped it.

>Not to mention, Cypress' falloff was awkward to me, almost as
>awkward as PE's even though they weren't as important to me on
>the whole.
>
>In both cases on the surface it was for different reasons but
>ultimately stained by the same thing (they became accepted as
>rock and roll, which at first seemed cool but ultimately
>ruined both.......'How I Can Just Kill A Man' rocks harder
>than 'Rock/Rap Superstar' or whatever that trash was, 'Public
>Enemy #1' is far harder ripping than Scott Ian stumbling
>through a pointless 'Bring The Noise' remake).
>
>That's an entirely different post however.
>

Agreed...you should make that post.

>In regards to your observation me nowadays will be reaching
>for Uncle Sam's Curse, Coast II Coast, Likwidation, Quik's 3rd
>& 4th, CMW's first three, Don't Fight The Feelin, Fear Itself,
>In A Major Way, Konnectid, Who Got The Gravy, loads of random
>TDE shit, Streetz Iz A Mutha, Born To Mack & others before I
>bother playing Straight Outta Compton outside 'If It Ain't
>Ruff' (check that remaster in some headphones, that envelope
>bass tickles inside your ear......Dre is a genius no matter
>what some of y'all say).
>
>But I can't in good conscience tell you that most if not ANY
>are better than any of those 'classics' if you were starting
>from scratch.
>

I'm not sure if I agree. Death Certificate is great. Other than that...there are a lot of holes in those classics in my opinion.

>My middle school teachers were not up on Illmatic & wringing
>their hands over its messages.
>
>The cute blonde who had the purple tape in her car just called
>it 'The Wu' & didn't connect it to Liquid Swords.
>
>I don't remember the video for My Melody.
>

Not sure how much of that is important to our conversation. I'm looking at these albums in retrospect so whatever was going on at the time is whatever. When I look back to Cuban Linx...I play every track and am reminded of the greatness. When I listen to The Chronic I'm kind of reminder that outside of its impact, it's really a spotty album.

>Express Yourself was on literally every goddamn day with them
>busting through the white banner in the black hats & Eazy
>ducking shots at the parade.
>
>That's a long way to go to not really fully commit to a
>legitimate final answer to five West Coast albums but c'mon,
>the question you asked is a complex one for the reasons I
>tried to lay out above but we had fun, right?
>

You're right, it is a complex answer which is why I asked. This is good music discussion though Bomb. If I wasn't watching the little one I would have gone in a little more.


>**************************************Anecdotal Headphone
>Postscript**********************
>
>Not sure who it was the last time Straight Outta Compton was
>discussed, maybe mrhood but whoever was horrified as I was
>telling them that 'Quiet On The Set' is just *aight*, my bad,
>I was tripping.
>
>Home trying to fight off this food poisoning that's been
>tearing me up since Friday AM, had me hurling in the bathroom
>of Standard Station Pub in El Segundo during lunch yesterday
>then cold-sweating at my desk for a half hour before
>peacing-out for the week shortly thereafter.
>
>This post inspired me to throw Straight Outta Compton & this
>cherry lemonade with Vodka along with 'Quiet On The Set' is
>saving me right now.
>
>I swear, I might even be able to go out tonight if all the
>sudden I like 'Somethin 2 Dance 2'.
>
>Oh wait, hell naw.....that shit just came on now. Still goofy
>as shit. I think you had to grow up out here & spend weekends
>on Crenshaw in the mid-80s to appreciate Arabian Prince or
>Rodney O & Joe Cooley.
>
>This song is dripping activator juice into my earholes & my
>stomach is knotting up again.