I feel like every year had it's strengths and weaknesses, with more strengths for sure. But what year do you feel was the worst one, overall?

Most people on here seem to feel it was 97, the peak of Jiggy, and the start of the South's dominance. My younger friends will say 90-91, just because they weren't there for it, and they don't realize how many high impact songs came out around then...but Hip Hop wise, there weren't as many strong albums as it was by 92-93, and even R&B didn't have quite as many high impact albums in those years.

What would you say, though?

Poll result (22 votes) 1990 (1 votes) Vote 1991 (1 votes) Vote 1997 (3 votes) Vote 1998 (1 votes) Vote 1999 (15 votes) Vote Other (1 votes) Vote

decline

I know "things fall apart" and "N**ga please" and "amplified" and "slim shady lp" made some noise, but the rest of the list doesn't really do it like 1990 - 1998.

And I honestly hated that She'kspere sound, along with anyone else who tried to bite Timbo and failed.

99 was a helluva shift...the South was way more dominant, but the East Coast came back strong in the club, with a darker, post-jiggy sound.

West Coast came back a bit after 97 and 98's drought, but more so later in the year.

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At least from a commercial perspective. Though 99 was where The Roots started selling more records and Mos did well, so it wasn’t all bad.

Other than Donell Jones - Where I wanna Be, I can’t even think of another R&B album i really liked.

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2005?

Laffy taffy sucks all the air outta these other years

Double 0
DJ/Producer/Artist
Producer in Kidz In The Hall
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twitter: @godouble0
IG: @godouble0
www.thinklikearapper.com

that whole transition was ugly, for better or for worse. A lot of careers were made off that time, but almost all of that stuff is forgettable.

__________________________________________
CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!!
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Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell
Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this

if they started ten years later.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

________
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Honestly, I saw the sharp decline begin after B.I.G.'s death in'97. Things finally just evaporated in '99 and haven't been the same since--for the most part-- IMO.

Known people were dropping bricks: Raekwon,NORE,Naughty By Nature,Diddy (really the decline of Bad Boy all around), EPMD & Goodie Mob.

Nas dropped 2 albums in the same year and somehow made them feel completely different.

Phorache Monch & Mos Def dropping 2 albums that help define a time in underground Hip-Hop.

Master P unleashing the hounds with LP after LP, which really didn't work out in the long term.

DMX started his decline, but also made a record that still makes him money today.

Cash Money dropping with consistency and it actually worked.

Timbaland's "Matrix Era" beats.

Cypress Hill's Spanish Album.

...and sadly the last Slick Rick album, which sounds like he didn't really try on it (the change to keyboard/Swizz,Timbo,Nepts sounds just took him out the game).

That said there were a bunch of songs that stuck with me more than the albums as a whole. Quiet Storm,Snoop working with Dre again,Got Ya Money,Love Is Blind,Vibrant Thing,Street Talkin, etc...radio wasn't all that bad in 99.

phemom's the name, all-star writer/
searching 4 journalistic fame, mindframe igniter....www.twitter.com/hayabusaage

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https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PYzh4v9cSf4FDnq3yMQyqNqh79o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale%28%29/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4079674/jlio.0.gif

that eenny-tinny keyboard sound was absolute trash

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

1998 was a nice recovery and 1999 had one of my top 5 favorite summers.

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

Even the good albums aren't all that good, mostly
~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

For the sake of perspective I was 6 at that time.

That being said, 99 was a still a year in which you
could listen to the radio and still hear mostly good music,
which stopped being the case in the early 00's.

But 90 didn't sound much different than anything in the 80's,
which I'm not knocking, just saying that 90's were much better
as a whole.

Style seemed to change more about two years in to the decade, same for 00's.

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Listening to 90 and 99 is just...........so much different.

1990: https://soundcloud.com/dj-rtistic/90for90

1999: https://soundcloud.com/dj-rtistic/99for99

Yet, it's truly an age thing. It's still a LOOOOOT of classics in 1990, and then because it's more recent, we still hear a lot of what came in 99. Plus, there's a much more direct lineage to 99, especially with the South..."Left, right, left" could be a Migos beat.

1990 had Poison, The Humpty Dance, Around the way girl, I thought it was me, Troop "All I do," Treat em right, Bonita Applebum, and several other songs that we still hear pretty often. But I totally agree that the sound was evolving...and listening to it with modern ears, a LOOOOT of it does sound outdated (since folks hate the word "dated" here).

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to being a kid, like 4th grade. really vivid

that sound, even between both genres, which shows how closely both have been since the mid 80s, really is dope.

glad the blipsters haven't ruined it yet

-30-
You know it's drama, but it sound real good.

era...but then the WU came out


idk...i remember a lot of back n forth of what i thought was 'hard' vs 'for the girls'

like Puffy at that time i had a love hate relationship with...i didn't trust him...certain VERY popular songs i wasn't a fan of but i was a fan of the club reactions (benjamins and put ya hands where my eyes can see) and sorta 'went along with it'

I was a Jay fan

it was a weird year...or it may have been just me

i think i liked 99...did DMX and the rough riders n em drop in 98 or 99?

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Coolin...

which is EXACTLY what he represented

the beat was outrageous and bumped hard in the club
the lyrics weren't Source Rhyme of the Month but weren't trash either
even had some memorable lines:
"You should do what we do, stack chips like Hebrews"
"Fuck the state pen, fuck hoes at Penn State"
I was broke as a joke but the hook had me and everyone in the club chanting

I mean, look at the talent that contributed to that album both as writers and as features. There’s no way it couldn’t have a lot of dopeness there.

Regardless of what it represented, what they were wearing in the videos, Puff’s general lack of musical talent.....they still put together a pretty good album.

Certainly in regards to mainstream music.

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www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

i turned 21 in 1997. i graduated from college in 1998. i was partying in 1999. i don't recall it being a bad time. i had no trouble b/c of the music. i listened to the radio and shit. it was fine.

so i dunno.

but when i look back on it that was prime time for the Orlando, Florida music machine as run by that Swedish guy, Max Martin. 'Baby One More Time' hit in the latter part of 1998 and was still smokin in early 1999. the best Pop song of the last 20 years, 'I Want It That Way' hit in 1999. Ricky Martin and J-Lo exploded all up in your face in 1999. and so did 'No Scrubs' and shit.

me and the homies were all about 'Where My Girls At'. i had been geeked about 702 since 'Steelo'. we didn't really give a shit about Beyonce and Destiny's Child b/c they were no En Vogue. they weren't even Xscape. and her songs were all so...unpolished. shit, we still like R. Kelly w/o shame back then.

Lauryn Hill was not crazy yet and was still touring behind Miseducation. and the year ended w/D'Angelo dropping the bomb that was 'Untitled'. i remember hearing it for the first time on an Amtrak train on my way out of town for Xmas.

so i mean, i guess. it was a'ight. it's kinda a transitional period since the Bad Boy era had ended and the next things were on the horizon but hadn't really popped yet. at least not in R&B/HH.

fuck you.

on the mainstream level anyway. Mos dropped, everything Three 6 Mafia touched was radical as hell, Aftermath dropped 2001 and Slim Shady, but other than that...? When you look at charts from that year, about the only non-underground non-rap-nerd rap that stands out is gonna be 2001, Blackout! or Slim Shady.


Speaking of 2001, the year 2001 was technically worse for rap music as an album genre but I'd argue the singles / MTV hits were far better.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

hell yeah.

2001 was that shit.

i can't be in a car w/control of the music for more than 2 hrs w/o playing that song loud as fuck. it just happens.

fuck you.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

it's like someone dared Kurupt to write the most nastiest obscene hateful verse he could and he accepted that dare.

it's vile. but damn.

fuck you.

seen that happen with a Rap song before. I've seen R&B songs skip the Rap verse, but never when it's all Rap verses, they just choose one to skip.

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and just putting their head in their hands and giving up.

And it sounds absolutely crazy, but a LOT of folks here prefer Streetz over 2001!

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>And it sounds absolutely crazy, but a LOT of folks here
>prefer Streetz over 2001!

-30-
You know it's drama, but it sound real good.

.

"They used to call me Baby Luke....but now? The whole damn 2 Liiiive Crew."