“The people ain’t comin’ cause you grandiose muthafukkas don’t play shit that they like.”- Shadow, Mo’ Better Blues
“Crossover ain’t nothin’ but a double-cross. Once we lose our audience, we never gonna get them back!”- JT, The Five Heartbeats
“People gotta understand, we got in this to be stars. We didn’t get in this to walk around with bookbags on our backs, talkin’ bout we hip-hop”- Nas interview on MTV
“It’s a shame, niggas in the rap game, only for the money and the fame”- Xzibit, “Paparazzi”
In the past month or so, there’s been a few things I’ve seen around the internet that prompted me to drop this entry. First, there was the mini-fallout that started from Talib Kweli‘s collaboration with Gucci Mane, which to some defied the rules of all that is right in the world. Then, there were two excellent lists of late-’90s hip-hop- Complex’s 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers and the Bloggerhouse spin-off, Backpack Bangers. The lists in particular threw me back to that time when the “commercial” and “underground” sides of hip-hop started splitting apart further than ever.
There was always a difference in styles, but ’96 (and the remainder of the late-’90s) became a whole ‘nother thing. The coastal thing was already poppin’, and then here came another divide in the rap game. Artists who leaned closer to the underground crowd were loudly voicing their opposition to those who had more of a mainstream appeal… conversely, the mainstream dudes often regarded them as a bunch of haters. By perception, you had to be either a shiny-suited sellout nigga that was destroying hip-hop, or a tree-hugging backpacker that was just mad cause your shit wasn’t hot. And it wasn’t like the early-’90s, where legit artists were goin’ at Vanilla Ice and dudes like that- even respected artists started gettin’ scrutinized.
Now… as you can prob’ly tell if you’ve been following this site long enough, I was listening to a lil’ bit of everything in hip-hop back then. I could rock with some of the most radio-friendly tracks one minute and then listen to some mega-underground shit the next, without a second thought. As much as I could bump Bootcamp Clik or D.I.T.C., I still couldn’t help but also find myself rappin’ along with Puff Daddy and Mase when that video came on. That’s just the way it was; I never really had time to split it up into little groups. First and foremost, I wanted to hear some good shit, nevermind what the style or subject matter was. For that reason, I liked music on both sides of the fence, but was also not willing to devote myself to one specific brand.
As much as I didn’t mind the more mainstream-aimed music, there was some shit that no amount of “but he sellin’ records tho’” could save from bein’ wack. Still, I’d have to hear about how it was so great because that artist went platinum. Some niggas I knew made me wonder just how much wack shit they’d cosign if enough people ran around sayin’ it was “hot”. Then, I’d also hear from others about how everything/everyone popular was ruining the artform. Truthfully, a lot of the “real hip-hop” contingent was just as stuck on stupid as the people they swore were being controlled by radio and MTV. The same way they’d accuse others of being gullible, they were just as gullible when it came to cosigning anything with the “underground” label. There was just as many corny, offbeat-rhymin’ niggas wearing the “real hip-hop” tag as there were half-ass jiggy rappers with Versace shirts on.
The biggest debates I’d get in were the “what is/isn’t real hip-hop” discussion. I still get in that exchange at least once a year, and while I understand the apprehension that some had toward the “commercial” sides of hip-hop, I’ve never been able to fully agree with their viewpoint. At a time, shit got to a point where everything was considered not real enough- “they be rappin’ about cars, clothes, Cristal, jewelry, bitches, etc… that ain’t hip-hop!” But, as I’d always use as examples, much of the same old school hip-hop that they idolized included those same subjects. A lot of the legends rhymed along the same lines, and in a sense, the more party-oriented music is much closer to the early days of hip-hop than anything else. Even a quick look at an authentic hip-hop film like Wild Style would prove that niggas definitely had interests in frivolous topics and materialism in the old days too.
Also, I ultimately wasn’t that mad at most of the artists making the big hits in the late-’90s. They may not have been exclusively dedicating themselves to what the underground wanted to hear, but a number of them were credible and deserved the attention. When it boils down, there’s always gonna be mainstream outlets that take the most popular rappers and present them to the rest of the world as what hip-hop is, whether they suck or not. There was a time some years prior to that, when talented MCs were bein’ totally ignored in favor of flat-out wack shit. So for me, seeing Biggie or Nas gettin’ that exposure wasn’t a bad thing at all. I’d have rather it been them than some lame nigga who wasn’t on their skill level… and if it took an R&B hook or a glossy Hype Williams video to make that happen, so be it.
Yet, some folk didn’t see it the same way. There’d be videos like The Roots’ “What They Do” which rallied against the “jiggy” movement of the time, and then the Bad Boy “Mad Rapper” skits which seemed to poke fun at those who opposed their music. Even little minor shots like the ones Foxy Brown and Jeru The Damaja threw were noted. Those who tried to tread the lines ran into some bumps as well, like the backlash KRS-One caught for doing a remix with Puffy back when Puff was like the Anti-Christ to the backpack niggas. A Tribe Called Quest couldn’t even feature an R&B singer on a hook without catching critical flack and being accused of tryin’ to go pop. It also became clearer through radio and TV that there was a line being drawn, because the less-mainstream stuff started really being pushed to the back. By late-’97, videos were all about shiny suits and radio was all about ’80s samples, with anything outside of that getting very little play. If anything, THAT was what I hated about that era- shit was like segregation.
In hindsight, I think a lot of that “war” seemed to be more based on who an artist was associated with, or what the music represented, than what the actual music sounded like. It still exists today, as proven by the Talib/Gucci shit, but it seems to be more amongst the listeners than the artists now. For all the division that went on, I can say today that it was an interesting time to be a fan. Whether your ears leaned further on the “keep it real” side or the “get money” side, it was probably one of the last years that both were able to co-exist the way they did.
De La Soul “Stakes Is High” (1996)
Junior MAFIA “Get Money” (1996)
Ras Kass “Soul On Ice (Remix)” (1996)
Jay-Z “Can’t Knock The Hustle (Remix)” (1996)
Jeru The Damaja “One Day” (1996)
The Roots “What They Do” (1996)
Puff Daddy feat. Ma$e “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” (1996)
-D!
This is one of my favorite posts, holmes. I was on that underground, backpack, but-he-aintarighteous shit for a min. Eff the mainstream. But Biggie made me change that shit up w/Life After Death. He was so lyrical that I couldn’t deny his talent. And he rhymed from a place that was truly authentic to him and his experiences, so who was I to judge him for it? Listening to Biggie opened my ears to other more mainstream cats w/o ever killing my love for the underground. Am I still a Blackstar fan? One of the biggest. But I can still rock w/some TI, or even Officer Ross b/c the ninja makes good music, even if he’s phonier than a $4 bill.
Right! Funny shit was, it happened so fast it was hard to believe. It was like in the space of six months, attitudes changed drastically… it was like people were picking sides, lol. As much as I liked the underground joints, that wasn’t all I wanted to hear, just like I didn’t wanna listen to Puffy and them all the time.
Life After Death really did change the tides a lot too, esp. because he was bringin’ it on a mainstream appeal AND lyrical level… story for another day right there… March 25th, perhaps? haha
-D!
great article. i hated that the roots was gettin at nas & big & mobb deep. i didnt respect them until black thought made his appearence on capital pun.
also all the backpackers (except tribe & de la) sold out like some motherfckers. i guess nas and them was correct cuz now he tryin to bring it back while the roots do coon tunes for jimmy kimmel or whoever.
i cant agree with the above comment either because i cant listen to anything if i know its fake.
that goes for t.i., lil wayne, rick ross and all that other phony garbage.
why would you intentionally listen to bullsh*t? i am not entertained by any of that.
But on that same token, a lot of rap is “phony”. I mean, Nas wasn’t a drug lord, nor was Biggie, and Prodigy’s reputation for getting robbed and snuffed definitely contradicts his music. To a degree, damn near everybody exaggerates and embellishes the truth a lil’ bit. It all comes down to the music, ultimately. Martha Stewart’s prob’ly done more jail time than most of these superthug rap niggas, but nobody wants to hear her rap…
-D!
I don’t understand why people can’t just like what they like. I see it all the time where people state that they like whatever artist and others bash them for liking that artists. It’s either that or they straight up bash the artist. There are some rappers out there that I think sucks but I’m not going to constantly bitch about said rapper. I think the problem is that there is no balance. People aren’t mad at guys like Soulja Boy because of his rhymes, they hate him because rappers with actual skill get hardly no play. There’s a time and place for all rap. Yo Danj is there a reason for picking all 96 joints?
That’s a good question, E. Money… I dunno the answer though, lol. I might joke somebody a lil’ bit, but I don’t straight bash anyone for liking what they like. I don’t really get into knocking people for liking shit that I think is wack- I’m more likely to knock the people who actually make the wack shit.
I picked joints from ’96 because that was the year that all that conflict really started becoming an outspoken thing. It was the most blatant it had ever been before, and it kinda set the precedent for how things would be for years after that…
-D!
In 96 I just liked good hip hop. If it was raw it was cool. If it was poppy, it sucked. Simple as that. Still like that today.
There was a lot to listen to… in hindsight, it’s funny that so many people were caught up on ‘the state of hip-hop’… I think they had no idea just how bad it could really get.
-D!
At the end of the day, it’s about being entertained.
Something that Jeru, The Roots, and the rest of the backpackers failed to realize.
Agreed…
One thing I will say is that especially in terms of live performance, the entertainment value was simply not there with some of those artists who were so anti-mainstream. Not all of ‘em of course… the Roots do great shows. But you ever seen Jeru on stage? I can honestly say listening to him on headphones >>>>>>>> seein’ him live, lol. Dullest shit ever in life, real rap (no pun intended)
-D!
This was a great post. I understand where everyone is coming from. The backpackers have a point and so do the mainstream folks. I believe hip hop is a mixture of things. It can be poetic at times and sometimes can be just be a story. It can tell about reality and at the same time it can tell about someone’s fantasy.
I do believe you should rap about what is going on around you and what appeals to you at the time. I call it the first album syndrome. That first album is always the greatest. Niggas are struggling to get to fame and fortune. They are rapping about what is real to them at the time. Living in the projects, selling drugs and other shit like that. Now once that person makes it, their life changes drastically. They cant rap about being poor and living in the projects and selling drugs to get by. They can only rap about what there life has become.
It’s a catch twenty two. Everybody isnt going to be happy. You are going to have to people that just want the money (Soulja Boy, Waka Flacka) and then you will have people who do it for the craft of it (The Roots, Mos Def). That is just the way of the world.
True… don’t get me wrong, some shit is flat-out wack, and there were some niggas who straight played themselves tryin’ to jump on the trend. It def. wasn’t for everybody.
But I agree with your 2nd paragraph. Niggas are tryin’ to get theirs while it’s there to get… and then you add the fact that dudes went from sittin’ in a tight-ass bedroom writin’ lyrics to going all over the place and experiencing all kinds of shit they never saw… it’s bound to change their viewpoint and scope. I don’t see how it couldn’t.
-D!
The lines are so blurred these days it doesnt even effin matter, especially with these rappers. I find drake to be one of the realest rappers out, yet im sure ill get plenty side-eyes for that statement…
nobody’s too ‘righteous’ to get paid, i dont care how real they wanna come off…
and danj i think this can apply to ALL genres of music, you have the purist fans and you have the people who’ll take anything, from erykah badu to taylor swift to aerosmith, NONE of these artists are above a gimmick, even if they dont want to call it that…
…BINGO.
And there’s many ways to get paid, because there’s an audience for everything, and always a way to get compensated for your work. It’s not even necessarily that the ‘backpack’ contingent (esp. the indie artists) don’t get paid, but sometimes people get it twisted. They think all them dudes are strictly makin’ music for self-fulfillment, while all the popular folk are just a bunch of sellouts. I always say “throw a show and ask one of them ‘for the love’ niggas to do it for free, and see if it happens”… they want their pay just like everybody else.
-D!
I agree with your points to a certain degree, but I got to say that the Wildstyle/materialistic old-school rhetoric is pretty flawed.
For those old artists, it was just a matter of speaking for their people of their times; for the oppressed and impoverished people of the ghettoes, getting out of their situation and getting their money was a big issue.
Still was during the 90s, fair enough.
But by the time this new generation came around, hip-hop had evolved, and was a culture and art-form they had to preserve but progress.
You can’t stay stuck on the same topics forever, you can’t regress in the name of authenticity.
And preservation that became their responsibilities the moment they dropped an album.
So from there, crossing over became a betrayal to those who they represented and represented for.
I dunno man… I understand where you’re coming from, and of course, a lot of the MCs from that era weren’t getting paid out the ass, but their rhymes were still celebratory of “living the life”, so to speak. There was still a fair amount (whether they were actually doing all of this or not) of references to what the equivalent of being fly was during that time. And although there were some MCs who presented deeper messages, I think it’s fair to say a lot of them essentially did the same thing people criticized MCs for later. There’s always been rappers who rhymed about how they had money, or their clothes, or cars, or how many girls they had, or whatever- because no matter the era, there’s artists who aspired to be the flyest, most paid, most popular, most girl-gettin’ nigga ever. Now of course, the WAY it was said was different, but the content was technically along the same lines.
-D!