Part Two of "Is Hip-Hop Dead?": The Golden Era

Before we can even pose the question of "is hip-hop dead?", we have to look first hip-hop's golden years.

I'm talking about the late 1980's and early 1990's. This was when the hip-hop genre not only became mainstream, but it became a culture. It went from being played by DJs at bloc parties to every kid's boom box in their room or on the street corner.

Sure, Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", released in 1979, was the song that actually pumped hip-hop into the mainstream, but hip-hop didn't develop into its mature form until the middle to late 1980's. For instance, look at Run DMC. The tremendous trio released its second album, "King of Rock", in 1985. That album, paired with LL Cool J's "Radio" (released in the same year) brought hip-hop into the mainstream. And so began an over ten year period that produced more hip-hop legends, albums, and tracks that may never be even close to being surpassed, ever.

Think about it. Look at your iPod and see if any of these artists can be found:

-KRS-One (Return of the Boom Bap, KRS-One)

-Notorious B.I.G. (Ready to Die, Life After Death)

-2Pac (Me Against the World, All Eyez on Me, The Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory)

-Outkast (ATLiens, Aquemini)

-Nas (Illmatic, It Was Written)

-Jay-Z (Reasonable Doubt, Vol. 1 in My Lifetime)

-A Tribe Called Quest (People's Instinctive Travels and Paths of Rhythm, The Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders)

-N.W.A. (Straight Outta Compton)

-Public Enemy (Yo! Bum Rush the Show, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Fear of a Black Planet)

-De La Soul (Three Feet High and Rising, De La Soul is Dead)

-Run DMC (Run DMC, Raising Hell)

-The Roots (Do You Want More?!?!?, Illadelph Halflife)

-Pete Rock & CL Smooth (Mecca and the Soul Brother)

-Beastie Boys (License to Ill, Paul's Boutique)

-Dr. Dre (The Chronic)

-Common (Resurrection)

-Pharcyde (Bizarre Ride...II Pharcyde)

-Gang Starr (Step Into the Arena, Daily Operation)

-Wu Tang Clan (Enter the Wu-Tang)

That's maybe just over half, as there were plenty of other MCs and groups that made their mark on the genre. It's incredible enough that there were this many artists that emerged in that short of a period, but what's even amazing is the replay value of these artists. There is only one true test to see how good an artist and album is, which is replay value. We're in 2010, over 25 years since the beginning of the golden era of hip-hop, yet you can still hear "It's Tricky" by Run DMC being played around at parties.

Don't believe me? Go to allmusic.com and search any one of those artists, then click their discography page. For example, let's say you selected Jay-Z because he's still very prevalent today. Look down the albums he's released. You'll see that he only has two albums with the impressive 5 star label, "The Blueprint" and his debut album, "Reasonable Doubt". That's better than "The Blueprint 3" or the ever popular "Black Album".

Hip-hop in the 1990's was not only successful commercially, but CRITICALLY. Usually, it wasn't just one album that artists released that was both critically and commercially successful either.

Look back up at the list that I mentioned earlier. After each artist is the albums that were given 4 or 5 stars by The Source, the premier hip-hop magazine on the market today.

There's a lot of albums up there, and I failed to even mention EPMD, Snoop Dogg, Slick Rick, and many other artists that made this era a golden one for hip-hop/rap. Not only were these albums considered very good when released, many of them have become classics and legends of hip-hop. Take notice that Illmatic (1994), Ready to Die (1994), The Low End Theory (1991), and Enter the Wu-Tang (1995) were all released within a FOUR YEAR PERIOD.

Think about that. Can you imagine today having an all-time great album release each year? Don't get me wrong, there is still some very high quality albums that come out each year. But have any of the top ten hip-hop albums to ever be released come out in the past decade? They may be much more successful commercially, but there hasn't been one album that is worthy of comparison with any of the albums listed above.

Want proof? Here's the only albums to achieve a 5 mic rating, the highest honor an album can receive from The Source, in the past decade:

Nas - Stillmatic (2001)
Jay-Z - The Blueprint (2001)
Scarface - The Fix (2002)
Lil' Kim - The Naked Truth (2005)

That's it, and three of these albums came from artists, (Nas, Jay-Z, and Scarface), who were already legends from the 90's. Lil' Kim was also well known from her days with Junior M.A.F.I.A. and Notorious B.I.G. Now, from 1989-1999, there were a total of 39 albums that received that honor. 39 albums to 4. It's pretty clear that hip-hop's heyday was the late 80's and 90's.

So what made hip-hop in the 80's and 90's so much more critically acclaimed than much of today's material? Kevin Powell, a former senior writer for Vibe Magazine and editor of "Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hip-Hop Photography," says this:

"In the late '80s, there was such a diversity (in hip-hop). "If you were a young black male growing up then, you could aspire to be Chuck D, or Big Daddy Kane, or Too Short, or Doug E. Fresh. You had choices. That doesn't exist anymore."

Much of hip-hop/rap in the early 90's was socially conscious and artists, like Public Enemy, weren't afraid to talk about the world's issues. Sure, there are issues with guns, prostitutes, and drugs, and artists rapped about it. But there were other things that artists rapped about. Think about this quote from one of Public Enemy's co-creators, Bill Stephney.

"There is an over-representation of the criminal aspects of black youth culture (in music) from the videos and the records," he says. "Not all black kids out here are slinging cocaine, crack and heroin, and shooting at one another. What about the black kid who works at Haagen-Dazs in Brooklyn? He or she is not represented. What about the black kid who just goes to church with his grandmother on Sunday? I don't hear their story in any of these records! All I hear is bang, bang, shoot 'em up."

All good times eventually come to an end. Hip-hop's came to a sad, and ugly finish at the end of the 90's.

Part One of "Is Hip-Hop Dead?": An Introduction

Possibly one of the greatest inventions in the last ten years has been Pandora Radio. There really isn't anything like it still. A free service that provides you with your own personal stations of music you want to listen to. It plays music from the artist you request and then tracks that are similar to that artist's style, allowing you to always discover new music.

I'm one of the avid users of Pandora. If I'm on my computer, I usually have it on. It's been the sole reason for me discovering artists I would never have heard of without it.

Monday was one of those days. With it being finals week here at OU, it stayed on all day as I tried to cram for my Econ 103 final that I had no preparation for. Naturally, I chose A Tribe Called Quest as a station because I knew that it would be low-key and one I could jam to without becoming too distracted from my notes about short-run costs for firms that I don't give a damn about.

With two hours already in hitting the books, something catches my attention. A new song pops up on Pandora, "Don't Sweat the Technique" by Eric B & Rakim. The lyricism in this track is so good, that I actually take a break from studying to listen more closely. Once the song is over, I'm just about to return to studying, when another gem comes on, "Ring Ring Ring" by De La Soul. "'93 Til' Infinity" comes on next by Souls of Mischief, a largely underground west coast hip-hop group of the early 1990's.

Then it hits me, "wow, why can't half the hip-hop/rap we listen to today be anything close to as intelligent and talented as this?"

So with spring break approaching, I'm starting my own personal investigation to why hip-hop has gone from a respected and creative form of music, to one that causes protests and talks only about women, money, and drugs. Is hip-hop dead? Who's responsible for its demise? What has changed in it? Will it ever be resurrected?

These are questions I want to find answers to. Look for future articles coming from me soon. . .

News from the hip-hop world

DMX Arrested: Battling addiction

Unfortunately for an MC that used to be at the top of the rap world, DMX has fallen, and fallen hard. Already on probation, DMX was arrested on March 9th for using illegal drugs that violated his terms of probation. Reportedly, the MC was found to be using cocaine and is now in the Maricopa County Jail until he can be released on March 16th by bond. Things don't look good for DMX as the sheriff who arrested the MC hailing from Yonkers, said "I think it's about time to give hard time."

It's a shame to hear that DMX, real name Earl Simmons, continues to struggle with drug problems. Back in 2004, Simmons was arrested for cocaine possession and attempting to hijack a vehicle, claiming that he was a federal agent. He violated his parole in 2007 for using drugs and had another incident in 2009 when he was arrested for giving a false name and social security number to a hospital to help pay for medical expenses.

A career comeback looks bleak for Simmons, as he already is 39 years old and could be facing some serious jail time.

T-Pain & Jay-Z lay feud to rest

Apparently T-Pain was a little offended when Jay-Z released his hit single "D.O.A. (Death of the Autotune). So T-Pain decided to insult Jigga at a show in Las Vegas saying "Fuck Jay-Z, he's old" according to Fabulous. Recently however, the two were able to resolve the feud at the Grammy's when T-Pain apologized for taking "D.O.A." the wrong way.

It's a good thing too that T-Pain apologized because he's an idiot for starting this in the first place. Let me remind you T-Pain that:

- Jay-Z has 11 #1 albums, you have 1.

- Jay-Z is worth $150 million, you aren't.

- Jay-Z released "Reasonable Doubt" which is considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, you released "Epiphany" which was last found in all dumpsters across the country.

- Jay-Z actually raps, you don't.

That list could get much longer, but you always have idiots in the world, and it's not worth spending too much time ridiculing them.

T.I. speaks on post-sentence plans

With the MC who's been crowned King of the ATL approaching the end of his prison sentence, the MC recently spoke about what he plans to do.

"Middle of April, beginning of May. Y'all gonna start seeing me. Y'all already know, once again it's on. Like we always do this time,” in a conference call with MTV.

T.I. has already released a new single, "I'm Back", from his upcoming album, and it's got a good feel to it. T.I., real name Clifford Harris, sounds hungry and the production end of the track doesn't sound like a typical T.I. track. Hopefully he can follow up his successful "Paper Trail", which was possibly his best album to date, with another gem. After all, it's hard not to like an MC like T.I. when he reportedly said this:

"As long as there is air in my esophagus, champ, I'mma keep going," said T.I. towards the end of his conference call. "Nothing is gonna stop that. Nothing short of a 12 gauge is gonna stop me from doing what I do, champ. I just wanna say thank y'all and we gonna keep movin' on."

As long as I have headphones, I know I will be listening Mr. Harris.