Hip-Hop 50
Music was always around the crib growing up. Not going to get into specifics, but it was an eclectic mix of various artists for a kid like me who was curious and hungry to hear everything. I can remember having “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” memorized, most memorably during a conscious recital of the song as it played on 105.7 on an early Saturday morning. Let’s just say, my mother was not a fan — but let’s be real, Snoop in 1993 was unstoppable. Probably revealing how much of a nerd I am, but my parents purchased our first desktop computer in 1995. America Online had us all in a chokehold, but I gave the inner workings of that computer all it had. CD-ROMs? You weren’t outside? You weren’t using Microsoft Encarta as Wikipedia before Wikipedia — I was. I remember going down the rabbit hole and ending up on an “Origins of Hip-Hop” entry. There was a clip of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five’s “The Message.” While the cadence during that time gets jokes now, for a kid who was c a student of history at a young age, I was locked in.
The songs were important. Artists like Snoop, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G. Missy Elliott, and a variety of others made my airwaves. And yes… at 10 years old I’m not going to front by acting like Big Willie Style” and all things Shiny Suit (Word to Puff & Mase) didn’t have me in a chokehold. Additionally, I was also the kid who lived in the library. I got ahold of publications like The Source, Vibe, XXL and the Village Voice — from Indianapolis, Indiana. I spent hours reading Dream Hampton’s writings before I was 10, while I artists were telling the stories — the journalists were the ones who made it real for me.
Until…
I didn’t know what a sample was, but there was this pitch modified sample from an old movie I’d watched. It had a few different iterations over the years, but it was still memorable. I couldn’t have known Little Orphan Annie would provide an avenue to connect to this genre in a way that would change my life, but it did.
With the beat on a loop all I heard was…
“Take the baseline out. Uh Oh. Jigga. Bounce with it. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Chea! Let it bump tho.”
The sample brought me in, but the lyrics while a commercially success, hit some key rap-related boxes: Braggadocio, vulnerability, and hunger.
“I don’t know how to sleep, I gotta eat, stay on my toes
Got a lot of beef, so logically, I prey on my foes
Hustling’s still inside of me, and as far as progress
You’d be hard-pressed to find another rapper hot as me…”
The song and the album made him my favorite rapper then and personally speaking he’s the greatest of all time now. I said what I said.
Do I wish my entry could’ve come in the form of debating Rakim vs. Kane? An in-depth knowledge of LL Cool J before movies and TV? The guttural musings of Mobb Deep? Of course. But I got it when I did. That year Hard Knock Life would be matched against, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, ATCQ’s The Love Movement, Outkast’s Aquemini, two albums from DMX and a growing southern contingent bolstered by Master P’s No Limit Records and Juvenile from Cash Money. It was a great time, but I was 11. The nuances and personalities would take time to understand, but I’m grateful I did.
Over the years there were memorable moments:
- Nas/Jay-Z beef over Hot 97 on a modem computer
- Eminem. You had to be there.
- Walking miles to buy Country Grammar
- 50 Cent. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was put together flawlessly.
- Lil’ Wayne going on a run for the ages — Dedication 2 was and still is incredible.
- Lupe Fiasco ending the careers of many people who thought they could rap.
- The Blog Era
- (Grateful to have played a small part in this. I can say that with the confidence of a local rapper who has skills but lacked the push from the same local market. Word up to the readers of various blogs from around the country. Sometimes you have to leave home to blow up.)
- 808s and Heartbreak → So Far Gone. While many never got the credit they deserved for it, Drake owned the emotional, insecure, and honest space in a way we hadn’t seen.
- I remember hearing “Don’t Like” on WIBC (no modem this time) — Chicago Drill was special.
And currently, I’m loving women rappers owning the space in a very real and honest way — Rapsody, Sampa the Great, Glorilla and Lola Brooke just to name a few.
Hip-Hop has grown and changed in various ways. I will never be the old guy to call something trash just because I don’t connect with it, but with that there’s a semblance of common threads in the real ones; the ones who will stay timeless regardless of what’s “in” now. Those are the ones I look for in earnest.
I love Hip-Hop in a way that exists with no space or time. Forever grateful and indebted for the role its played in my life.
Cheers!
