official hip-hop litmus test: hip-hop's greatest year

93, honestly. I was fresh out of high school and really listening to rap a lot. one of my first roommates was a would be dj. good year.

As the singles (and Snoop) rolled out, you could def say 1993 was Dre's year tho

figured dude was whinging about current rap, my joke had layers

well, one and a half layers

1993

Not even a close race for me. I was 12 and impressionable.

yeah 93 was the first year I ever heard rap where they said "fuck" and "shit" and "titties"

prior to then, my only exposure was "He's the DJ...I'm the Rapper", and Shaq Diesel.

i was 0 and 5 respectively but 1988. if it was 94 instead, i'd pick 94.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH5CmB44TaY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ORLq1zSNow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axJpBlxW6n0

Voting 1993 but somedude's right - 91 or 94 would be my picks.

2003

god what a boring fucking question though. 2004. 2005. 1999. whenever.

thanks for sharing that valuable insight Lex, really getting new perspectives on reality here

well whenever is the right answer.

the thread is about assessing competing claims

it's not really hard to understand

still boring though

Seems to me if you prefer 1989 you should vote for 1988 and and if you prefer 1994 you should vote for 1993?

^ LOL makes no sense whatsoever

makes total sense actually

nineteen-ninety-who-gives-a-fuck

thread needs spotify playlists

i'd never really thought thro the shift in 80s vs early 90s rap production before, so it's a pretty interesting notion

what would be the equivalent year to best represent the timbaland/neptunes 'futurist' 'moment'? or would ppl who have ~strong opinions~ about this regard that as an already too diasporic/post-edenic/whatever moment?

I'm going with 1988 even though my rap tastes in general are much more '90s-leaning (I'd take 1994 and probably 1991 over either of these years). Fwiw I was 12 in 1993 and I didn't even start actively listening to hip-hop until much later on so this view is entirely based on hindsight.

Are there any years considered as particularly *bad* for hip-hop?

as

1998 was the start of that surely? Vol. 2, those DMX records, Superthug, It Ain't My Fault etc.

xpost

what would be the equivalent year to best represent the timbaland/neptunes 'futurist' 'moment'? or would ppl who have ~strong opinions~ about this regard that as an already too diasporic/post-edenic/whatever moment?

― thomp, Monday, January 9, 2012 8:32 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I think the reason that 1988 and 1993 are so well-regarded is that they both spawned MULTIPLE movements instead of having one sound dominate

hmm maybe 1999 would be the best representation. misread yr post.

btw, altho the gap between 88 and 93 is an aesthetic one, it's also heavily informed by the changes wrought by Biz Markie losing the "Alone Again" court case? as i understand it the costs of making a major label album as sound collage-y as Nation of Millions had become prohibitive by 93?

Are there any years considered as particularly *bad* for hip-hop?

― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 9 January 2012 13:33 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

2009 was pretty lame.

1911 was terrible

even though lately I've been listening to more recordings from the 80s (BDP, Ultramagnetic MCs, etc), I am voting 93 as I feel like the rap then took the template 1988 set to a new level, and I find myself in the overall scheme of things listening to rap from this era more.

lol Noodle

btw, altho the gap between 88 and 93 is an aesthetic one, it's also heavily informed by the changes wrought by Biz Markie losing the "Alone Again" court case? as i understand it the costs of making a major label album as sound collage-y as Nation of Millions had become prohibitive by 93?

― Poppy Newgod and the Phantom Banned (Noodle Vague), Monday, 9 January 2012 13:40 (26 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i always found this view odd. if you look at p much any liner notes from 92-95, they are chock full of samples and as hiphop was making more money than ever, i dont think ppl minded paying for them? like to make another pauls boutique wld mean 20 samples on a song instead of 3 but that doesnt mean that people werent still sampling old funk and soul breaks 5 years on.

yeah but 2 or 3 to a track, not 20 or 30. also why Dre getting session guys to recreate the originals isn't a purely "artistic" decision

also there are only like 5 or 6 true sound collage albums? hardly anything from 87-89 sounds like nation of millions/3ft high/pauls boutique.

always look for the material cause of cultural change imo

dude a lot of circa 88 marley marl and paul c productions were bulging with samples.

dude a lot of circa 88 marley marl and paul c productions were bulging with samples.

dude a lot of circa 88 marley marl and paul c productions were bulging with samples.

was gonna say Prince Paul too

p much a producer (or actually, the label) had to think long and hard about whether these little 3-5 second cut/paste insert samples were worth the money they would cost, so a lot of those brief quickee filler samples that permeated 80s rap got dropped.

[still waiting for a proper hiphop craze (i.e. none of that girl talk bullshit) based around bringing back the sample game now no-one makes money on records/everything is super easy to make on a laptop compared to in 89.]

xpost which ultimately was tantamount to telling every great drummer in the 60s not to play fills anymore

yeah, which means texturally producers had to try something different.

nobody's saying it's the sole cause, but it feels to me like an important break between production styles.

i love Eazy Duz It but 187um Killa is just better, soz

I also think lyrically, there's no comparison between 1988 and 1993. not saying, of course, that 1988 was 'bad', but there was a bit of a template for rapping where flows/cadences tended to fall into one or two styles, and lyrics were catchy but still largely straightforward. I think the wordplay of MCs improved beyond leaps and bounds by 1993, where even the gangsta rappers were being less blunt and more atmospheric.

Are there any years considered as particularly *bad* for hip-hop?

in 2011-12 rick ross and drake are revered as "greats" and two old dudes at least half a decade removed from their creative peaks get plaudits every time they breathe, put it that way

xp

i think flow qua flow undeniably improved into the 90s, yeah

not that i think 2011-12 are bad for hip-hop, they're just bad for the hip-hop that rises to the top critically and commercially speaking

assessing music in terms of years is the dumbest thing though

thread needs spotify playlists
― thomp

in 2011-12 rick ross and drake are revered as "greats" and two old dudes at least half a decade removed from their creative peaks get plaudits every time they breathe, put it that way

http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/GifGuide/clapping/riker.gif

i SAID don't address me and don't look at me

http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/275593_o.gif

lol

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

UPSET SPECIAL

Yes!

thumbs up

ok, who passed the OFFICIAL HIP-HOP LITMUS TEST?

I don't remember what I voted

or if I voted

R.I.P. whiney it's sad he was a pollmaker

I don't remember what I voted

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Wednesday, February 8, 2012 8:09 PM (6 days ago)

autofail

A win for modernity! 20 years ago beats 25 years ago!

gtfo

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0fnz5ggk91r1nqr4o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1331357870&Signature=siuLlugh6fKRHPb1K%2BCcWShTPSk%3D

yeah, no more iggy azalea articles

can't believe i read this whole thing. that middle section was some dark shit.