Defsounds

I was born in 1980.

One of the first albums I ever copped was DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (Im the DJ-Hes the Rapper). This was before he started allowing people to call him Will Smith. That late 80s sound, although primitive to you younger heads was like a fucking atom bomb going off inside of our heads. We just couldnt believe that Hip-Hop was making this kind of wave.

Then NWA came along and pointed an AK-47 through our headphones. Even the white house didnt know how to handle our music. Nancy Reagan had a fit about hip-hop and tried to put a stop to our 1st ammendment-protected right to say whatever the fuck we wanted too. Shit. Half of the early rap shows across the country were either banned or shut-down before the artsist were ven alllowed to perform. They actually arrested 2-Live Crew once after a show in miami.

There was a long period of time where so called "Gangsta Rap" dominted the media. Because they wanted to portray our music in a negative light. It was kind of a dark period for rap music because the rest of america had no idea that we were more than just dope dealing liquor store crooks.

And then came the golden era…

Around early 93 there emerged a whole new wave of hip-hop music. The radio started playing songs by MCs who actually had something to say. Artists like Wu-Tang and B.I.G. stuck their foot in the door and gave the people something entirely new to wrap their minds around. Then you had the freshed face Nas who dropped an album that literally made all the other MCs go back home and re-write their rhymes.

After that it seemed that the whole rap game got a face lift. The Golden Era was officially here.

People no longer had to buy albums that were filled with instructional "how-to-be-a-gangster" techniques. They could actually pop in the new Raekwon tape and hear a story from someone they could relate to.

Nothing can describe the feeling of being a hip-hop head in the mid 90’s. That era by itself birthed more household hip-hop names than anything that will ever be duplicated again.

Busta Rhymes left LOTNS and carved his own style.
Young Jazzy might not have convinced us he would be the next king of new york but he sure provided a Reasonable Doubt.
Mobb Deep was the answer to what the east coast was missing on the hard core side of things.
ANYTHING Wu-Tang affiliated was a classic at that time.
Tupac made hit after hit after hit that sold from LA to NY no matter what kind of coastal fued had been brewing.
Biggie Smalls was ready to die but we hated seeing him go.

And you know what propelled all of this music to the status that it reached???

TALENT.

Not hype.

Not well-publicized journalism.

Not some corporate machine that could afford to market 6 foot tall cardboard cut-outs of Soulja Boy and post them in front of every record store in america.

The Golden Era could be defined by the musical talent that was forced out of the hip-hop artist who made it. You HAD to be good to sell records back then.

But now I guess you dont have to be creative to be a hip-hop star.

In the Golden days you used to be chastized and ridiculed for biting another rappers style. Now its like the new way to get your foot in the door. Just make a carbon copy of the most popular song on the radio and you got yourself a hit.

Ive got no problem with these Lil Waynes and 50 cents of today. I guess the new way of saying you have talent is to brag about your money. I dont hold anthing against them. Im actually glad they are getting paid instead of vice versa.

But there will never be another summer of 95.

There will never be the excitement of turning on Rap City and seeing Joe Claire ACTUALLY get the latest news from Method Man about whats going on in the hood. Or tuning into the source awards and seeing Tupac perform 1 song that would leave the whole building in a state of awe.

That time has long since passed.

I guess its all about Candy Shops and Lollipops now.

And to you younger heads, I dont think your time now is any less important than when mine was. But yall got seriously cheated out of the real hip-hop that ruled the world when your skills could actually get you somewhere. Now you are better off practicing your dance moves first and your mic skill second.

RIP Golden Era